The call for a ban on music in the hospitality industry receives a mixed bag of opinions in this weeks news. Campaigners have called for a ban on music in restaurants, claiming it’s ‘ruining the dining experience.’ Pipedown have teamed up with charity Action on Hearing Loss to ask restaurants, cafes and pubs to turn the music down.
Restaurants will be asked to stop playing music altogether but pubs will be asked to play softer music.
Here is a snippet taken from The Telegraph:
Gorki Duhra from Action on Hearing Loss told The Times: ‘for some people it can be irritating. But when it leads to you getting the wrong order or not being able to have a conversation and you’re missing the main bit of the joke because you just can’t hear it, you feel left out’
Prezzo and Wagamama will be approached first for this new campaign.
Marks and Sparks have announced it will be switching the music off too! This has been implemented due to the feedback forms taken in from the customers.
We at Eco believe this could change atmosphere significantly. Whilst we agree overly loud music does detract from the social aspect of a meal or drinks where you want to hold a conversation the complete lack of music could lead to quite a stark atmosphere.
‘Background music often tones down other noises people may not have noticed previously. The question is would you prefer some music to set the atmosphere and help dull the surrounding noise or would you rather a room where the only noise is other people’s conversations, sounds from the kitchen or worse still the toilet in more intimate settings. I’d rather have some decent music in the background than nothing at all’ – Tim
‘Once this campaign has started I think people will change their minds – more people will be irritated by people shuffling, crashing around, having all number of other noises that could be quite annoying in big stores.’ – Jade
Doesn’t music calm people down while their shopping, food superstores are hardly full of pleasant alternative noises, I can’t think of it being any better with no music? – Becky
What do you vote for? On or off…
