Music

Free music & e-books at Toronto Pearson Int’l Airport

Entertainment, , ,

American Express - Entertainment on Cloud 10

There are some fresh new perks for travelers who touch down at Toronto Pearson International Airport:

In addition to a “re-vesting” area (Milwaukee’s Mitchell Airport calls theirs a ‘recombobulation area’) just past the security checkpoint for domestic departures in Terminal 1, passengers at Toronto Pearson Airport now have access to a selection of complimentary ebooks from HarperCollins Canada and music from Sony Music Canada.

The books and music will be refreshed monthly and are available on the Cloud 10 website, which is accessible via the airport’s free Wi-Fi network – all courtesy of American Express Canada.

The perks at Pearson get better if you have certain American Express cards (Platinum, Gold Rewards, etc.)

Everyone gets free Wi-Fi and access to that re-vesting area, but other benefits include access to priority security lanes, Plaza Premium Lounge access, access to a priority lane for taxis and limos, complimentary valet service and discounts on parking and car care services.

(This chart shows which cards get you which benefits.)

This airport also offers some other worthwhile services and amenities:

The Samsonite shop not only sells luggage and travel accessories, but will store luggage and other things, including coats – which you can leave behind for $2 a day (or $9 a week).

And this past year the airport replaced 3,600 pay-per-use baggage carts with 5,000 free ones.

Happy Birthday Austin-Bergstrom International Airport

Airports, Free Stuff, Holidays, , ,

AUS_Guitar

I admit it.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Maybe it’s because our birthdays are just one day apart.

Or maybe it’s because this was the first airport I visited right after my first book about airports – called what else but Stuck at the Airport – came out in the pre-9/11 summer and AUS was the first airport where I spotted the book on a store shelf.

Or maybe it’s just because, with almost two dozen live music performances a week and some great permanent and temporary art exhibits, including the ‘big hair’ etchings in the women’s bathrooms, the airport is so much fun to visit.

And, oh yeah, it’s in Austin. One hip, somewhat weird, city.

So, I’m sending Happy Birthday wishes to the airport, which is celebrating its 15th birthday on May 23 with cookies for passengers, a drawing for 15,000 airline miles and a special performance by Ray Benson, of Aleep at the Wheel, on Friday at 2:30 pm at the airport’s Asleep at the Wheel stage.

You don’t need to be there to be entered in the drawing for 15,000 airline miles (there will be two winners.) But you do need to enroll in the Thanks Again, customer rewards program by Thursday, May 22, 2014. Do it now.

Austin_Keep Austin Weird

Sub Pop music store opens at Sea-Tac Airport

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SubPOP Mega Mart ad courtesy EMP

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport’s “Experience the City of Music” program includes live performances, overhead music and announcements by Northwest artists, videos, a web radio player and music–themed art exhibits.

Now there’s even more music: the first retail store for Sub Pop Records – the Seattle record label founded in 1988 that helped promote Nirvana and grunge music – has opened at Sea-Tac Airport.

The shop is located in the Central Terminal and features vinyl albums, CDs, sweatshirts, t-shirts, books, hats, art and more.

sub pop

Airplane-shaped piano at Pittsburgh Int’l Airport

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Chicago’s O’Hare and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International are among the airports with piano bars on-site. But through the first week in January 2014, travelers passing through Pittsburgh International Airport will hear tunes played on this airplane-shaped piano:

PIT Airplane Piano

The airplane piano is 13 feet 6 inches long and is valued at $160,000. It was created by Story & Clark/QRS Music Technologies in Seneca, Pa. and an Italian design firm and is controlled via an iPhone or iPad app and plays from a catalog of more than 6,000 songs.

The piano can also be played the old-fashioned way: by people. And it will used during live performances and during the airport’s holiday choral and concert series featuring local schools.

Look and listen for the piano on the Ticketing Level, Landside Terminal, near the US Airways ticket counter through the first week of January.

Holiday events at airports

Airports, Entertainment, ,

Many airports are rolling out their holiday entertainment schedules this week, so beware of elves when you head out for your next trip.

Here’s a sampling of what’s in store.

Music of all sorts – from student choirs to professional carolers and combos will be on duty in airports in Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Austin, Reno, Washington, D.C. and many other airports.

At the Reno-Tahoe International Airport, the food class from a local school is once again displaying gingerbread houses in the main lobby and asking passengers to “vote” for their favorite creation by dropping money in the appropriate slot. Funds raised go to a local charity and this year the funds will go to the Nevada Humane Society.


In Oregon, the annual Holidays Take Flight celebration is underway at Portland International Airport, with live entertainment, food and beverage sampling in many shops, and the opportunity to enter a contest to win a $1,000 Alaska Airlines travel certificate for travel from PDX.

From December 15th through the 24th, travelers passing through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) will find carolers, elves, Frosty the Snowman, a comedy stilt walker, jugglers, a one-man band and other musicians roving the terminals and the concourses.

At Detroit Metro Airport (DTW) the fourth-annual Sing Because You Care karaoke event to benefit the local Salvation Army is scheduled for December 19 to the 22nd near the Water Feature in the Center of Concourse A. Passengers can cut their own Motown single (and entertain other passengers) with a $5 donation.

And from Friday December 7 through Monday December 10th, Miami International Airport (MIA) is hosting a wide variety of free holiday activities ranging from pictures with Santa and a chance to mingle with elves, to a craft table for kids, a North Pole mailbox, giveaways and music.

More holiday events at airports tomorrow…

 

 

Emirates invites musicians to finish a campaign song

Music,

If you play an instrument or can hum a tune, you might enjoy Emirates’ new Harmony campaign , which lets you add a track to an almost-finished musical composition.

You choose three ‘bandmates’ from a pool of musicians playing harp, Taiko drum, bass guitar, saxophone, Shekere, Oudht and Indian Flute, and record yourself playing along on video or audio. If you like what you’ve created, you can upload your files to the campaign website.

Airports tuning up their soundtracks

Airports, Music, ,

 

Next time you go to the airport, listen up.

Those scolding overhead announcements outlining the dos and don’ts at the security checkpoints may be tune-outs, but for my At the Airport column this month for USATODAY.com, I discovered that some airports offer travelers toe-tapping reasons to tune-in.

Blues and more in Chicago 

Since 2008, the Terminal Tunes program has been offering a wide range of jazz, blues, folk and other genres of recorded music by local artists on the overhead sound system at Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports.

Like what you hear? The playlist is searchable online by terminal, month, day and time and currently includes everything from boogie-woogie piano tunes by the legendary Roosevelt Sykes to a polka played by the Northside Southpaws, a modern-day, left-handed mandolin/guitar duo that performs obsolete ragtime and obscure string-band music.

“Chicago is a world-class music city,” said Gregg Cunningham, special projects coordinator for the Chicago Department of Aviation. “But more than 50% of travelers at O’Hare are connecting passengers who never leave the airport. So we look to provide experiences at the airports that reflect our great city.”

Austin atmosphere 

In between the 15 live music performances that take place weekly at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, travelers hear a 24-hour soundtrack of recorded local music drawn from a 2,400-song playlist.

“We add songs frequently to keep the mix fresh and current,” says airport music coordinator Nancy Coplin. The playlist isn’t posted or streamed on the airport’s website just yet, but if someone wants to know more about a song they’ve heard at the airport Coplin is more than happy to look it up. “It happens quite frequently,” she said.

Seattle signs on 

It was the Austin airport that inspired the airport-wide local music initiative rolled out at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in January, 2012.

James Keblas, Seattle’s Director of Film and Music and Seattle Port Commissioner John Creighton flew to Austin in 2008 for a meeting. “When we got off the plane, we noticed how much stuff there was at the airport representing the music culture of Austin,” said Keblas. “And we both realized that Seattle, which is also known for its music scene, should be doing this too.”

It took a while for Sea-Tac’s music program to take shape, but eventually PlayNetwork, a Redmond, Wash.-based company that curates music for Starbucks and thousands of other businesses, stepped in to work on the project, pro bono, with the airport, the Seattle Music Commission and other local groups.

The soundtrack created for the airport includes music by Northwest artists spanning multiple decades and genres – everything from pop, rock and folk to urban, jazz, blues and electronic music – and features artists such as The Posies, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Heart, Alice in Chains, Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, the Dave Mathews Band, Jimi Hendrix  and Kenny G .

“The final playlist was carefully crafted to ensure we have the right genre and energy level playing during the day,” said Nadine Zgonc, PlayNetwork’s vice-president of client management. “So there’s more chilled-out music in the early morning and a little more up-tempo and jammin’ music as the day goes on.” The music is turned off completely overnight.

In addition to the airport soundtrack, PlayNetwork created short music videos for the terminal monitors and a multichannel music player available at the airport on the free Wi-Fi, on the airport’s website and through Android and iPhone apps.

Music and messages 

Sea-Tac’s new soundtrack also extends to the welcome and safety messages heard inside the airport, with many notable Northwest musicians, including Sir Mix-a-Lot  and Chris Ballew, of the Presidents of the United States of America , voicing short announcements.

Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains  reminds travelers that smoking is only allowed outside the building, adding a sympathetic “Bummer, dude” at the end of his recorded message. John Popper  of Blues Traveler  squeezes a little harmonica-playing into his message welcoming travelers to Seattle and urging everyone to “rock out, man. But don’t forget your flight.” And rapper Macklemore  plays it straight, welcoming passengers to one of the world’s greenest airports and encouraging them to check out the free Wi-Fi, “Where you can listen to some great music created by Pacific Northwest artists.”

Several other airports around the country also use local celebrities in airport messaging.

At McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, videos dating back to 2004 and 2005 feature Las Vegas performers such as Wayne Newton, Rita Rudner, the Blue Man Group  and Carrot Top  offering tips for going through the security checkpoint.

At Nashville International Airport, Darius Rucker, Phil Vassar, George Strait  and Lady Antebellum  are among the country music stars that have recorded what airport spokesperson Emily Richard describes as “fun and quirky messages.” Andy Williams , Clay Cooper and many other entertainers have voiced parking, welcome and other helpful messages (along with promos for their shows) for Missouri’s Branson Airport.

And at Glacier Park International Airport in Montana, travelers waiting in line at the security checkpoint are entertained by a video by the local band, the Singing Sons of Beaches, crooning the TSA’s carry-on rules to a jaunty calypso beat.

SXSW bound? The fun starts at the Austin airport

Music, , ,

Going to the South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival?

Lucky you!

If you’re flying to Austin, make sure to listen up when you get to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.  As in past years, the SXSW music festival begins as soon as you walk off the plane with the first sanctioned SXSW performances of the music conference.


(Carolyn Wonderland. Photo courtesy Austin-Bergstrom Int’l Airport)

During SXSW, the airport’s unique live music offerings expand from 15 regular shows a week to a total of 27 performances from March 12-19.

Beyond the center stage at Ray Benson’s Roadside, The Saxon Pub, Lefty’s, Earl Campbell’s Sports Bar, and Austin City Limits/Waterloo Records & Video are all hosting extra shows for arriving and departing SXSW attendees.

The 13thAnnual SXSW Airport Showcase kicks off on the stage at Ray Benson’s Roadhouse on  Monday, March 12 with the band MilkDrive (alternative folk strings) from 1-3 p.m. Warren Hood follows with acoustic Americana from 3:30-5:30 p.m.

You can see the full line-up here. 

Monday, March 19 is the SXSW send-off, with Austin blues rocker Carolyn Wonderland performing at the airport from 1-3 p.m. followed by Nano Whitman (folk pop) from 3:30-5:30 p.m.

Enjoy!

 

 

More ‘plane fun’ at Philadelphia Airport

Entertainment, Events, Music,

The Philadelphia International Airport is having a summer-long customer appreciation festival.

Throughout the summer, passengers can hang out in the Chillin’ Zone by Gate D-4 –

And each week there’s a fresh line-up of events. Here’s what coming up next.

On Friday, July 29, Swing Shift will be strolling through the airport playing Dixieland, blues and swing from 3:30p pm to 5:30 pm.

On Monday, mascots from McDonald’s and Jamba Juice will be wandering the airport handing out treat coupons from 11 am until 1 pm.

On Tuesday, August 2, its doo-wop music by Memory Lane from 2:30 pm until 4:30 pm, and  on Wednesday, August 3 travelers can stop by the Terminal B/C food court stage between 3 pm and 5 pm for beauty makeovers from The Body Shop.

On Thursday, August 4, the PGA Tour Shop will be hosting a putting competition from 4 pm to 5 pm at the Terminal B/C Food Court Stage and on Friday, August 5 the Paula Jazz Quartet
takes the Terminal B/C Food Court Stage from 3:30 to 5:30 pm.

SXSW at Austin-Bergstrom Int’l Airport

Airports, Entertainment, Music, , ,

The SXSW music and film extravaganza is taking place all over Austin right now – and that includes out at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

The airport’s regular live music series takes place on a center stage (Ray Benson’s Roadhouse) and four other venues inside the terminal: The Saxon, Lefty’s, Earl Campbell’s Sports Bar and Austin City Limits/Waterloo Records & Video. Usually there are 13 shows a week, but through March 21, in honor of SXSW, the schedule expands to a total of 23 performances.

All free. All great. And all post-security.

Here’s a link to the full schedule of SXSW performances at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, including the final SXSW-related event, which will take place Monday, March 21 with Austin Jazz original Elias Haslanger (1-3 p.m) and Ty Mayfield (3:30-5:30 p.m).

Enjoy!