Category Archives: Pipedown News

Writing to new MPs about noise

More than half of MP’s arriving in Westminster for the first time this summer are novices. Most of them will probably never have given a thought to noise problems of any sort. It seems timely to write to your possibly new local MP over the next weeks, outlining the many problems caused by noise pollution, especially by piped music. (For facts on the latter please see Pipedown’s Fact Sheet, downloadable from the website.) Point out how piped music affects many of the most vulnerable groups, how unnecessary and often counter-productive is – whether for commercial success or sedating patients Finally, inquire if the MP might be interested in coming to a meeting in the Commons in early October (date TBA) to discuss noise matters. Be polite, pithy and pertinent as always. Any touches of humour to grab and keep the attention of the overwhelmed novice MP are an added bonus!

Morrisons Goes Quieter

Supermarket chain Morrisons has changed its shopping rules. The supermarket currently has quiet hours between 9am and 10am on Saturdays, plus the first hour of opening on Sundays. It has now extended its quiet hours to include 2pm to 3pm every Monday to Thursday.

The announcement coincided with World Autism Acceptance Week from April 2 to April 8. The chain declared: ‘The initiative is for people who may struggle with music and other loud noises, for example those who have been diagnosed as autistic.’ Daniel Cadey of the National Autistic Society said: ‘Around 700,000 people are on the autism spectrum in the UK. This means they see, hear and feel the world differently to other people, often in a more intense way. Morrisons’ Quieter Hour is a step in the right direction for autistic people who find supermarket shopping a real struggle.’ (A Quieter Hour involves dimming lights, turning piped music and radios off, also making no loud tannoy announcements, plus turning down checkout beeps and other electrical noises.)

This is very good news from a large supermarket chain, not just for those with autism or the many other problems that make people unusually vulnerable to noise, but for everyone who hates piped music. We comprise about a third of the population, according to most surveys. We should quote Morrisons’ move to other chains in arguments and push Morrisons itself to extend their Quiet Hours much further, because most of the time their supermarkets are still cacophonous.

Doubt cast on research supporting canned music’s popularity.

The ‘piped music industry’ often publishes surveys based on reputedly scientific research showing that its music is liked by most  customers. Typical is that from Musicworksforyou, the research site for the two main licence fee collectors, PRS and PPL. According to this group, 71% of us like to listen to music whilst on hold. (A poll conducted for the Co-op Bank suggested just the opposite: 60% of people hate being forced to listen to unwanted music when on hold.)

An even stranger statistic is that ‘99% of staff who work in stores without [background] music agree that they think customers would be happier if music was played in store’, and 93% ‘agree that if the music was turned off in their workplace, then they would ask their manager to turn it back on.’ These implausible figures are blazed on the group’s website and, it seems, believed by enough people in the retail and entertainment worlds to ensure a plague of piped music. The fact that the research is directly linked to the music industry is  ignored.

A typical statement about how everybody loves piped music comes from John Brodie, Chief Executive of Scotmid, which introduced piped music into some Co-op stores.  In response to protests, Brodie said that Scotmid had research to show that customers loved piped music:  ‘We have also read a number of reports about the impact of music in public places and in one particular summary it mentions two key elements – “people rank music as more difficult to live without than sports, movies and newspapers” and “music enhances wellbeing amongst customers and employees in workplaces”.’

Note what is being suggested here. Because most people say they value music highly – not a surprise – they must therefore love inescapable forced piped music. A similar distortion of people’s real reactions to unwanted music comes from  Heartbeats International, ‘a global brand communication agency with offices in Stockholm, Tokyo and New York. Our mission is to help clients worldwide to use the power of music and sound to stand out in today’s crowded marketplace and increase customer engagement’.

All these agencies  have a strong vested interest in persuading stores/hotels/restaurants  to play piped music. To take their findings as impartial suggests huge gullibility.

 

As two academic research papers are often cited as proof that playing background music boosts business, it helps to look at what their authors actually wrote.

Milliman (Ronald E) “Using background music to affect the behavior of supermarket shoppers” Journal of Marketing Vol 46 (Summer 1982) pages 86-91
In this paper Milliman concluded that playing music can influence the behaviour of shoppers. He reported a 38.2% increase in sales volume when slow tempo music was played, rather than fast tempo music.  And “There was no statistically significant difference in sales volume between [no music] and [slow tempo music]” In view of these findings why do most shops now play fast tempo music, which Milliman demonstrated is the worst type for sales volume? Who is advising them to play this type of music? And why play music at all when there is no statistically significant difference in sales volume between slow tempo music and no music, and when so many people dislike it?

Yalch (Richard F) and Spangenberg (Eric) “Using store music for retail zoning: a field experiment” Advances in Consumer Research Volume 20, 1993 Pages 632-636
This paper is often mentioned by the music industry because it demonstrated that people made more purchases when music was playing.  However, this is what Yalch and Spangenberg actually said:  “When music was played, about 55% of the shoppers made a purchase compared to 47% when no music was played. However, this difference is not statistically significant. Further, it did not affect total expenditures because the average amount spent per person making a purchase (as opposed to the number of shoppers) was highest in the NO MUSIC condition ($51.70 compared to $43.29 when music was being played)”.  At the beginning of this article Yalch and Spangenberg thank Ellen Goldblatt of MUZAK “for assisting in planning and executing this study”.  So, although a piped music company, MUZAK, was involved in setting up this research, Yalch and Spangenberg ended up showing that shoppers actually spent more when no music was played!

 

 

Why music really does get louder as you get older

Older people actually hear music as louder, new reports show. Presbycusis, an age-related hearing problem, means that older people find background music drowns out conversation even at levels younger people do not notice. Age-related hearing loss, called presbycusis, is characterised by loss of hair cells in the base of the cochlea, or inner ear, that are attuned to capture and transmit high-frequency sounds, says Dr. Anil K. Lalwani, director of otology, neurotology and skull-base surgery at Columbia University Medical Center, New York.

Loss of high-frequency hearing leads to deterioration in the ability to distinguish words in conversation. Additionally, any noise in the environment leads to even greater loss in clarity of hearing. Contrary to expectation, presbycusis is also associated with sensitivity to loud noises.

see http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/science/why-at-70-is-it-harder-to-hear-conversations-yet-music-is-too-loud.html?

As the overall population ages, governments and businesess should take notice.