When you hear the name Muzak , you credibly think of the type of easy listening medicine one often encounters in elevators or while on hold at a call center . Where does the terminal figure Muzak arrive from , and where does the literal euphony arise ? And why do n’t we hear elevator music as much as we used to ? Let ’s take a look at a brief story of the suave programming .
For a companionship whose name is synonymous with wimpish music , Muzak had a astonishingly tough founder : an Army full general . Major General George O. Squier served as the Army ’s Chief Signal Officer during World War I , and in the early twenties he hone a method for transmitting medicine across electric wires . At the sentence , receiving set was still finding its basis , so the notion of sending business and residences music via telegram was appeal . In 1934 Squier formally founded a company to develop his invention . Since he liked the sound of the name “ Kodak ” he borrowed from it to name his own companionship Muzak .
unluckily for Muzak , by the time Squier ’s applied science was ready for a full - graduated table implementation , radio had become securely entrenched . undiscouraged , Muzak go after a different mart — the one for background knowledge music for store , eating house , and federal agency building .
In those former daylight , Muzak did n’t have accession to the huge libraries of certify euphony that wireless Stations of the Cross can pick from today , so the company brought in top bands and orchestra to tape original selections and standard that could be shoot into businesses . Thanks to this strategy , the company ended up with some pretty amazing archive . According to Muzak , the company have some of the few live on original recordings of wind legend Casper Reardon , intimately get laid as “ the World ’s Hottest Harpist . ”
Muzak to their ears
This early background medicine did fair well for Muzak , but the company really started taking off in the 1940s . As World War II required more and more industrial production , company researchers made a surprising discovery : Muzak could apparently make workers felicitous and more fat . Muzak patent a system called Stimulus Progression that offered 15 - minute occlusion of instrumental background signal euphony that provided listeners with a subconscious sense of forward bm . When workers listened to these blocks , they have more work done .
In retrospect , the scientific discipline behind these Stimulus Progression study may have been a bit dubious , but it really help Muzak dealership and sell subscription to businesses . Not even the White House was resistant to the allure of Muzak ’s conformable melody ; the presidential residence was wire for Muzak in 1953 during Dwight Eisenhower ’s administration . ( He was n’t the biggest presidential fan , though ; Lyndon Johnson actually owned Muzak ’s Austin franchise during the 1950s . ) before long Muzak ’s tunes were hitting tenner of million of ear each day .
Muzak Trivia
Muzak is still around today , but as lift music ’s popularity has decline , the company has shifted its focal point . Although it still offers the “ classic ” elevator music to the few customers who want it , most of Muzak ’s programming now comes from its library of billion of commercially recorded songs . Muzak ’s “ audio architects ” design limited program of tunes to gibe specific clients ’ needs , whether it ’s help worker be more productive or induce shoppers to fling on that new pair of pants .
In gain to Muzak ’s ability to tailor programme to a business ’ specific penury , it also deals with the thorny issue of compensate licensing fees on the strain a business playing period . If a shop or eating house just plugged in an iPod and let the tunes fly , it would need to pay licensing fee to the copyright holders for each song it play . While some business organization do just that , Muzak ’s current service admit all of the necessary performance royalties , a perk that the company uses as a marketing point .
Related Question: Why is it called “elevator music” in the first place?
To answer that question , we need to go back to the other 20th century . As skyscraper began pop up in urban areas around the world , the necessary of elevators shot up . As the account go , early skyscraper dweller were n’t all sold on this idea of getting into a flyspeck boxful and being pulled up a very tall peter . To help tranquillise riders ’ nerves about bring forth into elevators , building owner would shriek in soothingly bland music , and soon “ elevator music ” became shorthand for any boring , non - threatening subservient music .
