How Ergatta Created the Game-Based Digital Fitness Category

Ergatta’s mission is to make at-home rowing so engaging—even addicting—that regular exercise easily becomes a habit. The Ergatta program is unique in that there are no classes and no instructors; the entire program is based on games and competitions that motivate the user towards continual improvement. Tom Aulet, the CEO and Co-Founder of Ergatta, has said, “Our major insight, after months of surveys and interviews, was that half the fitness market didn’t want classes or instructors — they wanted to be in control, they wanted to compete, and they wanted a workout experience that felt more like playing a sport or a game.”

The leaders at Ergatta knew that to keep their rowers excited and engaged, music would be a vital component of the experience. And not just any music: it had to be a compelling variety of energizing hit songs that users would enjoy working out with.

After some preliminary research into the details of licensing music for corporate use, they realized that this was a bigger project than Ergatta wanted to manage on its own. Ergatta was committed to staying focused on its core mission: providing beautiful, aesthetically pleasing rowing equipment and enticingly addictive games and rowing events. 

Ergatta recognized that managing music in-house—including the vast expense of hiring lawyers, additional employees, and hardware and software to deal with the intricacies of licensing, curation, streaming, data tracking, and royalty payments—would be a heavy strain on the company budget and would distract from the company’s area of excellence. In addition, the long timeline typically required to negotiate new music licenses would unnecessarily delay their speed to market.