{"id":8815,"date":"2006-04-11T10:34:31","date_gmt":"2006-04-11T17:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/04\/11\/muzak-is-no-longer-muzak.html"},"modified":"2006-04-11T10:34:31","modified_gmt":"2006-04-11T17:34:31","slug":"muzak_is_no_lon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/11\/muzak_is_no_lon.html","title":{"rendered":"Muzak is no longer Muzak"},"content":{"rendered":"

At least in terms of being the stereotyped “Muzak.”<\/a><\/p>\n

The syrupy orchestral \u201celevator music\u201d that most people associate with the company scarcely exists anymore. Muzak sells about a hundred prepackaged programs and several hundred customized ones, and only one\u2014\u201cEnvironmental\u201d\u2014truly fits the stereotype. It consists of \u201ccontemporary instrumental versions of popular songs,\u201d and it is no longer terribly popular anywhere, except in Japan. (\u201cThe Japanese think they love it, but they actually don\u2019t,\u201d a former Muzak executive told me. \u201cThey\u2019ll get over it soon.\u201d)<\/p>\n

All of Muzak\u2019s other programs are drawn from the company\u2019s huge digital inventory, called the Well, which contains more than 1.5 million commercially recorded songs, representing dozens of genres and subgenres\u2014acid jazz, heavy metal, shag, neo-soul, contemporary Italian\u2014and is growing at the rate of twenty thousand songs a month. (Some record labels now upload new releases directly to the company, which, like a radio station, pays licensing fees for the songs it uses.) <\/p>\n

The Well includes seven hundred and seventy-five tracks recorded by the Beatles, a hundred and thirty by Kanye West, three hundred and twenty-four by Led Zeppelin, eighty-four by Gwen Stefani, a hundred and ninety-one by 50 Cent, and nine hundred and eighty-three by Miles Davis. It also includes many covers\u2014among them, versions of the Rolling Stones\u2019 song \u201cPaint It Black\u201d by U2, Ottmar Liebert, and a late-sixties French rock band with a female vocalist (who sang it in French) and approximately five hundred versions of the Beatles\u2019 song \u201cYesterday,\u201d which, according to Guinness World Records, is the most frequently covered song in the world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fun article, going into the company’s history, their original pseudo-science behind play lists (and their new pseudo-science), and all sorts of stuff you probably never thought about regarding piped music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least in terms of being the stereotyped “Muzak.” The syrupy orchestral \u201celevator music\u201d that most people associate with the company scarcely exists anymore. Muzak sells about a hundred prepackaged…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-moguls"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4788,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/01\/05\/synchronicity_4.html","url_meta":{"origin":8815,"position":0},"title":"Synchronicity","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Jan-04 6:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Standing at the Shell station coming home from work, the muzak was playing the Police \"King of Pain\": \"There's a little black spot on the sun today ...\" Flipping the...","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5234,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/04\/22\/but_first_a_mus.html","url_meta":{"origin":8815,"position":1},"title":"But first, a musical number …","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 22-Apr-04 1:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night we ate at a Chinese place not far from Katherine's school (corner of Arapahoe and Broadway -- don't recall the name). Yummy dinner. But ... odd music. First...","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24204,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/03\/oh-bad-wicked-naughty-newt.html","url_meta":{"origin":8815,"position":2},"title":"Oh, bad, wicked, naughty Newt!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 3-Dec-11 8:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"How dare you declare war on Christmas by using the \"H\" word instead of the \"C\" word? (And with no mention of the \"J\" word, even!) I expect all of the evangelical Christian groups who have been milling your way as Perry and Cain imploded to demand an instant apology\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20395,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/05\/tweets-from-2011-03-05.html","url_meta":{"origin":8815,"position":3},"title":"Tweets from 2011-03-05","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 5-Mar-11 11:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's great to have neighbors wander by and not have to apologize for the place being a mess. # All pack (thx, Margie!) and doing last-minute fiddling around the house before heading off to airport. Wish I weren't going. # No, really. Exciting about Australia, sure, but all sorts of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7171,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/10\/14\/ask_mr_unsolici.html","url_meta":{"origin":8815,"position":4},"title":"Ask Mr. Unsolicited Advice about Car Service!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Oct-04 12:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Mr. Unsolicited Advice, How can Stevinson Toyota West, a local major car dealership here in the Denver metro area, make my customer service experience more noteworthy? -- Driving in...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2538,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/06\/07\/hey_guess_what.html","url_meta":{"origin":8815,"position":5},"title":"Hey, guess what — U.S. Bank sucks some more!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 7-Jun-02 7:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As the clock ticked toward our new loan being signed (which will pay off the old one, thus probably wiping out any trace of the botch they've made with our...","rel":"","context":"In "US Bank Sucks"","block_context":{"text":"US Bank Sucks","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/us-bank-sucks"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}