Facing the Muzak: Elevator Music Company Declares Bankruptcy

Muzak Holdings LLC, the company that provides the world with elevator music, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday. The Fort Mills, South Carolina company is facing up to 500 million dollars in debt.

Muzak Holdings LLC, the company that provides the world with elevator music, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Tuesday. The Fort Mills, South Carolina company is facing up to 500 million dollars in debt.

An estimated 100,000,000 people are exposed to Muzak daily. The  company, founded in the 1930s, provides the world’s elevators, supermarkets, and malls with instrumental versions of popular music, as well as their own easy listening-style tunes. They also program playlists for stores that are designed to set moods and increase spending among shoppers.

So will the nation have to ride its elevators in silence? Muzak is hoping to make a comeback (just like the banking industry, the car industry, and industry in general).

“We believe Chapter 11 will provide us with the opportunity to right-size our capital structure and gain financial flexibility, while continuing to operate our business and serve our clients without interruption,” said chief executive Stephen Villa.