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Associated Press

Background music is no longer an afterthought at many airports, which are hiring local musicians and carefully curating playlists to help lighten travellers’ moods.
London’s Heathrow Airport built a stage to showcase emerging British performers for the first time this summer. The programme was so successful the airport hopes to bring it back in 2025.
Nashville International Airport, in the US state of Tennessee, has five stages that host more than 800 performances per year, from country musicians to jazz combos.
In the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana International Airport greets passengers with live merengue music.
At Hong Kong International Airport it is usually just flight announcements you hear, but not when it is Christmas. Throughout the holidays, singers and dancers dressed in red perform festive tunes in the arrivals hall, such as “Oh Santa!” and “All I Want for Christmas is You”.


Even without live music, airports are carefully curating their recorded playlists.
Detroit Metro Airport, in the US state of Michigan, plays Motown hits in a tunnel connecting its terminals.
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, in Texas, has a playlist of local artists compiled by a local radio station.
Singapore’s Changi Airport commissioned a special piano accompaniment for its giant digital waterfall.


Music is not a new phenomenon in airport terminals. Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, a minimalist album released in 1978 that was designed to calm, helped define the ambient music genre.
But Barry McPhillips, the head of international creative for Mood Media, which provides music for airports and other public spaces, said technology is enabling background music to be less generic and more tailored to specific places or times of day.
Mood Media – formerly known as Muzak – develops playlists to appeal to business travellers or families depending on who is in the airport at any given time. It might programme calmer music in the security line but something more energising in the duty-free store.
“We see it as a soundscape,” McPhillips said. “We design for all of these moments.”
There is a science to Mood Music’s decisions on volume, tempo, even whether to play a song in a major key versus a minor one, he added.
“How do we want to affect their mood at that moment?” McPhillips said. “It’s not just like, ‘Here’s a load of songs.’ It’s a load of songs for that 10-minute segment, and then we move to the next 10 minutes.”

At the same time, many airports are going low-tech, hiring local musicians to serenade travellers and give them a sense of the place they are passing through.
In Chicago, in the US state of Illinois, the O’Hare and Midway airports have more than 100 live performances each year.
Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport, in Arizona, began a live music programme five years ago and now has two stages featuring local artists.
Tami Kuiken, who manages airport music in Seattle, in Washington state, said the Seattle-Tacoma airport launched its live music programme about a decade ago after a city commissioner heard live music at the airport in Austin, Texas.
“The idea was like, ‘Man, why doesn’t Seattle have music? We’re a music city too,’” Kuiken said.


At first, the airport created a playlist featuring emerging artists along with famous ones like Pearl Jam. Then it decided to try live musicians for a 12-week trial.
It was so successful that the airport now features live musicians daily and is building new performance spaces.
“People’s anxiety levels are very high when they are travelling,” Kuiken said. “The feedback that we started getting was that once they got through the checkpoint and they were greeted with music, all of a sudden their anxiety and stress levels dropped.”
The programmes also benefit musicians, who get paid to perform and gain wider exposure. When Colorado Springs Airport announced a live music programme in March, more than 150 musicians applied. It now hosts two two-hour performances each week.
David James, a singer and guitarist who plays at Seattle’s airport about once a week, said waking up in time for a daytime gig took some adjustment. But he has gained new fans from all over the world.
“I get really sweet responses from people all the time, saying, ‘That was so soothing to be able to just sit and listen to music in between flights,’” he said. “So it feels like it’s especially therapeutic for people.”

Country stars like Blake Shelton and Keith Urban have come through Nashville’s airport and interacted with local musicians, said Stacey Nickens, the airport’s vice-president of corporate communications and marketing. Shelton even gave one his guitar.
Otto Stuparitz, a musicologist and lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, has studied airport music. He said airports should think carefully about their selections.
Music that is meant to be actively listened to – like live music or catchy pop songs – can be very distracting in an already chaotic environment, he said. He has noticed some airports, especially in Europe, have turned off piped music – light pop music – altogether.
But McPhillips said big spaces like airports can feel cold and unwelcoming without background music.
“A well-crafted audio strategy is one that people aren’t particularly cognisant of,” he said. “They just know they are having a good time and that it’s appropriate.”
Additional reporting by Austin Zhang


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Lifestyle

Travel & Leisure

Culture

Health & Wellness

Health

From live performances to carefully curated playlists, airports from Singapore to Seattle are using music in new ways to ease travel stress


From live performances to carefully curated playlists, airports from Singapore to Seattle are using music in new ways to ease travel stress.


Aviation

Wellness

Hong Kong International Airport