audio architects

Have been in a few of LA's hipper clothing stores over the past couple of days and noticed that nearly all of them now feature a section of their space devoted to music. It is not uncommon for stores to make their own music cds these days, in fact nearly every major store from Pottery Barn to Oliver Peoples offer cds to the public which reflect the 'sound' of the brand. The hipper stores take it a little further and have a small selection of artists that they deem hip enough to be in their stores. They tend towards the euro and brazilian beats, very globo-citizen, with the occasional Exile on Main Street thrown in for good measure. I've noticed the shift in the way music is being used and heard in public space, particularly stores, these days. It is no longer background music, designed not to be listened to but rather to soak up the silence, and never hip. Instead, I'll call it 'foreground music,' it is part of the branding process and a way of connecting the store to cool artists and vibes.

I guess it is an attempt to create emotional connection with the particular product or space. Marc Gobe has an interesting book called Emotional Branding that addresses the focus on the sensorial in contemporary marketing and branding. He cites a study which looked at the effects of music on choices we purchases we make, "...subjects overwhelmingly (80%) chose products accompanied by the music they liked." Some of these stores seem to be taking this a step further and telling the consumers what to like, what is cool, by creating a space within their stores that endows the musical products on display with a level of hip that is not the same as when the cds are sitting with all the others in a music store.
    Muzak Corp. the originator of of background music has reinvented itself to compete in this new market environment. "We're selling emotion. A brand is an emotional composition." Music is an emotionally-based means of communication. If you think about it, we derive the meaning of a song as much through the emotional journey it takes us on as from the lyrical content, which sometimes makes no real sense. This is why music is so powerful and why our connections to it are often so steeped in situations and circumstances. We remember the place we heard it, the situations we were in at the time and they often remain with us for life. A restaurant I love, the Little Door, is a favourite place to go, not just because the food is so good, but because of the vibe they create through decor and particularly through the music they play. They always have some music that catches your attention be it african grooves or some old french cabaret artiste--it makes the experience so much richer. The music, like many of the stores I was in,is very much in the foreground. Itunes must also have a role to play in all of this, increasingly we are creating playlists for different occasions--like we used to with cassette mix-tapes, only much more advanced and focused. Our relationship to music is changing, partly because of technology but also because we are so immersed in pop culture that it is filling in all the spaces in our lives and recreating them

Comments

[Mike Mann]

My only comment is that music, like that of AC/DC, whom you hang your hat as the sound engineer for, define us so much more than you attempt to say here even with this branding thought thing. It's so much more than just searching for the next music that attracts us and works as our next entertainment fix. I'm not special like you in believing I need or even able to afford (thank God) a life style needing constantly changing mind candy, but I do agree that the music I listen too is incredibly important. It is so difficult to find, with so much of it, that personal music that finally connects to me and becomes worthy of my precious time. Finally, the branding thing is dull. We don't need it. It isn't important. Once perhaps a good thing, the branding thing is a thing of greed and refinement by MBA's. I would never be impressed if one of the artists that I allow to come into my existence, my time, that even defines me during my times of listening, to be issued under the guise of branding back ground or foreground music. Of course, perhaps it will be a long time coming before some corporate brander comes to using the Kansas Chorale or similar.