Muzak

[MuzakFan]

The system in my store is not working right so they turned it way down until the system gets fixed. It has been a real unpleasant experience. When the store is open you hear many people talkin KID SCREAMING registers and cart noise, with nothing to distract you from that. One of the managers was saying how boring it was working without it.

You'd think a majority of the places with Muzak around here have broken systems, as well. Most places barely have any volume whatsoever! As a former Meijer cashier (it's a regional chain similar to Walmart in just about every way), having IBN at near-foreground levels helped to drown out the inevitable screaming kid...or, if you were really lucky, the sound of a gallon jug of wine shattering in your lane after the customer decided they wanted it bagged in plastic instead of paper! Nowadays, Meijer barely plays IBN at background levels. It's a shame, too. The music has improved greatly from the random rap, "Music" by Madonna, and 10 playings per shift of Britney Spears you wouldn't be all-too-surprised to hear during my time there from 2007-2009.

By the way, Darth, you wouldn't happen to be MotoFox from the Muzak forums? If that's the case, life is no longer kicking my butt, and we have a lot of catching up to do!

 

[Darth_vader]

Fred Meyer's are still on IBN, by the way, yet it's still just as bizarrely random as I used to comment on "back in the day". (Nice to see a familiar screen name on here. ;o) Just last night I heard "Can't Get Used to Losing You" by Andy Williams, into "Call Me Lately" by that singer girl, whatever-her-name-is who debuted last year.

Remember that old saying about "the more things change"?

[size=8pt]Seeing those last couple sentences sure made my morning. If you're the one I think you are, do you still have the Prodisc machine, and were you able to fix the flaky CD drive?

 

[MuzakFan]

Fred Meyer's are still on IBN, by the way, yet it's still just as bizarrely random as I used to comment on "back in the day". (Nice to see a familiar screen name on here. ;o) Just last night I heard "Can't Get Used to Losing You" by Andy Williams, into "Call Me Lately" by that singer girl, whatever-her-name-is who debuted last year.

"Call Me Maybe" is by Carly Rae Jepsen. I only know this because it's become one of mine and my former coworkers' favorite memes. ;D

Sounds like Meijer and Fred Meyer are getting their IBN swapped! I have heard lots of completely random song selections during my time at Meijer that was a little offbeat for a grocery store ("Crazy In Love" by Beyonce; "S.O.S." by Rihanna; "Everybody Dance Now" by C&C Music Factory; "One, Two Step" by Ciara; "Somebody Dance With Me" by DJ Bobo; "Voodoo" by Godsmack...I could literally go on and on). It was actually at the point I was asking, "are we here to party or buy soup?" Lately, though, they've seemed to be transitioning to light AC with '60s music and artists like Amos Lee mixed in, and I've got to admit it's not half-bad. It's definitely miles better than hearing "I'm A Slave For You" by Britney Spears and "Promiscuous" by Nelly Furtado, which I really have to scratch my head at why those were even being played in a grocery store in the first place.

 

[Lord Zedd 93]

"10CC- You and I was added to FM1 in 2012, so that may be it."

It's called "For You and I", and I have it on a tape recorded off the Echostar feed in 2005.

Yeah, you can post links here, but linking to Fcbk doesn't do everybody good, since not everybody can access Fcbk. Try posting it to a real (non-Fcbk/non-Ggl) site; if necessary, I can host it for you. (Fire me a private message if you're interested.)

I don't know if I will ever get the quote right. Yes I left off the For in For you and I. Not sure how to edit. I'm glad you made contact with MuzakFan, I had posted this page to the MuzakFans Facebook page. Wilco also has a song You and I.

 

[Lord Zedd 93]

Wuzzit "Step Into Christmas"?

They must have run that one at least 150 times on KKCW since Thanksgiving. Enough already!

Yeah. Also enough with Band Aid, John Lennon,

Wham's "Last Christmas

" and Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas.."....There are hundreds of other beautiful Christmas songs to play besides these constant overplays.

FM1 Didn't play Wham's Last Christmas this year, but did all the others mentioned. Got a lot of Michael Buble this time around.

 

[crainbebo]

Fred Meyer's are still on IBN, by the way, yet it's still just as bizarrely random as I used to comment on "back in the day". (Nice to see a familiar screen name on here. ;o) Just last night I heard "Can't Get Used to Losing You" by Andy Williams, into "Call Me Lately" by that singer girl, whatever-her-name-is who debuted last year.

Remember that old saying about "the more things change"?

[size=8pt]Seeing those last couple sentences sure made my morning. If you're the one I think you are, do you still have the Prodisc machine, and were you able to fix the flaky CD drive?

I heard "Where is the Love" by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway at my local Fred Meyer the other night. Classic "soft" AC!

-crainbebo

 

[Darth_vader]

I've noticed IBN really seem to like Andy Williams, since I hear at least one of his cuts probably every other time I go into Fred's.

As a testament to how odd IBN's sequences can be, I've been Christmas songs playing at the local Goodwill (Goodwill Industries of the Columbia-Willamette is another IBN user) occasionally since late June of last year. Not a constant stream of them or every other song, but maybe one every few days or so. I think what they probably do is just stick a bunch of random songs on a hard drive, configure them to play alongside the store's particular commercials and call it done.

"Not sure how to edit."

In the far upper-right corner of the post, in the same row of the header as the date stamp, there are "Quote" and "Modify" links. Select the one that says "Modify". You'll end up at a "Modify message" screen that looks a lot like the one you use to post messages initially, only the "Post" link (or button) at the bottom is changed to "Save". You only have about 15-20 minutes or so to edit before it times out. If you don't see a "Modify" link, your post has timed out and you can't edit it any more.

"I'm glad you made contact with MuzakFan; I had posted this page to MuzakFan's Fcbk file."

Oh yeah, he and I go back a few years; definitely an interesting guy to talk to. Muzak used to have their own discussion forum on their site, and we all hung out there. They took it down at some point in 2007 because it was getting bot-SPAMmed so much (and, I suppose, was becoming a pain in the -- for them to keep it cleaned up.)

 

[oldies76]

I heard "Where is the Love" by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway at my local Fred Meyer the other night. Classic "soft" AC!

Great song! Was that on FM-1?? I have not heard that song in over a year on FM1

 

[crainbebo]

Darthvader, do you know if FM-1 is used at Fred Meyer's? I just heard the song one day grocery shopping and thought that was interesting to hear.

-crainbebo

 

[Darth_vader]

Fred Meyer now uses Instore Broadcast Network (IBN), with "broadcast network" in big quotation marks. They used to be on Muzak years ago, but that ended when Kroger swallowed them up.

The FM1 (Foreground Music One) service is programmed by Muzak and is exclusive to that company, which is why you won't hear it at Fred's these days. IBN don't carry any of Muzak's programming, although many of the selections are the same as what you'd hear on the Muzak programme.

Here's a really good resource to have in one's bookmarks: http://12.19.54.83/wpn/030.html

 

[crainbebo]

IBN is also used at Safeway as well. Most music I hear there is '80s-now.

-crainbebo

 

[Darth_vader]

They are? I thought Safeway had their own system/programming service.

But then, at the one I go to they almost always have it turned down so low that one can barely hear it, if anybody can even hear it, so I suppose it'd be impossible to tell what they're using either way. They might as well just shut it off altogether (god forbid they should actually save a little electricity for a change!)

 

[MuzakFan]

I don't know if it's an IBN thing or not, but nearly every store around here that uses IBN barely has the volume turned up to an audible level. I was just in Kroger this afternoon, and they also use IBN. The music was only audible if you stood underneath a speaker. It's usually the same at the Meijer where I used to work, and it was really that way on Sunday night. I even made a comment to the friend I was with--who was one of my former coworkers--that it was *too* low.

Whatever Menards uses, though, is always really loud and sounds like total crap (although that's probably their Lowell speakers more than anything...I'm not sure what it is about modern Lowell speakers that make them sound awful, but they're not the greatest). Their music was so loud on Sunday night that I could barely hear the salesperson I was talking to. I'm pretty sure they're a Muzak client, but I could be wrong. I've heard some pretty obscure transitions on their music program, as well, that don't drop hints to being any pre-made Muzak program. One of the most random: "Intuition" by Jewel, followed by "Feel That Fire" by Dierks Bentley.

I usually keep track of the new additions to FM-1, so I'll post a complete list of anything new they add for February if anyone's interested in knowing. There were no new additions in January from what I've heard. The updates used to be monthly when Muzak was its own company. Now it seems like they update every 2-3 months.

 

[oldies76]

I usually keep track of the new additions to FM-1, so I'll post a complete list of anything new they add for February if anyone's interested in knowing. There were no new additions in January from what I've heard. The updates used to be monthly when Muzak was its own company. Now it seems like they update every 2-3 months.

That's a great idea. Like to see your listed posted here, maybe monthy? We use FM-1 at Burlington Coat Factory and it seems to be rotating the usuals for now. The only thing I've heard that could be "new" are those selected 1973 singles I'm hearing. Also seems like they've deleted the Al Green music, too bad since I really enjoyed them. Have not heard any Green since November.

 

[Darth_vader]

"I don't know if it's an IBN thing or not, but nearly every store around here that uses IBN barely has the volume turned up to an audible level."

Yeah, that's understandable!

 

[MuzakFan]

I knew the updates to FM-1 had all but stopped, and I kind of suspected something like this was happening when I watched Undercover Boss with Lorne Abony a few months ago...but it's official.

http://www.weirdomusic.com/2013/02/05/no-more-muzak/

Muzak is dead.

 

[Darth_vader]

Well, I can't honestly say I wasn't anticipating this.

I kind of had a hunch that something was up when I first read the report in the local paper when the buyout happened a couple years ago. It's the same hunch I had when DMX were talking about it a few years ago, as you may recall, after seeing what they did to AEI. When I first read about the Mood Media deal I figured, "well, this is it. It's just a matter of time before they pull the plug."

"Today the company announced that it is consolidating its services under a single brand, Mood, thus eliminating the Muzak name."

Just "Mood"? [sarcasm]How creative.[/sarcasm]

R.I.P. 1934-2013

 

[Lord Zedd 93]

RIP Muzak name you were better than the rest

 

[Lord Zedd 93]

I guess the Mood mentality is "If you can't beat them buy them. Does Ted Nugent own Mood media. Just buy DMX and Muzak and be gone. The sad thing is people could be in a store and hear DMX or IBM etc and they equate it with Muzak. Muzak get's blamed for others bad programing.

 

[Darth_vader]

Please believe me when I say it would be highly improbable to confuse Muzak programming with that of IBN, since they are two entirely different things. It's like comparing a locally-produced station with a ¢heap ¢hannel jukebox.

"Does Ted Nugent own Mood Media?"

I doubt it. He'd have shut the whole thing down by now if he had.