If you’re a true music lover, this post is for you.

Mood Media Muzak is restoring a rare collection of 20,000 never-released master recordings – discovered in its archives – from the top artists of the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s. Announced at this year’s Grammy Awards, the restoration of these unique recordings marks an historic moment in the music industry. Now, generations of the most influential artists from our cultural songbook will once again be able to share their talents and inspiration with today’s artists.

At a special Grammy Awards event, Mood Media Muzak, the Grammy Museum and Gucci announced that the trio was teaming up to restore this piece of music history – and more importantly – make it accessible for the public to explore and enjoy as part of a new and permanent exhibit at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.  Topped off with a stellar performance from recording star Jennifer Hudson, the evening highlighted the mission and importance of the unique collaboration.

For Mood Media Muzak, the Recording Academy’s Grammy Museum was the perfect partner and ideal venue to showcase its archive. As Bob Santelli, Executive Director of the Grammy’s Museum said at the announcement, “The restoration of these recordings mark a historic moment in music, allowing past generations of important musicians to communicate with future ones.” But, despite the significance of such an effort, the restoration process of the master library from discs and tape to digital would be an extremely costly and timely endeavor. Enter Gucci …

Gucci has counted many iconic musical artists among its most loyal clientele and has a great tradition of supporting the preservation of the arts. So, as part of an exclusive three-year deal between Gucci Timepiece and Jewelry and the Recording Academy, the company will help finance the digitization. Here is the Grammy’s release: www.grammy.com/news/jazz-legend-fats-waller-to-get-digitized

As the lengthy archive restoration project moves forward, so too does the creation of its future home – the Mood Media Muzak Archive Exhibit at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, which is scheduled to open to the music-loving public in late May of this year.

Thanks to this unique partnership, Mood Media Muzak will always have a place to celebrate its past—as it continues to build the future of in-store media.

What do you think about this endeavor and partnership? Would you want to explore the new exhibit when it opens?

Our very own Vanessa Walmsley features in this month’s A1 Retail magazine. She shares some recent news, talks about her favorite project at the Guess flagship store in London, and gives her perspective on the future of in-store media.

You can read the article online on pages 30-31 of the issue of A1 Retail.

Banks need to improve their in-branch ‘ambiance’ if they are to attract customers in off the High Street, according to a recent study by Mood Media Corporation.

In a nutshell, the study of the financial services industry – carried out in association with YouGov – found only 9% of bank customers like the ‘ambiance’ of their local bank, disliked long queues and didn’t feel it educated them enough on the services and products it offers, which is why 63% prefer to do their banking online rather than in branches.

For banks, the risk behind the migration to online banking is that sales of financial services – everything from savings and loans products to brokerage and insurance services – will fall as customers lose contact with retail banking staff.

In turn, Mood Media pointed out how in-store visuals such as LCD screens can increase product sales, raise general awareness of additional products and services, and reduce perceptions of queue time if they are used in an informative and entertaining way. Not only that, but music and some smart sound engineering in branches can increase the sense of privacy, which is important to establish when customers are sharing personal financial matters with bank staff.

In an article entitled ‘Scents and TV coming to a bank near you,’ banking correspondent for ThisisMoney.co.uk Dan Hyde commented that “a fresh feel could revitalise face-to-face banking, which is dying a slow and protracted death in the UK now that 22m Britons use internet banking.’

The story was also picked up by the popular Financial Services Technology magazine and Business Bank Accounts website, stalwart retail and digital signage websites such as Daily Dooh and Digital Signage Expo, and was spotted in the e-mail newsletter Van Etten’s clippings.

Recognition is gaining that financial services needs a more welcoming, enlivened, and modern approach to retail, especially given its failings and setbacks in the recent past. Whether it is engaging visuals and audio for building societies with a large family-based clientele, classical music for the distinguished interior of private banks or cutting edge, holograms, QR codes and touchscreens aimed at a technologically savvy, young demographic, the opportunities are endless.

Let’s see who will follow in the footsteps of our client ING bank in the Netherlands and be the first to take a pioneering step in the right direction in the UK.

It appears banking customers are in the mood for a change.