"Nick J." wrote in
:

Sven Franklyn Weil wrote:
Muzak also delivers some of their formats in disk form. Don't know
if they're standard CDs or MP-3 disks. But knowing Muzak it's
probably MP-3 disks...there's a note on the disks that say something
to the effect of "for use only on Muzak equipment." I saw a couple
of them lying around on the counter of a Popeye's Fried Chicken store
once.

TSC in the UK provide 8-hour long CDs for use in shops and fast food
counters, etc. They're in mono IMA ADPCM (4:1) format, and are played
on a custom CD player.


Muzak in the US provides similarly long CDs (which, as best as I've been
able to determine, are *not* in MP3 format), also requiring a custom CD
player.

As recently as 1999-2000 or so Muzak was providing their proprietary CD's
and players to retail outlets such as Spencer's (which is where I was
familiar with the equipment--we had to put in that month's Muzak CD in,
it'd play for around 6-8 hours, mostly dance and novelty "Weird Al" type
stuff).

I had always wondered, as had other employees, specifically what format the
CDs were in (apparently employees had actually attempted to sneak them home
to play, without success--the tracking was off, as I recall; never had
access to a CD diagnostics util, and it'd probably have been impossible
without one of the proprietary Muzak players anyways). I'm not even sure
they were standard Red Book CD's at all, to be honest...

I'd expect the Muzak systems were similar if not identical, and I'd be
surprised if the Muzak "CD" systems weren't still in place in a lot of
places where you couldn't have a ton of satellite systems up (for example,
malls with many retail stores)...

-Neko-chan :3