Swedish company exclusively uses Barix to enhance the shopping experience through the power of music

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, March 5, 2012 — Barix is exclusively providing IP audio decoding solutions to Music in Brands for the delivery of unique music programming to retail stories and other public areas. The company uses Barix for both direct audio streaming and store-and-forward solutions in businesses around Sweden, providing flexible, low-cost playout solutions for in-store campaigns.

Based in Stockholm, Music in Brands creates musical identities for brands through audio, designing specialty programs that match the business and its customers. The company produces a custom radio station for each business, building unique playlists that update regularly to keep programming fresh and store environments lively.

“Music is a very important piece of the shopper experience, and we want to play music that matches the environment without repeating the same songs over and over,” said Anders Svensson, president of Music in Brands. “There is a lot of psychology involved because customers can shop elsewhere if they don’t like the music. We operate similarly to a radio station to improve the atmosphere. This results in increased loyalty, more committed personnel and increased buying behavior.”

Svensson points to several customers currently using Music in Brands audio branding with Barix in-store technology, including Swedish automobile manufacturer Volvo; telecom companies Telenor and 3; retail businesses JC and Polarn O. Pyret; and the Scandic Hotels chain. Barix Exstreamer IP audio decoders reliably receive and play out high-quality audio at multiple locations for these businesses, while minimizing expenses through low device cost and simple installation. Svensson and his team configure the devices and ship them to the store locations, where employees typically install the devices themselves.

Locations with plenty of network bandwidth receive continuous, high-quality AACplus audio streams, while those with stricter bandwidth limitations — like JC and Polarn O. Pyret — use Barix’s store-and-forward capability to download the streams to the devices for MP3 audio playout.

For Scandic Hotels, Music in Brands produces five music channels streamed simultaneously to the hotel. Staff can choose jazz music in the bar or easy-listening in the lounge using the Barix channel selector function. Svensson has found the Barix Exstreamer 200, featuring a built-in amplifier (2x25W), especially helpful in smaller stores such as those operated by Telenor and 3.

“We have mostly used Exstreamer 100s to this point, but the Exstreamer 200 is a very cost-effective and space-saving solution for small shops,” said Svensson. “We can provide an entire solution with an Exstreamer 200 and a few speakers, with Barix providing the IP receiver and amplifier in one device.”

Svensson also noted the importance of Barix’s open-source software, which allowed him to freely build a custom monitoring program to access information from every device in the network. “Barix takes care of all the in-store playout needs while allowing us to see everything that is happening across the network,” said Svensson. “They were clearly the best choice for cost, flexibility, audio quality and reliability.”