Loud & Clear How technology is changing the way we hear and enjoy sound and music at home.
Technology has radically changed what Australians are listening to and how we’re listening to it. But we’re also embracing sound in a multitude of new and useful ways. Christine Sams tunes in to our rapidly evolving soundscape.
The children in Gary Brown’s home often listen to music via Spotify or watch video clips on YouTube. What’s unusual about this fairly typical scenario is that their entertainment is delivered via the fridge, an internetconnected Samsung ‘Family Hub’, which has a touchscreen, speakers and a raft of apps built in. It should be noted that dad Gary is the brand manager of home appliances for Harvey Norman – it’s his job to be an early adopter of new technologies – but his home life reflects the way many Australian households will consume entertainment in the not-too-distant future. His music-playing fridge is just the latest in a conga line of gadgets that tap into our love and innate need for sound in our lives.
Australians’ love affair with music – and all things soundrelated – is unwavering. And it’s no accident that entertainers such as comedians Hamish Blake and Andy Lee are shifting from traditional radio formats to podcasting. Research released by the ABC last year showed that 89 per cent of Australians are aware of podcasts, while more than half of those surveyed between the ages of 18 to 75 have tried listening to them. (There was a higher level of engagement among 25 to 34 year olds, but 40 per cent of 50 to 75 year olds had given podcasts a go.)
Music downloads, audiobooks and streaming sites are cementing their popularity, too, making it all the more remarkable that digital music downloads were not factored into the ARIA charts until late 2006.
Educational apps that combine auditory and visual learning cues, such as ABC Reading Eggs and Babbel, are exceedingly helpful for picking up and finetuning new language skills. Digital audio technology has benefits in the health space, too. The Sound Scouts app, for example, allows parents to easily assess a child’s hearing at home, and offers guidance if a problem is detected.
For all our love of technology, there has been a noticeable resurgence of interest in vinyl records. Perhaps it serves as
an antidote to the amount of new technology on offer. In truth, the gramophone isn’t that far removed from the latest iPhone, says sound curator Thorsten Kaeding from the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA). “The same concept applied then as it does now: people want to have the latest technology. It’s a status thing.”
“There are still a lot of devoted vinyl listeners, and many CD fans, but sourcing music online is most common these days,” says Len Wallis, owner of Sydney’s Len Wallis Audio. He says the quality of digital audio files, which was shaky in the early days due to the limitations of file-compression technology, has improved to near-CD standard.
According to Thorsten, the biggest difference in the way sound is consumed at home now, compared to a century ago, is that listening to music is generally an individual activity, rather than a shared one. Where families once gathered around the piano for singalongs or near the wireless to listen to radio programs together, now everyone listens to their own podcasts or music on individual devices, segmented within certain areas of the home. It wouldn’t be unheard of for one parent to be immersed in the calming sounds of a mindfulness app downloaded to a tablet while the other streams live sports commentary. At the same time, their school-aged child might have headphones on, listening to the latest hits on their iPod.
The shift towards individual consumption of music within families is also changing the way our homes are shaped and built. Architects are consulting with audio experts to plan acoustically zoned homes. Technicians from audio brands such as Bang & Olufsen can spend months working closely with designers and builders on major projects, fitting homes and apartments with multi-zone audio systems. In the more competitive Sydney and Melbourne real-estate markets, this is often used as a selling point.
“Technology should be seamlessly integrated and easy to use, regardless of the knowledge and ability of the home’s occupants,” says Brian Man, managing director of technology and innovation at Kennedy Luxury Group, the Australian distributor of Bang & Olufsen products. “Customers might want to play music in one place, say an outdoor dining area, that’s different to what’s being played in a teen retreat, so we have to factor that into our multi-room systems,” he says. “The music has to be accessed – and changed – at the touch of a button, too.” Speakers are no longer big black boxes in the corners of a room; tech teams have worked hard to develop sound-delivery solutions that look sleek and can be integrated into the smallest spaces yet produce impressively big, bold sound.
Although individual choice rules the modern music market, the rising popularity of voice-activated devices such as HomePod (Apple), Google Home and Alexa (Amazon) hints at a yearning for the days of more social sound consumption. Their placement in the centre of rooms (like the wirelesses of old) and ease of use – even a four-year-old can request ‘karaoke party’ or ‘Disney favourites’ – increases opportunities for engagement.
No matter how we choose to consume our music, podcasts, audiobooks and apps, Thorsten says the NFSA will keep acquiring audio technology, including iPhones, to document the changing ways in which Australians are consuming sound in their homes. “I suspect the main way people in the western world access music these days is through their smartphones. We do continue to collect other equipment, although we probably won’t start collecting fridges,” he says, laughing.
Christine Sams is an entertainment writer and music lover.