Virgin Active have completed their long awaited review of royalty free music and concluded that members are now happy with the music offering at their gyms. This verdict was based on the gradual reduction in negative feedback. It did not however, take into account that members are experiencing complaint fatigue, that they asked and asked for the music back and no one listened, that they are reluctant to keep giving negative feedback after classes by instructors they value and don't want to lose. This conclusion, that everything is fine now, does not factor in the loss of talented instructors or endless cancelled spin, aqua and dance classes. As a result, we are experiencing a new wave of instructors leaving, so dejected are they after the music review findings, that they feel unable to carry on.

Local managers must surely see the reality of the situation, but VA don't want to hear it. It doesn’t fit their narrative or their business model. Those who are fighting to bring the joy back to our classes are dismissed as 'Negative Nellies', a complacent and misinformed dismissal. So many of us fighting for the return of commercial music are gym lovers, passionate about exercise to music, people who embrace the feel good factor of dancing and spinning to great music, not people who enjoy complaining, quite the opposite. We are people who seek to find the pleasure and fun in exercise which VA seem determined to deprive us of.

So I write this, not only to tell Virgin Active that just because we are tired of hitting our heads against a brick wall, does not mean we now love the music. It is not an indication that instructors are happy trawling through royalty free libraries of inappropriate music to make playlists. It is not a sign that we are content dancing to music we have never heard of. I write this, to tell you to keep voicing your opinions. To make you aware that VA will conclude we like the music if we don’t keep reiterating that it’s not working.

I write this, in light of the review findings, which do not reflect the feelings of so many of us, to remind our beloved instructors how highly we value them. To say how much we appreciate that they have stayed and tried to make this music work for us. To say a heartfelt thank you to each and every one of them.