Peloton Pulls the Plug on Ye’s Music in its Classes, Popular Instructor Weighs In
The connected fitness brand is cutting ties with the artist formerly known as Kanye West
Peloton has decided to join the growing list of companies that have decided to distance themselves from Ye after the artist and businessman made antisemitic remarks.
A Peloton spokesperson confirmed that the connected fitness company has removed Ye’s music from its streaming workout classes, telling Pelo Buddy that the fitness brand takes the issue “very seriously” and that the decision was made immediately following Ye’s remarks.
The change will be applied to newly produced classes.
In recent days, Alex Touissaint, a popular Peloton instructor, made a comment seemingly referring to the controversial Ye. “’Cuz I love everybody and I want to make sure everyone feels safe in my environment and my classes… I’m not even going to speak too much on it because you know I stand with you – you will not hear that artist in my class at all, I promise you. I do not support hate speech whatsoever, baby. I don’t tolerate that – – – – at all,” Toussaint remarked in a class he was leading. A video of Toussaint’s comments was posted on YouTube.
Pelo Buddy provided the following statement from the connected fitness company:
“We take this issue very seriously and can confirm Peloton indefinitely paused the use of Kanye West’s music on our platform. This means our instructors are no longer using his music in any newly produced classes and we are not suggesting any class that includes his music in our proactive recommendations to Members. You should know this was a decision we made immediately following his remarks. Again, thank you for sharing your concerns and thank you for being a Member of our Peloton community.”
Adidas as well as Balenciaga, Foot Locker, and TJ Maxx have severed ties with Ye in recent weeks. In a now-deleted post on Instagram, Ye returned to the social media platform to share that he had “lost $2 billion in one day.”
Featured image credit: Jamielandis101, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
