Music @ FaceOut Studio
The Dentist’s office is the huge black hole center of the musical galaxy. If you don’t know what I mean, you must have several cavities at this very moment. I give you permission to stop reading this right now, and get yourself checked. When you return, we can start having this conversation…
To return to my point, the music that softly assaults your ears consists entirely of Kenny G, Yanni, Michael Bolton, Amy Grant, and Kenny Chesney. You’re not even sure what you’re hearing (as the volume is turned to “3”) until a famous chorus starts up…and the groaning/drilling begins.
The music scene at our studio is about as far from the dreary dentist’s office as possible. Most of the latest and greatest music I have in my iPod are tunes I’ve heard from other designers in the office. We have a great setup of speakers around our workspace that provide some killer sound. I don’t say this boastingly, as it’s taken several years to get to the level we’re currently at; there are several very good reasons for this:
Good Speakers
Good sound quality is essential to actually wanting to listen to music in your space. At our last building, a lightning storm rendered all the left stereo channels silent, so we were only getting mono sound. Not recommended.
Airtunes Express
We all have the ability to play music directly from our iTunes to the speakers in the studio. All you have to do is click once on the “FaceOut Airtunes” tab, and your music begins blessing everyone around you. If playing the newest song you’ve downloaded isn’t easy or simple to share, you probably won’t. Convenience is King.
Rhapsody
Jason has a membership to this subscription-based music streaming service. This means that he has access to the equivalent of the entire iTunes library—without having to download anything. And, since we have Airtunes Express, we all get to enjoy it. Check out the Rhapsody site to find out more.
Grooveshark
I just recently discovered Grooveshark when a friend showed me on his laptop. It’s amazing; pretty much a music-streaming service like Rhapsody, but without the need to pay; I can get on board with that. Once you create a profile (which is also free), the site lets you create and save playlists you can access from anywhere. Check out Grooveshark here.
Airfoil
Airfoil is a Mac program that lets you play sound from any program on your computer over the Wi-fi network (Airtunes). It’s really easy to use, and lets me use programs like Grooveshark and Rhapsody over the workspace airwaves. You have to pay a small fee for the entire program, but there are free versions. Check it.
I know that everyone can’t perhaps have a huge speaker system in their space, but even using music services like Rhapsody and Grooveshark has added a lot to my design experience; my music never gets boring. Without music, I would die.
If you don’t even have a computer, there’s no reason you can’t enjoy some sweet tunes. Just check out Tim’s iDog!
