Pipedown (campaign) - Wikipedia

The Pipedown Campaign for Freedom from Piped Music is a UK-based environmental campaign founded in 1992 by the author and environmentalist Nigel Rodgers that opposes the practice of playing background music (piped music) in public establishments. It has links with the sister group in Germany[1] and other countries. In Scotland there is a sister group Quiet Scotland, so named because the term 'piped music' sounds too similar to 'pipe music' to Scottish ears.

The campaign fights background music in public places such as hospitals, libraries, swimming pools, pubs, shops and restaurants. Its literature[2] describes unwanted piped music, also often called elevator music, 'Muzak' or canned music, as any music piped without pause through a room or building where people have gone for reasons other than to listen to it. It emphasizes that it does not distinguish between different types of music, saying that all music is debased by being used as a marketing tool or acoustic wallpaper.

Pipedown's literature accepts that music when freely chosen is one of life’s greatest pleasures. But it maintains that music when forced on people can too easily become the exact opposite. In support of this view, Pipedown makes the following additional points:

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