When most people think of the music that tends to accompany shopping, their first association is probably Muzak — and it probably isn’t wholly positive.
“Muzak – bringing bad music to an elevator near you,” Feed.FM CEO Jeff Yasuda noted of Muzak’s long and illustrious reputation.
And while it is easy to write Muzak off as the place one hears all of todays best pop songs – as interpreted by Kenny G – it is also easy to forget two things, Yasuda said. Muzak, as we tend to associate it, is more or less a relic, it was bought out by Mood Media in 2011 for $345 million. Also, Muzak garnered a $345 million price tag for a reason – which is that Muzak got very good at matching the background music to the commerce experience.
“This concept has been around for decades in brick-and-mortar retail – powering music in restaurants and stores. What music makes a customer move an experience faster, what encourages people to stay around and browse, what types of music make people buy more – there is a lot of neurological science behind it.”
And while the concept has been well-established in real-world shopping, Yasuda noted, Feed.FM is focused on bringing the same background music experience to the digital consumer.
“CMOs are spending 300 billion a year – text and blogs, spend on video, spend on video and picture. We think they should be spending on music because the largest age group in the U.S right now are young adults, and they are way over-indexed on music consumption.”
And – he noted, given the share price performance of many of retails bigger players of late – and the increasing atmosphere that its time to do something different or risk not being around to do anything at all – Feed.FM offers brands and merchants an opportunity to try something old – in a new, and more effective way.
Keeping Users Engaged
While all brands are not created equal and all face different challenges, at the end of they day, the common challenge they all face is keeping users engaged. And the online merchant that’s an extension of a brick-and-mortar player has something of an advantage in that arena, in that it can make its engagement much more customized to the individual user.
“In the digital world, we know what songs people like, what they dislike, what they skip, what is playing when conversions are made, and what is playing when people leave the pap. We can use data to create a better consumer experience – and one that the consumer can enjoy simultaneous to a commerce experience because music is the only medium that you can enjoy while you do something else.”
And that, Yasuda notes, allows Feed.FM to helps it partner brands move from curated models of music presentation – where the brand selects the 100 or so songs that represent the customer group – to a personalized model where what the consumer has on in the background reflects the preferences they have actively and passively shown in the past.
“If we feed you a song by a band you don’t like – the user is going to have a lousy experience. My job isn’t to be the purveyor of cool, it is to create an experience for each customer that works for them.”
And what works for one customer won’t work for every customer – there is no one music genre that universally makes customers shop. There are, trends – some bands are what Yasuda called “barbells,” meaning they attract no neutral feelings, consumers either love them or hate them. Then there are artists that don’t quite have the extra-ordinary highs or lows – but manage to generate general enthusiasm.
And, mostly, he notes, it depends on the brand and the shopper. Some brands like edgier music because they market to younger consumers – others, like Toys R Us, aren’t really looking for a lot of edge for any part of their consumer base.
There is, he noted, one exception to the rule of everyone’s individual taste being different.
“Oh my God, Drake. When we put Drake in the playlist, everybody loves Drake. It’s at the point that it is a joke in the industry.”
What’s Next
For Feed.FM, Yasuda noted, the goal is to delight consumers – and make it a lot easier for merchants to delight consumers, too. Music is both a good avenue for that, because of the type of medium it is, and how much data it generates.
It is also good for them, because it allows for a big value-add on the merchant’s end, using copyrighted material on their site without having to directly deal with the copyright holder.
“Music is something we know well. We handle all the licensing complexity and believe me there is a lot. Most marketers and product folks have been smart enough to say that they can’t use music without a license unless they want to have a very painful conversation with a copyright holder.”
And that service – and the access to musical content it provides, Yasuda noted, is useful across a variety of verticals, which is why Feed.FM works with sporting teams like the Golden State Warriors, or fitness clients.
“Which has a commerce element to it because these companies are selling essentially their version for a great workout. And 95 percent of the people that exercise are listening to some form of music.”
The goal is always to keep the user or customer engaged – and music, Yasuda noted, is a very powerful engagement tool. Retail reinvention, he noted, doesn’t always have to be about inventing something new. Sometimes, the goal is to take something that has worked very well in the past – even something as simple as background music – and making it worker better in a different and more digital retail landscape.
What do the movies “Blade Runner,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Back to the Future Part II” and Spike Jonze’s “Her” all have in common?
These science fiction movies, each depicting various versions of a future full of fantastic technologies, all take place in the year 2025 or earlier.
Though some of the high-tech gadgets and futuristic innovations seen in these films, such as hoverboards and flying cars, haven’t quite materialized in everyday life, they have sparked imagination and set the stage for the very real innovations. As the dozens of groundbreaking products and wacky gadgets that debuted at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week reveal, the future is certainly now.
CES, after all, rarely disappoints when it comes to providing a first-look at some truly strange gadgets that might just represent the ultimate showcase of tomorrow’s technology.
From artificial intelligence (AI) being embedded into everything and smarter than ever home devices, to autonomous robotic companions and wearable tech that both bends and blends reality, many of the inventions that once seemed out of reach in Hollywood films are now being unveiled on the convention floor.
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It’s becoming clear that today’s technological advancements are increasingly bridging the gap between what was once imagined and what’s now becoming real.
For example, smart home robots are no longer a futuristic fantasy — they are being positioned as potentially indispensable components of modern households.
CES 2025 saw the debut of the Roborock Saros Z70, a robot vacuum with a telescopic, five-axis arm. Rosey the Robot from “The Jetsons” has nothing on this little gadget, which its maker describes as “a mechanical arm that sees and thinks,” and is able to pick up and put away items like socks, shoes, tissues and more.
For more serious household tasks, the SwitchBot Multitasking Household Robot K20+ Pro was also unveiled at CES 2025. “Whether it’s delivering objects, vacuuming, monitoring pets, purifying the air, providing home security, or even mobilizing smart tablets, the K20+ Pro juggles household management with ease … from delivering food and drinks to carrying small packages,” said a company release.
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The K20+ Pro’s core is designed for customization and flexibility, serving as a modular foundation that allows users to create, adapt, and personalize the robot for a wide variety of innovative applications, and can connect with third-party smart devices like Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri, ensuring integration into any smart home ecosystem.
Elsewhere, TCL premiered its “AI Me” (Amy) concept companion robot, complete with animated eyes, autonomous movement and an AI-powered camera on its head; while Dreame showcased its X50 Ultra robot vacuum that has legs to avoid obstacles.
As smart home technology continues to evolve, the integration of robots designed to assist in daily activities could significantly alter how we interact with our homes, manage tasks and even shape the future of work.
TomBot, for example, debuted an emotional robotic lap dog, Jennie, an AI robot therapy dog designed to keep seniors company. On the more playful side of things, Tokyo robotics startup Yukai Engineering introduced the Nékojita FuFu, a portable cat-shaped robot that can blow air to cool hot food or drinks.
It wasn’t solely robotics for use at home being showcased at CES. John Deere used the Las Vegas event to reveal its own autonomous agricultural products. The fully autonomous machines were on display from Jan. 7 to 10, and were a bit bigger in size, if equivalently less cute, than the TomBot puppies.
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Behind the strangely futuristic convenience of a robot picking up your laundry and taking out the trash while it vacuums and interfaces with the rest of your household appliances lies a much larger story: the rise of the smart economy.
As CES 2025 showed, augmented reality (AR) glasses are the eye candy of the smart economy. A host of futuristic specs were unveiled, capable of a range of tasks that turn the wearer into a high-tech superhero.
Halliday showcased “the world’s first proactive AI glasses with invisible display,” while freshly debuted Loomos.AI glasses offer a ChatGPT-4o integrated AI assistant.
But other appendages remain up for grabs, and innovative products from smart rings to apps like WowMouse, which allows smartwatch wearers to control devices using just their gestures and fingers, are vying for market share in ways that aim to make daily life more convenient, efficient and secure.