Music in the office

[Sean Claffie]

We've had numerous requests from patients and staff that we should have music in the background at the offices. We'd like to avoid the radio, with commercials and we certainly don't want anyone dancing. We're thinking more along the lines of an MP3 playlist. Any song suggestions?

[Paul Farkas]

We've had numerous requests from patients and staff that we should have music in the background at the offices. We'd like to avoid the radio, with commercials and we certainly don't want anyone dancing. We're thinking more along the lines of an MP3 playlist. Any song suggestions?

This open's a Pandora's Box for controversy.

Few things sensual are as varied as musical taste. If music is playing that is not to your liking it creates anxiety and poor concentation. If the music is exactly what the individual enjoys before long there may be a sing along or for classical music enthusiasts conducting the symphony.

[Nathan Bonilla-Warford]

We've had numerous requests from patients and staff that we should have music in the background at the offices. We'd like to avoid the radio, with commercials and we certainly don't want anyone dancing. We're thinking more along the lines of an MP3 playlist. Any song suggestions?

Strictly jazz in my office. Mostly acquired form emusic.com for cheap. played on Itunes. Mostly instrumental classics. Noting too crazy. Only earl Miles Davis, nothing from the 70's or 80's.

Of course Bob Marley qualifies as jazz.

Pandora.com (close, Paul), is very good and free, once you refine the setlist, but it will still play some songs you don't want, so you have to keep an eye on it.

[Dave Rocks]

We subscribe to Sirius and stream it thru the sound system. Coffeehouse acoustic is a nice balance between the Jazz and more pop type music. No commericials and you can get other genres of music to listen to when no pts are around.

Dave

[James Harper]

AOL has a lot if free music of all types and I have considered using this. Hook up speakers to my office computer?
Has any one tried this?

[Dave Rocks]

We stream our Sirius from their media player from one of the computers at the front desk. Hook into the audio jack on the computer with a headphone plug and hook a patch cable to the amp. Works well. Also allows you to listen to radio stations that broadcast online should you want to.

Dave

[Jeffrey D Phillips]

We tried a lot of things, but with five staff members there was a varity of mucsical taste. First we tried the radio, but discovered they had plenty of commercials for our competitors. Then, we made custom CD's, about 24 hours worth, with a variety of styles: classical, jazz, pop, broadway musicals, etc. We got bored with these pretty quickly, so it was back to the radio before long. Then, when we got new computers, I realized that evey computer station could have its own music playing via internet radio. So, we all agreed to keep the volume low in each area, and to each his own. There is no music in the exam rooms, but you can still hear some ambient background noise to keep it from being so quiet you can hear yourself breathe. This has worked well for about a year now.

The waiting room has a one hour educational power point running, so no music required in there.

[Dr Paul C O'Donnell]

We have XM radio playing. Starbucks cafe channel. Eclectic mix. Lucy after hours....

[Jeff Kiener]

AOL has a lot if free music of all types and I have considered using this. Hook up speakers to my office computer?
Has any one tried this?

What I'm doing now is subscribing to an online radio (Sky FM, but many others...search for "online radio").

Yes, if you take a set of cheap computer speakers, and cut one of the wires, you will see a coaxial wire (central wire needing further stripping and a meshwork of copper surrounding it). Separate the two types of coaxial wire, hook it up to a speaker wire, and let the speaker wire go to an amplifier (which is absolutely necessary and expensive, unfortunately) which is connected to the ceiling speakers.

There's got to be an easier way, though!

[Aman Sappal]

is there a genre of music that generates more sales???

[Paul Farkas]

is there a genre of music that generates more sales???

Add to that should the music reflect the taste of the OD owner, the staff or the present patient base?

[Tony Vu]

We usually play instrumental jazz and classical music in the office (MP3s). I also love Hawaiian instrumental music in the office. Very relaxing. Patients seem to like the music also...based on our feedback forms

[James Harper]

is there a genre of music that generates more sales???

Music with subliminal messages - "Walmart glasses suck" "Walmart glasses suck"

[Daniel Navarro]

I have a ghetto blaster (lack of a better word) that has an "AUX" plug in. I connect the computer with i tunes and the speakers that are wired thru out the office are connected to the ghetto Blaster.

[Eugene Balogh]

I have a ghetto blaster (lack of a better word) that has an "AUX" plug in. I connect the computer with i tunes and the speakers that are wired thru out the office are connected to the ghetto Blaster.

Let me guess..you play the soundtrack to "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo on the "Ghetto Blaster"?

[Troy Bedinghaus]

I am basically paperless and we have computers all over the place - so we just open itunes and stream a nice jazz station. In my opinion, background music is extremely important. You ever work with no sound or music?...its uncomfortably quiet sometimes. Also, people in the optical are happier and feel like they are shopping! It sets the entire mood. I wouldnt worry about your employees either. You are the owner, you say what goes.

[Uduak Udom]

Nobody is thinking of cool gospel music? Well?

[James Harper]

Nobody is thinking of cool gospel music? Well?

I had a Christian station playing in my exam room before I moved the office, and it was very popular with my patients, but I cannot pick up a station in my new exam room.

[Ken Jeffers]

This ought to be an easy one:


Private Eyes - Hall and Oates
Eyes without a face - Billy Idol
Behind Blue Eyes - The Who
Betty Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes
Double Vision - Foreigner
Always Something There To Remind Me - Naked Eyes
In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
Lost in Your Eyes - Debbie Gibson
When You Close Your Eyes - Night Ranger
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Sunglasses at Night - Corey Hart
I've Cried the Blue Right Out of my Eyes - Crystal Gayle
Smoke gets in your Eyes - Nat King Cole
Lyin' Eyes - The Eagles

[Jenifer Ambler]

Don't forget...

Cross Eyed Mary - Jethro Tull
Daniel - Elton John
Demon's Eye - Deep Purple
Come See About Me - the Supremes
Crosseyed and Painless - the Talking Heads
Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue
Green Eyed Lady
Ebony Eyes

Who the heck did those anyway? I'm going blank at this late hour.

[Scott Caughell]

I had a Christian station playing in my exam room before I moved the office, and it was very popular with my patients, but I cannot pick up a station in my new exam room.

We have a Christian station playing in the background. We get many positive comments. Also most of the songs aren't over the top religious so I don't think it makes anyone uncomfortable.

[David W Miller]

Bagpipes and barbershop quartets.

[Gregory Wilson]

Cmon!

Doctor my eyes by Jackson Browne

[Troy Bedinghaus]

In my opinion, background music is critical to creating a great atmosphere. Plus, it gets people in the happy buying/shopping mood. We are paperless and have computers everywhere so we just use itunes and play the same smooth jazz station on all of them at a fairly low level, little louder in the optical. It is so much better to have background music when you are in with a patient too.

[Jenifer Ambler]

Background music definitely helps make the front desk conversations (with patients and between staff) less audible to those sitting in the waiting room...good for confidentiality.

The only problem we have in this office is type of music. The senior OD is an extremely serious classical conoisseur. The rest of us prefer jazz or soft pop. Guess who wins?

Unless he leaves earlier than us in the afternoon...

[Troy Bedinghaus]

Tell the senior doc that it should be based on what is good for the patient. Classical is cool, but smooth jazz is much more likely to put patients in a good shopping mood!

[Mike Sandy]

I've got a 429 song playlist on my computer in my exam room. I play my list and if a song isn't a good fit with a particular patient, I just hit next. I've lots of Portishead and lots of Morcheeba.

I also include about four or five "guilty pleasure" songs thrown in.

a few examples:

Egyptian Lover - Egypt Egypt
Snap - The Power
CW McCall - Convoy
The Chemical Brothers - It Doesn't Matter
Moby - In This World

[Jerrold Fruchtman]

How about:
I can see clearly now- Johnny Nash

[Mike Sandy]

How about:
I can see clearly now- Johnny Nash

If you want that POS stuck in your head ALL DAY LONG!

[Tory Moore]

ASCAP and BMI

If you own a radio station or a restaurant and you want to broadcast or play music, what you need are public performance rights-- the right to play music that the general public will hear in one way or another. Obviously, if you own a radio station playing 300 or 400 songs every day, you would go insane if you had to obtain public performance writes from every label and publisher. Therefore, public performance rights licensing is now handled by two very large companies named ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) that simplify the process. Each one handles a catalog of about 4,000,000 songs.

A radio station will typically purchase from ASCAP and BMI what are called blanket licenses to broadcast music. A blanket license lets the station play anything it likes throughout the year. ASCAP and BMI decide how to divide up the money among all the rights owners.

Any establishment that wants to play music that will be heard by the general public needs a license as well. If you go to the Forms section of the BMI Web site, you can find a list of dozens of forms to cover every different type of establishment that you can imagine.


*http://entertainment.howstuffworks.c...licensing3.htm