DJ John Michael's Instagram Stories regarding artist series.

DJ John Michael Provides Insight into Peloton Featured Artist Series – Which Bands & Artists are selected?

Peloton’s DJ and Producer of Music Programming, John Michael Di Spirito (DJ John Michael), recently took to Instagram to provide members with a bit of insight into how featured artist series come to fruition; or rather – don’t come to fruition.

Log onto any Peloton social media page – whether Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok – and you don’t have to search for long to find comments requesting a particular featured artist series. Though Peloton has more than 100 official featured artist series available, there are of course still many artists that members often request to see on the upcoming schedule for a complete series. Some of the most frequently requested artist series include Dua Lipa, Kanye West, Bruce Springsteen, and Janet Jackson, to name just a few.

DJ John Michael explained in his Instagram stories that it is not entirely up to Peloton with whom they do a featured artist series. Below is the full transcript of his explanation:

“So there is something I want to say in regards to artist series and various things like that. You know it’s…I hear your messages all the time about the things that you want. What I wish that people understood was that it’s not just something that we have the lever to pull whenever we want. You know, every artist owns their own name and likeness and you’re not allowed to just decide you’re going to do a class, or ride, whatever, using their name and likeness. That being said, sometimes your favorites just don’t want to be involved. It’s just that simple. Sometimes they’re not into it. Sometimes the timing isn’t right. Sometimes they want to wait for a tour. Sometimes they want to wait for an album. They want to wait for a single. They want to wait for a movie. They want to wait for all different types of things. And you just have to wait. There’s just nothing you can do. So every company has to deal with this. So we have to deal with this. Be nice on the internet y’all.”

So in other words, even though Peloton may have the rights to play an artist’s music in their classes, it doesn’t mean that artist has or ever will agree to a full artist series. So while Peloton can take member feedback into consideration when planning out future artist series programming, they can’t make any guarantees. It is a two-way street between Peloton and the artists, and not all artists will be amenable. If you haven’t seen one of your favorite artists receive their own series, it doesn’t mean it will never happen, but as DJ John Michael points out – it’s not entirely within Peloton’s control.

Music rights have been an issue in the past for Peloton. Back in 2019, the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) filed a lawsuit against Peloton, claiming that Peloton did not obtain the proper licensing for the music played in their classes. Peloton quietly removed approximately 65% of their on demand library when the lawsuit became public. The lawsuit was settled roughly one year later, with Peloton and the NMPA entering into a joint collaboration agreement.

As a reminder, you can always find the complete list of Peloton featured artist series using our guide.


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Katie Weicher
Katie Weicher is a writer for Pelo Buddy. She purchased her Peloton Bike in 2016 and has been riding, strength training, and yoga flowing ever since. You can find her on the leaderboard at #kweich.

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