Greg Scott, who lives in New York City, has developed a new app that can be used on smart phones to let people search with great precision for quiet bars, restaurants etc when in a strange city. Places are colour coded according to their tranquillity: red is for noisiest cacophony, green for soul-restoring peace. It also allows people to add their own suggestions to the data base. The app works properly only via iPhones at present -– they have effective sound meters while Androids do not – although anyone can use any type of computer to search for quiet places. A site’s location is shown on a useful small map but no other details are given as yet. Most current listings are in the USA – inevitably, as most contributors to date are American – but Greg Scott has plans to extend the data base to cover London properly, then other major British cities and on to Madrid, Paris and other European cities. This new app has immense potential, for through it restaurateurs etc around the world will at last see how their places are really being rated by customers. Look at http://soundprint.co

Philip Hill, Manager of Tesco Scotland, has agreed ‘that it would be good to hold a couple of quiet times in our stores during the festive period’. The good news is that this isn’t a single hour first thing in the morning, which is all that most supermarkets have offered until now, but a whole morning from 9am – 12pm. The two quiet mornings will be Wednesday, 4th December, and Wednesday, 11th December. All Tesco stores in Scotland should be participating, including the Tesco Express stores which recently started playing music and were what sparked off Quiet Scotland’s original complaint. Clothing outlets within Tesco stores will also be included, but not coffee outlets, such as Costa. (Apparently, these need more negotiations).

This is real progress. When Quiet Scotland first started writing to supermarkets, they were either ignored us or sent a standard letter suggesting that no one else ever complained. The same response is often received across the whole UK, of course. Stores very rarely turn off their Christmas music, certainly not for a whole morning at a time. (See the previous post Christmas Cacophony Again!)

Quiet Scotland inspires us all. Wherever you live in the UK, do write to the Chief Executive, Dave Lewis. His email is dave.lewis@uk.tesco.com His postal address is Tesco House, Shire Park, Kestrel Way, Welwyn Garden City, UK, AL7 1GA

Many chains or places that are normally free of muzac have again begun playing it as Christmas approaches. Pret-a- Manger, the sandwich chain, has been in the news recently for playing it. Marks and Spencer, which is otherwise normally quiet, has joined this cacophony. The rationale is that such music creates a seasonally jovial spirit i.e. encourages people to spend even more. That this is not true – that endlessly repeated music drives shoppers who detest it away, to shop online perhaps – is ignored by those responsible, just as they too often ignore the plight of people with hearing difficulties (some 16% of the population), autism, ME and other problems. Hugh Grant has attacked its introduction – ‘Christmas hats and music off please @Pret… It doesn’t make us merry or spend more. It makes us GNASH’ – partly because it is so early in the season.

The natural reaction is to shun such places, but it is far more useful to write pointing out the facts above to the relevant CEOs. That of Pret-a-Manger is: Clive Schlee Clive.Schlee@pret.com

And don’t let’s forget the unfortunate staff working in such places, who may have to hear ‘popular’ Christmas tunes such as Jingle Bells 600 times in the run up to Christmas.

Autism Hour took place on 5 October. This is the third year it has been held and more shops have been participating each time. Although  a few supermarkets now provide one ‘quiet hour’ each week, Autism Hour involves hundreds of stores and shopping malls that don’t currently participate. Their involvement also includes staff being given training on the needs of autistic customers.This year there is even a letter template on their website so that you can write to your local shops, asking them to participate. Purple Tuesday (12 Nov) which focusses on changing the customer experience for disabled people, is on it’s second year. Participating organisations will make public commitments (a minimum of one new activity or initiative) to ensure sustainable changes are made. For organisations, this will result in the opening up of products and services to the disability market. One of these activities is formalising quiet hours. Last, but not least, the British Tinnitus Association has launched a Safe around sound campaign.

Pipedown strongly supports these initiatives. Let’s encourage far more shops to go muzac-free.

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k-free for far longer.

The BBC is testing ways of letting viewers tune out background noises, including music which is often so loud that it is foreground music. This should make dialogue easier to follow and allow the sounds of nature on wild life documentaries  to be heard. A trial version on the BBC website adds a slider button as well as the overall volume control. Moving the slider to the left reduces background noises of all sorts. The project is aimed chiefly at the 11 million Britons with hearing loss but will make dialogue much more comprehensible for everybody. It will also reduce, if not eliminate, superfluous and very irritating music.

The technology, which is said to be very labour intensive, is still experimental but it could become available on Iplayer and even on broadcast television as the BBC develops a ‘personalised system of broadcasting called object-based media’.

Last year, 2018, the World Health Organisation  (W.H.O.) issued new guidelines for noise across Europe. its key conclusions are that current government policies and targets are inadequate and out of date and that new targets need to be set. The W.H.O. recommends tough new limits on aircraft noise both at day and at night.  Affected communities should be consulted about changes in flight paths and the construction of additional runways. The adverse effects of noise on health, with sleep deprivation leading to lack of concentration, especially among children, and to accidents at people work and while driving, are well established. New evidence has emerged to show that night time noise can cause cardiovascular disease, particularly for those living under flight paths. Even while a person is asleep noise can cause the release of stress hormones, damaging blood vessels, including the coronary arteries. Three quarters of the population in Britain live in areas where night-time safe noise levels are exceeded.  So noise really is a major health hazard, even for those not fully aware of it.

Nigella Lawson, the famous super-chef, says that the thump of loud music now found in some of the most fashionable (and expensive) restaurants leaves her ‘unable to taste her food’.  She says she is ‘allergic to all noise including music in shops and restaurants…  It is utterly draining. And it drowns out the taste of food. I’ve always presumed that these decisions are made by people who feel uncomfortable without  noise.’ Many other chefs agree with her.  Paul Askew, Chef Patron of the Art School in Liverpool, said that ‘great food needs to be tasted in a softer, more gentle environment’ and that he tries in his restaurants to ‘create an oasis of calm and a sanctuary of restoration for the soul.’  Oisin Rogers, who runs The Guinea Grill in Mayfair, thinks that bad music can ruin one’s appetite. ‘Canned music is often an irritant, an annoyance. It might please some folk but never all. And it is irritating. Nigella is perfectly correct. It is impossible to enjoy food while irritated.’ Although not all chefs accept this argument, a poll in The Daily Telegraph of 8th June found that 55% of respondents agreed that restaurants should stop playing music.

The following welcome news appeared in the Spring 2019 magazine of the Skipton Building Society:- ‘We[the Skipton Building Society]  recently gave customers the option to turn off the music and messages they’d usually hear if they were put on hold during a call to us. It was originally intended to help customers with accessibility needs who are affected by loud music. However, figures show that on average so far this year, 35% of our callers are now opting for the silent option and we’re getting great feedback from customers.’ This shows that a significant  proportion of customers – not just those termed disabled – prefer silence to canned music down the line, debunking the old myth that callers ring off if there is no muzac to reassure them.

Firstdirect, the online/telephonic banking service, now plays birdsong rather than muzac while customers are kept on hold – an improvement that is welcomed apparently by some, but not all, customers. We need to reassure Firstdirect and the Skipton BS that they are doing the right thing, and persuade  other banks, building societies etc to offer the same silent or at least birdsong option.

Sam Smiths, the independent Yorkshire-based brewer, has banned the use of mobiles, iPods and similar devices in all its 200 plus pubs. Its policy has long been  to avoid music of any sort in its pubs. If people wish to use their devices for any purpose, they must now go outside, just like smokers. ‘The brewery’s policy is that our pubs are for social person to person conversation’, says Humphrey Smith, a descendant of the original founder Sam Smith. All Sam Smith pubs are highly traditional, with often splendid Victorian interiors lovingly preserved or restored.

By treating noise-mongers in the same way as smokers, Sam Smiths is proving itself a pioneer in regard to the physical and psychological health of both its staff and and its customers. Other chains should follow suit!  While based in Yorkshire, Sam Smiths has pubs throughout the land from Edinburgh to Kent, with 20 in London.

Psychologists from the University of Central Lancashire, the University of Gävle in Sweden and Lancaster University investigated the impact of background music on performance by giving people verbal insight problems that tap creativity.  They found that background music significantly impaired’ people’s ability to complete tasks testing verbal creativity. In contrast,  no effect was discovered for background library noise.

For example, a participant was shown three words (e.g., dress, dial, flower), with the requirement being to find a single associated word (in this case “sun”) that can be combined to make a common word or phrase (sundress, sundial and sunflower). The researchers used three experiments involving verbal tasks in either a quiet environment or while exposed to         background music with foreign (unfamiliar) lyrics,  instrumental music without lyrics and      music with lyrics already known.

Dr Neil McLatchie of Lancaster University reported: ‘We found strong evidence of impaired performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions.’ Researchers suggest this may be because music disrupts verbal working memory.

The third experiment – exposure to music with familiar lyrics- impaired creativity regardless of whether the music also boosted mood, induced a positive mood, was liked by the participants, or whether participants normally studied with music being played. But  there was no significant difference in performance of the verbal tasks between the quiet and library noise conditions. Researchers say this is because library noise is a ‘steady state’ environment which is not as disruptive.

‘To conclude, the findings here challenge the popular view that music enhances creativity, and instead demonstrate that music, regardless of the presence of semantic content (no lyrics, familiar lyrics or unfamiliar lyrics), consistently disrupts creative performance in insight problem solving.’

This wholly independent survey (not funded by the piped music industry in any way) confirms earlier research from Swansea University and contradicts the many familiar arguments in favour of piped music.