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Muzak is a brand of background music delivered to retail stores and other establishments. The former company that marketed the brand was Muzak Holdings, which itself was often simply referred to as Muzak. Mood Media purchased Muzak Holdings for US$345 million in 2011, including $305 million in cash. ==History== The word "Muzak" has been a registered trademark since 21.12.1954 of Muzak LLC, although it dominated the market for so many years that the term is often used (especially when used with lowercase spelling) as a generic term for all background music. In 1981, Westinghouse bought the company and ran it until selling it to the Fields Company of Chicago, publishers of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', on September 8, 1986.〔 Inventor Major General George Owen Squier, credited with inventing telephone carrier multiplexing in 1910, developed the original technical basis for Muzak. In the early 1920s, he was granted several further US patents related to transmission of information signals, among them a system for the transmission and distribution of signals over electrical lines. Squier recognized the potential for this technology to be used to deliver music to listeners without the use of radio, which at the time was in early state and required fussy and expensive equipment. Early successful tests were performed, delivering music to customers on New York's Staten Island via their electrical wires. In 1922, the rights to Squier's patents were acquired by the North American Company utility conglomerate, which created a company named Wired Radio Inc. to deliver music to their customers, charging them for music right on their electric bill.〔 By the 1930s, however, radio had made great advances, and households began listening to broadcasts picked up through the airwaves for free, supported by advertising. Squier remained involved in the project, but as the home market became eclipsed by radio in 1934 he changed the direction of the company to deliver music to commercial clients. He was intrigued by the made-up word ''Kodak'' being used as a trademark and so took the first syllable from "music" and added the "''ak''" from "''Kodak''" to create the name ''Muzak'' which became the new name of the company. In 1937, the Muzak division was purchased from the North American Company by Warner Brothers, which expanded it into other cities. It was bought by entrepreneur William Benton. While Muzak had initially produced tens of thousands of original artist recordings by the top performers of the late-30s and 1940s, their new strategy required a different sound. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Muzak (brand)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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