How Did Elevators Lose Their Music?

The bit about using face recognition to customize the music is cool until you think about how it would be cloud based, your face would be associated with an advertising ID, and your day-to-day comings and goings in the physical world would be tracked. But hey, it starts playing the Gorillaz when you get on so totally worth it right?

In Mainland China a multitude of tech and ad companies are working to ensure that every elevator in the country has a screen and audio for a never-ending loop of commercials. Depending on the city, the coverage of premium office and residential buildings is around 100%.<p>For older elevators that would not allow much modification, the hardware was a DLP projector mounted under the ceiling with a top portion of the doors covered in a reflective matte sticky film. All the new elevators come with some sort of flat screen pre-installed.<p>Hardware is cheap, regulations are lax, it&#x27;s a decent source of extra revenue for the property management companies.

&gt; According to a white paper shared by Otis Elevator, the vertical transportation of the future will be able to recognize you as soon as you step onboard, and “the lighting, music or infotainment in the elevator cab will be tuned exactly to your preferences.”<p>Oh no please … not this crap again…

The elevators at Legoland Hotel play typical boring elevator music when then doors are open and switch to something upbeat, like disco when the doors close.

&gt; Britain seems especially resistant to elevator music—again, based on a small sample size of responses to my queries. Some claim never to have heard music in an elevator in the UK, and I can’t say that surprises me.<p>Seems accurate. I&#x27;m from the UK and I&#x27;ve never heard elevator music anywhere in my entire life. For the longest time, I thought it was actually just a thing in American movies.

My guess would be music licencing is why it&#x27;s gone. Too risky.<p>It&#x27;s one of the only places I&#x27;ve ever had to deal with, where if you play ANY music the big 3 consider it stolen (1 rift is enough according to them) and your legally guilty (USA), with no one ever winning a case against them. It&#x27;s just pay to play, even with originals.

&gt; <i>How Did Elevators Lose Their Music?</i><p>The question is asked, but not answered.<p>Regarding the music itself, we get one mention of Brian Eno in the penultimate paragraph, as a side, and none of Erik Satie (who invented the genre in 1917 [0]).<p>This is a kind of content-free article. Literature for elevators maybe.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Furniture_music" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Furniture_music</a>

<i>But the gas station owners are less interested in providing music, and far more excited about the prospect of force-feeding me advertisements.</i><p>Elevator owners are already there, the ones I use all have advertising screens in them just like the gas pumps.

I read a book titled <i>Elevator Music</i> by Joseph Lanza and am sad to say that I don&#x27;t remember much about it other than that slaughterhouses played elevator music for the cattle to calm them before the slaughter, and an anecdote about an orchestra conductor who yelled at a hotel manager words to the effect of, &quot;I&#x27;m trying to make my musicians <i>more</i> sensitive to music, not <i>less!</i>&quot;<p>Edit: I forgot that the book also mentions a German category, <i>Gebrauchsmusik</i>, or utility music: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Gebrauchsmusik" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Gebrauchsmusik</a>

&gt; According to a white paper shared by Otis Elevator, the vertical transportation of the future will be able to recognize you as soon as you step onboard<p>I am unavoidably reminded of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation’s Happy Vertical People Transporters.

When I lived in a 50+ story high-rise, I always liked to imagine subtle MIDI versions of Creed&#x27;s &quot;Higher&quot; playing on the way up and Tom Petty&#x27;s &quot;Free Fallin&#x27;&quot; playing on the way down. Especially on the way to and from the laundry room ~40 floors away from my apartment.

&gt; I’ve consulted the websites of various elevator manufacturers, and am pleased to learn that they are planning next generation music for our high-rise journeys. According to a white paper shared by Otis Elevator, the vertical transportation of the future will be able to recognize you as soon as you step onboard, and “the lighting, music or infotainment in the elevator cab will be tuned exactly to your preferences.”<p>Time to start lobbying making privacy masks for the public. For now, my COVID mask will do.

I wouldn&#x27;t mind if elevator music was specially-made similarly to how Japanese train stations have (mostly) their own special chimes.<p>Obviously not every single elevator should have its own chime, but maybe regional or some other distinguishing factor could play a role.

Tangential trivia that this reminded me about: there was a trend in Hollywood cinema for a while with scenes that would use background music playing in offices or elevators to heighten the drama before a fight or conflict. I think it started with films in the 1960s or 1970s.

Sounds like this would be a fun project to implement with a Raspberry Pi and cheap speaker and a sensor to detect someone in the elevator and just stick it to the roof in a little enclosure and play some music. Would be more fun if you added a camera and got footage of people’s reaction to music suddenly in the elevator.

Let&#x27;s cherish the time until building operators realize that elevators are a good place to play ads.

I&#x27;m nearly 40 and don&#x27;t remember elevators in my area of the US ever having music. Oddly enough, I knew what it was - my parents told me the music playing at department stores was elevator music. So guessing it faded out somewhere between our two generations?

The question is not How, but Why. In the world of non-stop info&#x2F;commerical bombardment, maybe it&#x27;s great to have a few seconds of silence?<p>Also don&#x27;t forget the entire idea could be a diminishing return - the better the technology, the shorter the time.<p>If Otis intentionally lengthening trip time so that they can feed more entertainment until a state-level regulation comes in place, I would start to suspect they&#x27;ve hired Zuckerberg.<p>I guess I don&#x27;t need to mention the privacy concerns and consumer rights, considering this is HN.<p>p.s. the author never heard music in Britain&#x27;s elevator because elevator = conveyor belt, the little box thing that carry people up and down a building? It&#x27;s called a &quot;lift&quot; (sorry I&#x27;ll see myself out...)

Why not read my mood instead and use the best ambient lighting so I feel better? Something that could work for anyone and isn’t all that bad or intrusive. Why can’t we have nice tech lol

One of my favorite elevators is The Standard Highline in NYC.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=BYOrgZN2CtQ" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=BYOrgZN2CtQ</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=5Tyn02-auMU" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=5Tyn02-auMU</a><p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;art-nerd.com&#x2F;newyork&#x2F;brambilla&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;art-nerd.com&#x2F;newyork&#x2F;brambilla&#x2F;</a>

Most of the elevator music I remember is designed to be memorable.<p>Riding the elevator in the LAX Theme Building, up to the dearly missed Encounter rotating restaurant, it sounded like you were going on a space trip to visit a 1960s starship. (Looked this up just now and I guess it was more of a Jetsons vibe? <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Vc9tdeLHFRI" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Vc9tdeLHFRI</a> )

I recall one time, some years ago, I cannot remember exactly but I remember going to a meeting in a high rise with some co-workers and others, we get on the elevator together and there is a Muzak version of Devo playing, I could not help cracking up. People asked me what was so funny, I commented the Muzak was a cover of Devo. No one knew what I was talking about.

It&#x27;s quite interesting that the term &quot;elevator music&quot; is still commonly used to negatively describe otherwise newly released music that one finds boring.<p>I wonder if younger people who have never experienced elevator music ever wonder where the term came from or is it descriptive enough that they&#x27;re able to put two and two together.

&gt;I will leave it to others to analyze what aspect of the British national character leads to this hostility to background songs.<p>Something, something, uncomfortable social awkwardness, being trapped in a confined space, and the music just highlighting the social awkwardness and lack of escape.<p>Plus how can you talk about the weather, if the music is drowning it out?

As someone born in &#x27;83 in the US, I can&#x27;t ever recall a time I&#x27;ve heard actual &quot;elevator music&quot; in an elevator. However, nowadays you might hear a jam like &quot;Sweet Home Alabama&quot; in a Casino&#x2F;Hotel elevator. Going up to your room? No no, Lynyrd Skynyrd wants you to keep the party going at the slots!

Elevator music with targeted ads is exactly the concept of James Ferraro&#x27;s album Far Side Virtual.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=d9ndKlm-G3s" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=d9ndKlm-G3s</a>

I will never forget the calming elevator music from System Shock.

What is Muzak? (Elevator Music):<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=47mYs1SGBq4" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=47mYs1SGBq4</a>

I was on holiday recently with a resort that had elevator (aka lift) music and I just found it annoying. It played the same tune everytime.

I suspect the current silent elevators will be mostly replaced by lobby advertisements that are already in a decent number of elevators.

Can you imagine a world where every elevator you boarded started playing anodyne muzak? That world is coming.

Obligatory mention of music intended for the elevators of the french ministry of culture [1].<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Music_for_a_French_Elevator_and_Other_Short_Format_Oddities_by_the_Books" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Music_for_a_French_Elevator_...</a>