Airports invite live musicians, spotlight local artists in bid to lighten travelers’ moods

Background music is no longer an afterthought at many airports, which employ local musicians and carefully curate playlists to help lighten travelers’ moods.

London’s Heathrow Airport built a stage to showcase emerging British performers for the first time this summer. The program was so successful that the airport hopes to bring it back in 2025.

Nashville International Airport has five stages that host more than 800 shows a year, from country musicians to jazz combos. In the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana International Airport greets passengers with live merengue music.

Tiffany Idiart and her two granddaughters enjoyed listening to musicians during a recent layover at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

“I like it. There’s a lot of people here and everybody can hear it,” said Grace Idiart, 9. “If their flight was delayed or something like that, they could have a rough day. And so the music could have made them feel better.”

Airports are also carefully curating their recorded playlists. Detroit Metro Airport plays Motown hits in a tunnel connecting its terminals. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas has a playlist of local artists compiled by an area radio station. Singapore’s Changi Airport commissioned a special piano accompaniment for its giant digital waterfall.

Music is not a new phenomenon in airport terminals. Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, an album released in 1978, helped define the ambient music genre. It’s minimalistic and designed to be quiet.

But Barry McPhillips, head of international creative for Mood Media, which provides music for airports and other public spaces, said technology is enabling background music to be less generic and more tailored to specific locations or times of day. .

Mood Media – formerly known as Muzak – develops playlists to appeal to business travelers or families depending on who’s in the airport at any given time. It can program quieter music in the security line, but something more energetic in the duty-free shop.

“We see it as a soundscape,” McPhillips said. “We design for all these moments.”

There’s a science to Mood Music’s decisions about volume, tempo and even whether to play a song in a major versus a minor key, he added.

“How do we want to affect their mood at that moment? said McPhillips. “It’s not just like, ‘Here’s a load of songs.’ It’s a load of songs for that 10-minute segment and then we move on to the next 10 minutes.”

At the same time, many airports are going low-tech, hiring local musicians to serenade travelers and give them a sense of the country they’re passing through.

Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports host more than 100 live shows each year. Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport started a live music program five years ago and now has two stages featuring local artists.

Tami Kuiken, Seattle’s airport music manager, said Seattle-Tacoma Airport started its live music program about a decade ago after a city commissioner heard live music at the airport in Austin, Texas.

“The idea was like, ‘Man, why doesn’t Seattle have music? We’re also a music city,” Kuiken said.

At first, the airport created a playlist that included up-and-coming artists alongside big names like Pearl Jam. Then he decided to try live musicians for a 12-week trial. It was so successful that the airport now features live musicians every day and is building new performance spaces.

“People’s anxiety levels are very high when they travel,” Kuiken said. “The response we started getting was that once they went through the checkpoint and were greeted with music, their anxiety and stress levels suddenly dropped.”

The programs also benefit musicians, who are paid to perform and gain wider exposure. When the Colorado Springs Airport announced a live music program in March, more than 150 musicians applied. It now hosts two two-hour shows every week.

David James, a singer and guitarist who plays at the Seattle airport about once a week, said waking up in time for a daytime concert required some adjustments. But he has gained new fans from all over the world.

“I get really sweet responses from people all the time, saying, ‘It was so relaxing to be able to sit and listen to music between flights,'” James said. “So it feels like it’s especially therapeutic for people.”

Country stars like Blake Shelton and Keith Urban have come through the Nashville airport and interacted with local musicians, said Stacey Nickens, the airport’s vice president of communications and marketing. Shelton even gave one his guitar.

Otto Stuparitz, a musicologist and lecturer at the University of Amsterdam who has studied airport music, said airports should think carefully about their choices. Music that’s meant to be actively listened to — like live music or catchy pop songs — can be too distracting in an already chaotic environment, he said. He has noticed that some airports – especially in Europe – turn off piped tunes altogether.

But McPhillips said large spaces like airports can feel cold and unwelcoming without background music.

“A well-crafted audio strategy is one that people aren’t particularly aware of,” he said. “They just know they’re having a good time and it’s appropriate.”