I’ve just launched the venues section of the site, with travel being the first one to be completed. Travel venues have so many possibilities, from the retail environment of the travel agent through the journey and arrival at the destination. Travel can be local or global and music can play an integral part of the customer experience. I’ve listened to playlists in waiting areas, in-flight and hotel receptions. Some have been great, some not so great. Music is such a personal choice and so many people have their own devices that playlists are really suitable where personal device use is unsuitable or you’re looking for an experience for your customers that enhances your brand’s offering.
I’ve tried to keep the selection broad and to suit different moods but the idea of consultancy is to get what you want out of a playlist whether it’s ambience, tempo, genre or mood. If you watched Channel 4’s Lonely Planet in the 90s you might recognise a couple of the tunes, one of them was used as the theme tune.
It’s a grand statement on the page to say I can match any requirements but I think an initial chat will always be the starting point for future work and if I believe I can’t deliver on that promise then I will state that at the outset. I’d really love the opportunity to try!
I’ve been very lucky to travel throughout the UK, Europe and much further afield to South East Asia and the Indian Ocean. Travel to exotic locations is always exciting but I also enjoy a train ride through the UK. In fact, I once composed a track for my Music Technology degree called ‘Fields of Fire’ based on a lyric from a Faithless track of the same name. I’d taken a train journey to the south of England and the fields genuinely looked like they might be on fire. I’m toying with the idea of launching a section for my own compositions. My wife introduced me to travel in the Czech Republic and Poland, and I have come to love Prague for the historic architecture, outdoor café culture and underground jazz clubs. When the restrictions are lifted I think we’ll be planning to get there by any means necessary.
I’ve decided to keep new playlist samplers around the 20-30 tracks length as the variety will become increasingly complex. The full playlists will remain in their current state and I will keep them up to date – they’re playlists I regularly listen to anyway and I think they provide a useful shop window. In the background I’m keeping my future ideas for expansion and paying customers private. I have around 4,000 further tracks stored and categorised. Spotify actually has a limit of 10,000 tracks stored in a user library but I can’t see me getting there for a while.
It’s also time to redesign the homepage. Having a blog at the heart of the website is still important to me – it provides a voice and, after all, my USP is the human touch. WordPress actively encourages it. However, the expansion of categories and playlists means that a proper landing page is now required. I can’t keep relying on the menu buttons at the top of the page to keep doing all the hard work to guide visitors. I’ve already had a go at designing it and it’s harder than I imagined so until it’s easy to use and makes sense I’ll leave this blog in place.
Finally, launching a travel section might seem strange in the current climate. I’d say now is exactly the right time to be launching a travel section. I think we all hope 2021 is going to be better than 2020 and this section allows us to dream of our future travels.
