Not a Kroger employee, but I work at Stop & Shop which also has the InStore Audio Network and I have a Spotify playlist going with over 800 songs that I've heard played at my store if anyone's interested.

I've been hearing a lot of some cover of "New York State of Mind".

Except, I don't even know that means.  What is a "New York State of Mind"?  Sheer unadulterated hostility?

I mean, I can get behind that.  I fantasize all day about telling customers off.

One of my coworkers is a Puerto Rican Jewish-Italian grandmother from the Bronx.  She has a relatively complex identity, as she's a compulsive liar and I suspect she may never have been to New York. 

I've been meaning to ask her what she thinks a "New York State of Mind" is.  It should at least be entertaining.

Anonymous wrote:

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I've been hearing a lot of some cover of "New York State of Mind".

Except, I don't even know that means.  What is a "New York State of Mind"?  Sheer unadulterated hostility?

I mean, I can get behind that.  I fantasize all day about telling customers off.

One of my coworkers is a Puerto Rican Jewish-Italian grandmother from the Bronx.  She has a relatively complex identity, as she's a compulsive liar and I suspect she may never have been to New York. 

I've been meaning to ask her what she thinks a "New York State of Mind" is.  It should at least be entertaining.

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 It's Lea Michele's version from "Glee"...

Zook wrote:

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Here's that mystery song no one has been able to find for 4 years:

soundcloud.com/zook85/mystery-song/s-B2Xvn

... Still a mystery, but there's audio!

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 Thank you for posting. That is a PERFECT example of the dumb stupid modern music that "In Store Audio Network" likes to force-feed Kroger, Meijer, (and many other store) employees and our customers.  The girl's voice (whoever she is.........who cares?) has NOTHING particularly unique, unusual, interesting, catchy, noteworthy or talent-laden about it. Sounds  like a hundred other 20-something girl singers who sing with that same cookie-cutter boring sameness.

Medium to fairly high voice, maybe considered a Mezzo? Not quite true soprano.   Her voice has obviously been "fed" through the Autotune computer program which is why so much of this crap all ends up sounding alike now, especially since the late 1990s / early 2000s. 

BUT....... The lyrics are UNFORGETTABLE and SO  MEMORABLE!!!! Be prepared to swoon:   Oh, oh, oh, wooah, oh!! OH Oh OH OH OH OH, oh OH OH OH oh o oh! Wooah OH OH, OH, oh, oh OH!!!!!   

Our music system went down for a few days.

It was absolutely wonderful.  It was just so quiet and peaceful in the evenings.

They'll fix that in a few days, sure, but everything else gets to stay broken for years.

Heard a new one the other day that was jammin but can't find anything on it.

Female singer pop song... included lyrics "So like you, locked in my youth"

Hello!

Im a production assistant at Reply All, a narrative tech podcast (more info on the show at the bottom of this message).

I'm reaching out to you because were currently working on a fun, music story, and I'm wondering if any of you or people you work with have ever heard these songs at Kroger:

1. Rebekah's Song by Cassie Boettcher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rhhiE1AGfU

2. Hide It Away by Cusacks Well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr7iFdQDvSw&list=PLPu88bS-HzO_n7zyDTGSE0xsAfJ4jROdV&index=47

3. It's Time Somebody Pays by The Conniption Fits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q34Ttg_x344&list=PLPu88bS-HzO_n7zyDTGSE0xsAfJ4jROdV&index=39

4. Incandescent World by Birds of New York: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYNnXatvn24

If so, I'd love to hear from you! Please email me directly at raproducer@spotify.com. Thank you!

Some background on our show: Reply All is a narrative audio show hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman about people and how our lives are shaped by technology. The podcast gets about five million listens every month, and our work has been featured on This American Life and Radiolab. The show is produced by Gimlet Media.

Theres a song Ive hear a lot, but when I google the part I know the Right song never comes up! Its like really upbeat and go Ill climb the Highest mountain, Ill swim (or sail) (i cant tell) across the sea waiting for you I would do anyyything someone please help!!!

Anonymous wrote:

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My store has been playing the same music for months on end.

I got all excited when I thought I heard a new song one day.  Turned out it was an ad.

At one time, the Cultural Council accepted requests for stations.

Now they claim the store has no control over what plays.  Hmm.

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 Its funny how the Cultural Council believed they could have really changed this.  While the Cultural Council is a good idea, in reality they have no control over anything and are not given any budget to do anything.  It really is just a group of associates that the company uses to allow the appearance of associates controlling something.  

Hell, I'm really surprised some songs are allowed to be played.  If you actually listen to some of the songs words, they have violence or negative undertones in a "upbeat" song.  

Anonymous wrote:

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Reply All Producer wrote:

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Hello!

Im a production assistant at Reply All, a narrative tech podcast (more info on the show at the bottom of this message).

I'm reaching out to you because were currently working on a fun, music story, and I'm wondering if any of you or people you work with have ever heard these songs at Kroger:

1. Rebekah's Song by Cassie Boettcher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rhhiE1AGfU

2. Hide It Away by Cusacks Well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr7iFdQDvSw&list=PLPu88bS-HzO_n7zyDTGSE0xsAfJ4jROdV&index=47

3. It's Time Somebody Pays by The Conniption Fits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q34Ttg_x344&list=PLPu88bS-HzO_n7zyDTGSE0xsAfJ4jROdV&index=39

4. Incandescent World by Birds of New York: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYNnXatvn24

If so, I'd love to hear from you! Please email me directly at raproducer@spotify.com. Thank you!

Some background on our show: Reply All is a narrative audio show hosted by PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman about people and how our lives are shaped by technology. The podcast gets about five million listens every month, and our work has been featured on This American Life and Radiolab. The show is produced by Gimlet Media.

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 Good luck on your project.  You might be interested to know that the majority of Kroger employees loathe the music service that force-feeds us their noise pollution (er...music selection) 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (unless we get really lucky and there is some kind of malfunction with the In Store Audio Network feed, or an intercom outage! )     High Repetition  +  Limited selection = Chronic Audio Torture.  

Our "favorite" songs include Manic Monday,  Man in the Mirror (I hate that song.....it sounds like "Man in the Middle"), Afternoon Delight, and the very "best" crapsong of all: The Best of Intentions (read the comments from Kroger and other employees there) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10tBCd8jqc4

My Acme has not played Best of Intentions in a couple years after playing it constantly. Man In the Mirror they play the Cover, not the Michael Jackson Original. Too Many cover versions are being played, like Uptown Girl that sounds like from a country group & not Billy Joel, Crush on You (it doesn't sound like the Jets to me, it's sounds more like ISAN favorite band Haim even though it's not) & Don't Dream It's Over that musically tries to sound like Crowded house but the way the guys sing it, is closer to Sixpence None The Richer's cover.

 

The only pluses recently is playing "Can You Stand the Rain" by New Edition once in a while, Footloose by Kenny Loggins, Everybody Wants to Rule The World by Tears For Fears, Night & Day by Al B Sure & Land of Confusion by Genesis. But they play "Brand New Lover" by Dead or Alive way too much, good song but should not be played TWICE in a 5 hour span & I even tweeted about how I wished they'd play "You spin me round" as well & Acme actually responded so hopefully that could find it's way into the rotation, hasn't happened yet though.

Anonymous wrote:

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I heard Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" today...Kinda describes EVERYTHING these days, doesn't it???

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 I remember when i was working for A&P they used to play the full version of that song & not the radio edit. Same with "Love Shack" 

herbert wrote:

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I've worked at a couple different stores and found that they had totally different music playing at the store. I know there are different "stations" that they can play but the 2nd store I worked at had only a small array of music meaning that you heard the same handful of songs everyday.  It was weird, they played a lot of pop music from 2 or 3 years before.  Ashlee Simpson, Bo Bice, Clay Aiken, Rob Thomas, etc.  After about 2-3 days of working that store you knew every song word for word.

At my regular store there are many many more songs.  They play a few good 90's songs (from goo goo dolls,  fastball, greenday, etc) but it's mostly crappy versions of songs that I would really like if it had been the original artist....they'll play a lot of pop or rock versions whereas the country versions are better but hey that's just my opinion.  The only 3 country songs they do play are songs that you'd hear on light rock stations (songs by Jessica Andrews, Shania Twain, etc). 

There are also a lot of songs that they used to play that were awesome that they just don't play anymoreBon Jovi's "Livin On a Prayer" for instance. 

Recently however our store began playing a bunch of tv theme songs as well as decent newer songs from Plain White Tees,  Jordin Sparks,  Leona Lewis, etc.  It was awesome for about a week then BAM gone forever.  feels bad man.

Now we're back to the same old crappy pop from the likes of
Eiffel 65
Backstreet Boys
BB Mak
N'Sync
Michael McDonald
Brittney Spears


what's your stores music like?

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 In your store's communications room one of the servers/receiver boxes controls the music in store.  Volume can be raised or lowered and channel can be changed.  I don't know how many channels can be accessed but I assume they have different music formats similar to Sirius.  They keep it on a station dedicated to store muzak type (songs without offensive lyrics, songs not too metal, hip/hop, hardcore, twangy country, etc).  Some songs I guess they cant get the rights to play it so they play a remade horrible new version of a classic song.  It ends up being a repetition of the same 40 or so songs day to day hour after hour week to week, month to month and for an 8 hour employee it gets really old.  From what I understand nobody, not even the store manager, is supposed to change the station they have it preset to.  They can adjust the volume.  Store manager acts like it is a firing offense if you mess with it.  Only salaried managers had access to the com room at the store I worked at. 

I don't know if this applies to Acme/Albertson's. All I know is that I haven't heard an "InStoreAudio Network" promo recently. The ads are PSAs for wearing masks or social distancing. Or Duracell or Forever Stamps & Department promos (Deli, Meat, Bakery Pharmacy etc) There's been a few new songs in like Eddie Murphy's "Party all the Time", Mary Jane Girls "My House" Bobby Brown "My Prerogative" and some being phased out like the 2 Haim songs are not played as much anymore. But yet "Silent Running" is still here smdh

Kroger-Employee wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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herbert wrote:

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I've worked at a couple different stores and found that they had totally different music playing at the store. I know there are different "stations" that they can play but the 2nd store I worked at had only a small array of music meaning that you heard the same handful of songs everyday.  It was weird, they played a lot of pop music from 2 or 3 years before.  Ashlee Simpson, Bo Bice, Clay Aiken, Rob Thomas, etc.  After about 2-3 days of working that store you knew every song word for word.

At my regular store there are many many more songs.  They play a few good 90's songs (from goo goo dolls,  fastball, greenday, etc) but it's mostly crappy versions of songs that I would really like if it had been the original artist....they'll play a lot of pop or rock versions whereas the country versions are better but hey that's just my opinion.  The only 3 country songs they do play are songs that you'd hear on light rock stations (songs by Jessica Andrews, Shania Twain, etc). 

There are also a lot of songs that they used to play that were awesome that they just don't play anymoreBon Jovi's "Livin On a Prayer" for instance. 

Recently however our store began playing a bunch of tv theme songs as well as decent newer songs from Plain White Tees,  Jordin Sparks,  Leona Lewis, etc.  It was awesome for about a week then BAM gone forever.  feels bad man.

Now we're back to the same old crappy pop from the likes of
Eiffel 65
Backstreet Boys
BB Mak
N'Sync
Michael McDonald
Brittney Spears


what's your stores music like?

---

 In your store's communications room one of the servers/receiver boxes controls the music in store.  Volume can be raised or lowered and channel can be changed.  I don't know how many channels can be accessed but I assume they have different music formats similar to Sirius.  They keep it on a station dedicated to store muzak type (songs without offensive lyrics, songs not too metal, hip/hop, hardcore, twangy country, etc).  Some songs I guess they cant get the rights to play it so they play a remade horrible new version of a classic song.  It ends up being a repetition of the same 40 or so songs day to day hour after hour week to week, month to month and for an 8 hour employee it gets really old.  From what I understand nobody, not even the store manager, is supposed to change the station they have it preset to.  They can adjust the volume.  Store manager acts like it is a firing offense if you mess with it.  Only salaried managers had access to the com room at the store I worked at. 

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 None of the information in the post above, as far as I can tell, is accurate anymore.  Since Vibenomics took over on July 20, 2020, all Kroger stores play their specific playlist of songs.  No (or very little) variations from store to store, and nothing can be done by any managers. Worst of all, most songs will be suddenly interrupted, sometimes twice within the same song, for a commercial announcement, or a reminder to wear masks, clean your work station, or do some conditioning.    If this is NOT true at your store, please let us know.  And tell us the state you are located. 

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i386 wrote:

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They used to play this song same time everyday.

 

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 Fitting tune for a racist

UGH Vibenomics! Since the switch-over all music playing over the speaker is accompanied by a constant background hiss, along with periods of ear-rending screeching feedback that can last up to 30 seconds. The management has the volume turned low to hide the hiss but the feedback still plays at full volume. Apparently, stores with older systems like mine aren't "compatible" with the new broadcast. I see shoppers cringe when the feedback comes on but does Kroger care? Apparently not, since we're coming up on a full YEAR of it being like this, and no-one in corporate will even acknowledge the problem.

Anonymous wrote:

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UGH Vibenomics! Since the switch-over all music playing over the speaker is accompanied by a constant background hiss, along with periods of ear-rending screeching feedback that can last up to 30 seconds. The management has the volume turned low to hide the hiss but the feedback still plays at full volume. Apparently, stores with older systems like mine aren't "compatible" with the new broadcast. I see shoppers cringe when the feedback comes on but does Kroger care? Apparently not, since we're coming up on a full YEAR of it being like this, and no-one in corporate will even acknowledge the problem.

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I can't speak for the sound system.......it is halfway OK here, but the Vibenomics music selection leaves a lot to be desired, in my opinion.  They started off with a number of better oldies (like "I saw the Sign" and "Rock the boat", or at least in my opinion they are a little better than the general run of oldies) ,  but now those have disappeared, with lots of newer stuff that hurts my ears........ and some days there is a constant stream of screeching, moaning, unhappy, almost off-key "singers". Mostly auto-tuned tracks, so the singers all sound somewhat alike, with that treble half-human, half computer tech sound.    Really Bad melodies, some sounds like a 5-year child is making up the song as they go along........does anyone understand what I mean?      A few aren't bad, but some of the songs/singers makes me wonder who OK-d them for a record label / contract  in the first place!!!  

I just wanna get a hold of the music/jingles from the dairy department....... you know..... the different short songs the animatronic dairy products sing.    

Oh yeah....... that's some really good "cheese"...pun intended.

Vibenomics and Kroger have some weird step-something incest.  

The store is muted.  Completely.  Is it the work of a total Chad, or sheer incompetence?  Or shear incompetence?  It's damned hard to get a good haircut anymore. 

Service desk girl plays a bluetooth speaker until early afternoon when she goes home.  That's when the desk closes unless she gets out an entire shift earlier lol.

Fuel Center is so loud they ARE PRAYING for noise complaints.

I'm at fuel.  None yet.  We turn it up for problem customers.  And then we turn it up louder.  So far, we've only gotten direct death threats, but not store nor police complaints.

Works for me.  When I'm sober enough to carry a pistol.