Comments on: Whatever happened to Muzak?

By: Sandy

Sandy — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:19:01 +0000

When I was in high school, I worked in a sandwich shop. We played music in there (original versions of songs, not smooth jazz remixes), but I’m not sure if it was from Muzak or some other company. The collection of music that it would play was so random and weird. One minute they’d play Billy Joel, the next minute Shakira. Also, whoever chose the music was particularly fond of ’80s-prom-slow-dance-like songs. I even had a few customers complain to me about how bad the music was over the 2 years or so I worked there. It was actually quite hilarious.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:00:26 +0000

That song is my ringback tone (Paul Anka doing Smells Like Teen Spirit). Picked it for the sheer ridiculousness of it. It reminds me of Richard Cheese.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 22 May 2007 07:52:05 +0000

For anybody who’s as sickened as I am by this Paul Anka butchering, check out The Bad Plus. They do crazy free-jazz versions of Smells Like Teen Spirit, Heart of Glass, Immigrant Song and tons of other classics. As an added benefit, they don’t suck.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 22 May 2007 03:54:27 +0000

I recently had a chat with a Muzak salesman; the company I work for moved to a new building, and I was tasked with office music and “music on hold”. Muzak turned out to be one of the costliest options out there… Installation fee, equipment fee, monthly subscription fee… Gah.

We ended up buying a pile of royalty-free music, loading it up on an unused Mac running Audion, and running audio patch cables to the inputs for the two systems. (Relatively) cheap, simple, and easy to manage.

By: Larriann

Larriann — Mon, 21 May 2007 17:58:04 +0000

Once upon a time, when I was a high school senior, my group of friends used the term “becoming a Muzak subscription salesman” as shorthand for becoming the ultimate drudge/sellout. It was a fate worse than selling insurance. At least insurance is ultimately useful.