Mike McGuireMuzak, provider of that eerie, sometimes annoyingly cloying music piped through elevators, hotel lobbies, malls and lots of other public spaces is filing for Chapter 11. Some might mourn, some will rejoice.
Tough economic conditions – our new favorite explanation for everything –are blamed for making it impossible for Muzak to dig itself out from under $465 million in debt. (And that’s an interesting question in and of itself: how did Muzak ring up that much debt?)
While I’m no big fan of piano/organ/string versions of “Immigrant Song” or “I Wanna Be Your Dog” I’m not so sure I’m ready for a future of elevator rides without something other than the sounds of the elevator and the people in it. So, if Muzak goes away, what will establishments which have been using Muzak’s service do to provide appropriate ambience?
Just as as individual consumers can program their own media experiences – iPod, iMeem, Pandora, online video sites like Hulu – there are probably more than a few business owners wondering why they can’t apply technology to enhance the ambience of their establishments. (Yes, Beck’s “Where it’s At” could be the soundtrack for this post.)
Of course, the performance rights organizations such as the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) – which exist to make sure that bars, restaurants, malls etc. pay for the pre-recorded copyrighted music they pump through their PAs – might not be amused by the do-it-yourself-ambience crowd if said crowd grows beyond a few individual establishments that were noted in this 2005 NYTimes article.
I believe businesses which use somebody else’s art to somehow enhance their space in hopes of extracting money from clients need to pay for that service. I know ASCAP does, too. Is there a license option for a business which wants to leverage their iPod or hard-drive-based library? Should there be one?
(Note: For those Muzak customers who might be worried about having to find a replacement, my colleague Andrew Frank suggests they check out algorithmic music applications such as AmbiScience or Binural Beats.)
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