I am working in the Amtrak waiting area for ticketed-passengers-only of
Penn Station (without a ticket, but I convinced the guard he should let
me stay because I’m expecting someone who does have a
ticket), waiting for my friend Josh to come in from D.C.. There is
classical music playing on every speaker, but I have no idea what it
is. How lovely it would be if there was a nice screen somewhere, like
they have in Starbucks-es, telling us all what the piece is and which
orchestra/soloist is playing it.
I suppose this isn’t Penn
Station’s battle to fight, but it reminds me that all of us hear
classical music everywhere we go, it just often blends together because
1. we’re not told what we’re hearing and 2. it’s usually not a
recording of the best-of-the-best, and thus not as memorable.
Can
record labels do something about this by offering their recordings for
free to places like Penn Station/whomever produces elevator
“entertainment”/showrooms/chain stores in which classical music is
played (Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel…), or is that a pointless struggle?
Would it be prohibitively expensive to work with transportation centers
like Penn Station on having “listening lounges” where travelers could
plug their headphones into stations and hear the most recent, say,
Deutsche Grammophon, releases while they wait for their
trains/planes/friends? And if it was even possible, would that sell
records?
Just an FYI, the company Muzak which does all the elevator music went bankrupt earlier this month:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/business/11muzak.html
So, perhaps those record labels should get their music out there and replace Muzak.
Maybe this is not the case at Penn Station because you were already in a ticketed-passengers area, but in many such public spaces the reason classical music is played is to drive people away! Specifically, loiterers, panhandlers, etc. In such cases, I don’t think the institutions in question will care much about the “best-of-the-best.”
That’s what Shazam is for – being able to identify recordings that you hear playing. Point your cell phone to the music, have Shazam listen to it, and it tells you what recording it is.
Penn Station might be a bit too noisy for it to work well. Given how the technology works, I also suspect that classical music may fare less well than pop music – but I could be mistaken about that.