Start the Music

The Container Store (Dallas) has announced that it will upgrade its in-store music systems, installing the DMX Axis digital audio and video delivery system. The new system from DMX Music (Los Angeles) will provide continuous, commercial-free digital music to all 22 of the company's stores.

Lucy Witte, Container Store marketing director, said she feels the enhanced music, consistent throughout the chain, “will help reinforce our brand at every location.”

DMX Axis works by tapping into the Internet's data-delivery ability. DMX Axis receivers, containing hundreds of hours of pre-loaded music, are placed in each store. New music titles and playlists are pushed to it automatically through a dial-up modem connection via the Internet from DMX's digital technology center. Through the ability to centrally configure delivery schedules, Axis allows DMX Music to specify the different types of music to be sent to each location and to play a variety of personalized music mixes at pre-designated times.

The Container Store has 22 home-organization stores, mostly in major cities in Texas, Illinois, California, Florida, Colorado, Georgia and New York. The stores carry up to 10,000 items; the company's Elfa brand wire shelving accounts for about one-fifth of sales. The company touts a low employee turnover rate, thanks in part to high wages – and perhaps in part to a bearable in-store music program.

DMX Music is a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Digital, Inc. (Los Angeles), which also has stakes in such firms as ACTV, Alloy Online and MTVi Group. Recently announced plans to merge DMX Music with AEI Music Network (Seattle), the industry's other leading music-delivery system, are apparently progressing, wending their way through financial and legal fine-tuning.