http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060410fa_
fact On Muzak, the company who make mix tapes for retailers. Former Muzak executive Alvin Collis: “I walked into a store and understood: this is just like a movie. The company has built a set, and they’ve hired actors and given them costumes and taught them their lines, and every day they open their doors and say, ’Let’s put on a show.’ It was retail theatre. And I realized then that Muzak’s business wasn’t really about selling music. It was about selling emotion—about finding the soundtrack that would make this store or that restaurant feel like something, rather than being just an intellectual proposition.”
(I’m also intrigued by Muzak’s preference for Bose and Klipsch audio equipment. Bose speakers get a lot of stick on the web, but I can remember several occasions when I’ve noticed good sound, checked out the speakers, and discovered they were Bose. Maybe their commercial equipment is better? I had a particularly enjoyable Bose-augmented ice cream at the MIT Toscanini’s a few years ago. The setup included a 10 foot by one foot black cylinder slung from the ceiling that at least looked impressive.) 13:30
Delicious tags: culture muzak music business newyorker retail psychology marketing radio interesting toread
