Muzak

Muzak is a brand of background music played in retail stores and other venues. Formerly owned by Muzak Holdings, the brand was purchased in 2011 by Mood Media in a deal worth US$345 million.

The term "Muzak" is – at least in the United States – often used as a term for most forms of background music, regardless of the source of the music, and may also be known as elevator or lift music. Though Muzak Holdings was for many years the best known supplier of background music, and is commonly associated with elevator music, the company didn't themselves supply music to elevators. Since 1997, Muzak has used original artists for its music source, except on the Environmental channel.

The word "Muzak" has been a registered trademark since December 21, 1954 of Muzak LLC, although it dominated the market for so many years that the term is often used (especially when used with lowercase spelling) as a generic term for all background music. In 1981, Westinghouse bought the company and ran it until selling it to the Fields Company of Chicago, publishers of the Chicago Sun-Times, on September 8, 1986.

Inventor Major General George Owen Squier, credited with inventing telephone carrier multiplexing in 1910, developed the original technical basis for Muzak. In the early 1920s, he was granted several further US patents related to transmission of information signals, among them a system for the transmission and distribution of signals over electrical lines.

Squier recognized the potential for this technology to be used to deliver music to listeners without the use of radio, which at the time was in early state and required fussy and expensive equipment. Early successful tests were performed, delivering music to customers on New York's Staten Island via their electrical wires.

In 1922, the rights to Squier's patents were acquired by the North American Company utility conglomerate, which created a company named Wired Radio Inc. to deliver music to their customers, charging them for music right on their electric bill. By the 1930s, however, radio had made great advances, and households began listening to broadcasts picked up through the airwaves for free, supported by advertising.

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