
Inside the booming business of background music - acdanger
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/nov/06/inside-the-booming-business-of-background-music
======
growlist
On a tangent, I'm increasingly put off by incessant and obnoxious background
music on TV - everything is drenched in emotionally manipulative sound -
documentaries, drama series. Stranger Things is the one example that really
stuck out to me - in the end I had to stop watching because I got sick of the
music accompanying virtually _every single scene_.

It didn't used to be like this! For the most part I'd prefer to be able to
form my own thoughts and feelings based on the content, with music used
sparingly and appropriately. Ho hum.

~~~
chongli
_It didn 't used to be like this!_

That's news to me! I've been annoyed by obnoxiously melodramatic music in
movies for my whole life, even from decades before I was born! Check out this
famous scene of Lawrence Olivier's Hamlet soliloquy [1]. The music is so
jarring I can hardly stand to watch it at all!

[1] [https://youtu.be/5ks-NbCHUns](https://youtu.be/5ks-NbCHUns)

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iamben
> “I would be astonished,” he said, “if someone chose a Renault over a
> Volkswagen just because you play French music in a showroom.”

Ummmm... I'm not sure I would? Perhaps that example is a little obvious, but
I'd bet the music goes a really long way in a lot of decision making setups.

Back in the CD era I'd try and choose a record I knew my friend(s) would like
as a moving present when they bought a new place. Assuming they actually
listened (most did), the record would become synonymous with the new house -
"ahhh, I love this song. Reminds me of moving in to number 7!"

Music is a wonderful thing.

~~~
nikk1
I love making playlists for all kinda of occasions: date nights, game nights,
long drives, studying, parties...

When I first started dating my girlfriend, I would curate a playlist to play
in the car (I would choose music I knew she would like, or something that
would set the mood for a romantic evening). The result was that we found out
we had a similar taste in music. Now our tastes in music is something that we
share a bond over.

~~~
ohlookabird
I used to do the same thing using foobar2000, typically by providing the
playlists as CDs, often even with a nice label. At some point people started
to have no CD player anymore and just used Bluetooth from their phones. That's
certainly a nice thing too, but it made me stop doing CD playlists. Therefore
I wonder: what is your typical medium/platform for doing this nowadays? For
just bringing a playlist with me, I could use my phone, sure. But how to
actually give a playlist to people, especially for some rather rare music or
own recordings? A Spotify link doesn't do it all the time.

~~~
lordCarbonFiber
A friend of mine still will do "mixed tapes". She's just moved to cheap usb
sticks instead of cds, because like you said, most people don't have a cd
player anymore.

USB stick and a custom sticker goes a long way to capture the "physical token"
aspect that made gifting curated media feel special.

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lucasfcosta
I'm impressed to not see lo-fi hip-hop getting mentioned.

From my purely empirical perspective, it seems like the biggest reason for the
growth of this kind of music is the necessity to fill the void in noise-
canceling headphones: the essential equipment for those who work in open-
spaces.

~~~
fredley
I'm interested, why do you think this genre in particular deserves mention?

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Insanity
I think because that genre became quite hyped in 2018.

Personally I had not heard of it until reading in a newspaper that lo-fi
hiphop was the new generation of calming music.

It apperantly has a big community around it with livestreams etc happening.

Just a guess though

~~~
thatcat
Yea, it's quite the meme. Akira the Don is my favorite artist doing this and
he's been very prolific this year. Lofi hiphop:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OKnUk59pZk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OKnUk59pZk)

Some of his best work has motivational or philosophical quotes over the lofi
hip hop from an inspirational speaker. This one just came out yesterday:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGh3KDkonQE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGh3KDkonQE)

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open-source-ux
About a decade ago, London Underground began piping classical music into some
tube stations to deter petty crime and anti-social behaviour. The scheme was
deemed a success.

There are a couple of possible interpretations of the success:

1\. Classical music had a calming effect that dampened anti-social behaviour.

2\. (A bit more depressing) Classical music is so uncool that anyone with
anti-social intentions didn't want to hang around in a station while it was
being played

Here's a 2008 article from The Independent newspaper on the scheme:
[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-
entertainment/music/featu...](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-
entertainment/music/features/mind-the-bach-classical-music-on-the-
underground-800483.html)

~~~
creeble
Give criminals time to adapt. Then they'll have to come up with a new genre.

Would death metal actually _increase_ crime rates I wonder?

~~~
Symbiote
Seems unlikely. Events where metal music is played generally have lower crime
than other forms of popular music.

My evidence for this was the general lack of interest from the London police
at metal events, although it seems[1] that could be a way to measure race
without asking — the metal scene is overwhelmingly white and also more middle
class.

[1]
[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/10/police...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jan/10/police-
stigmatising-hip-hop-696-form)

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ghaff
Somewhat related, the tendency to have (IMO often overly loud and
inappropriate) sound, including but not limited to music, just about
everyplace is only continuing. Combined with the modern aesthetic of a lot of
hard surfaces in places like restaurant interiors and having conversations can
often be a challenge.

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mancerayder
Here in NYC there's a disease of loud hip hop and rap music blasted in
innocuous places like expensive restaurants and wine bars, places where you'd
expect to have a conversation with someone that doesn't involve yelling. Since
it's intended to be loud, the long bass beats drown out voices, and then comes
a rapper voice in the form of an angry yell. So a guy is yelling at me when
I'm trying to eat. Is this a political statement or routine Top 40s playlist
playing?

It's played out loud on the subway as well on people's phones. Two problems:

My Sennheisers with noise canceling don't work on hip hop.

Even if they did, it'd be awkward to bring them on a date.

~~~
crushcrashcrush
Hip hop is increasingly influencing all aspects of American culture - the
tipping point being my mother texting me if “I liked Cardi B”

Just as haute-coture fashion houses have embraced streetwear trends, hip hop
is the dominant force in American music. It ain’t going anywhere.

~~~
mancerayder
It's got the power of billions of dollars of media money pumping it, so of
course a heavily marketed item will be purchased. But that's not the
discussion, which is loud music being played in such places as restaurants. I
mentioned hip hop because loud hip hop is more distracting to a conversation
than loud, say flute music. The fact that I loathe it just adds to the pain.

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vipulved
Great story. One thing however they don’t do is quantify “Booming business”.
Is this a few small boutique agencies or larger industry?

~~~
dano
Background music is a very tough business. This article was focused on the
custom and boutique programming end for highly brand conscience clients. I co-
founded Trusonic and competed with Muzak and DMX for several years eventually
servicing 50,000 locations. It is a competitive business at scale. There are
companies that are willing to pay top dollar for music programmers who will
completely customize playlists for a brand, but these are somewhat rare and
not necessarily the business one looks to engage due to the labor required.

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crushcrashcrush
The W Hotels chain used to be excellent at this - they even sold a mix CD in
your room that contained “selects” from the lobby with a great mix of swanky
tracks.

I’ve also found high-end restaurants and other boutique hotels employ highly-
specific mixes. Adds to the atmosphere without a doubt

~~~
dano
W Hotels spotify playlist

[https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4J6mxgvlelSTYaR0D8RqRN](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4J6mxgvlelSTYaR0D8RqRN)

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vfclists
The OP should consider forwarding this post to the operators of a particular
help line associated with Her Majesty's government, which one hopes, must be
the only such line.

