Where does your passion for music come from?

As for so many, music has always played a big role for me since my childhood in Germany. My mum in particular loves listening to music, so a random mix of radio stations, cassettes, and CDs formed the daily soundtrack at home. We listened to everything from the 60s to the 00s and when music TV channels like MTV or Viva became big, you could find me in front of the tv waiting for my favourite music videos to come on. I also remember that whenever someone we knew was in the US or the UK, they would bring us back a bunch of CDs, because the offering was different there and the releases came out much earlier. So I was always able to absorb many different styles of music and this hunger for new discoveries and constant exploration has apparently remained.

When, how and why did you come up with the idea of setting up Movement?

“Our founder and creative director, Frederic Schindler, has always organized and curated tons of music for his core activity – music supervision – and was very often frustrated by the terrible music being played in restaurants, hotels and retail shops.”

So in the late 00’s, he started to wonder more and more often if he couldn’t compile the huge amount of great music he was digging every month and improve the quality of “background music”.

When he took over the musical direction of Hôtel Costes in 2012, along with former Head of Creative at EMI-Virgin Records and good friend Thierry Planelle, he began working closely with the hotel owner as well as his team and the project slowly defined itself. More requests came in and Fred had the opportunity to discuss with several super talented hospitality and fashion professionals who were extremely unhappy with both the content and technology that “background music” companies offered. There is this story told to Fred by the owner of a well-known bar in Paris: Jay-Z came in with his whole entourage after a video shoot, they wanted hip-hop and the bar manager was unable to adjust the music mood to the situation — you can imagine the faces…

So at some point, Fred knew that in addition to the high-end music curation approach, he also had to provide a tailored technical solution that responded to the real needs of the hospitality and retail industries. Ultimately, he teamed up with former Apple engineers and developers to create an innovative and intuitive B2B music player, fed with the best content every month – that was, and still is, the core idea. And that was how Movement started in 2015 and grew as a separate company to Too Young Ltd., our sister music supervision venture.

Who are the members of the project?

Our team is based in Barcelona’s creative district of Poblenou and consists of an international crowd of passionate music loversand a Shiba dog called Patán. Besides, we have tech specialists who guarantee that our Apple native software is meeting the latest standards, and a studio team of sound engineers who ensure the high audio quality of our music selections. For specific creative projects we also partner up with external music curators from time to time, for example we have a great collaborative relationship with talented Argentinian DJ and Dublab radio host, Sonido Tupinamba.

What kind of brands/clients do you work with?

So far, we have been working mainly with brands in the hospitality industry that have their own unique identity, and understand the importance of music for their business – like Hotel Brummell and The Rooftop in Barcelona, Pacai in Vilnius, and Max Brown in Amsterdam. Whether its luxury boutique hotels, spas, fine-dining restaurants, or rooftop bars; as long as they have a true and profound interest in the small details, Movement can definitely be a perfect match.

This year we’d also like to expand our client base to the retail industry and we are already in touch with exciting fashion brands, hopefully some great concept and design stores will follow too.

Why is music so important?

If you think about it, music is omnipresent in our lives these days. Everywhere we go, we encounter songs that affect us in many different ways, even unconsciously; it can lift our spirits, get us excited, and relax us.

“The challenge with background music is that it is not intended to be the primary focus of the listener, but the right songs, tempo and volume level in the right place willaffect our experience – in negative or very positive ways.”

Music is also a central part of our culture and history, the way we approach it at Movement is a very well planned trip with a lot of local insider information that is not in the guidebooks.

What project would you highlight from the last ones you have carried out?

A recent and quite exciting project was the creation of a soundtrack for the revamped CamperLabs in London, Paris and Milan, after Achilles Ion Gabriel took over as Creative Director last autumn. His new designs mix the heritage of the Mallorcan shoe brand with a modern appeal and were very inspiring to us in their unconventional way. Each day is musically divided into different tempos and together we decided to blend Spanish, French, and Italian songs from the 60-70s; tropical rhythms (mainly vintage too), warm contemporary indie pop, funk and soul gems; rare disco cuts, african music, space pop, and many more cool surprises.

What do you think about the current music scene?

I think the music industry has changed a lot in the last few years, especially since music streaming services are on the rise, but also because the big record companies don’t invest in their artists as much as they used to.

“On a big scale, it’s becoming a bit of a single-led ecosystem, where the main goal is to get playlisted on the big outlets (rapcaviar, new music friday, etc.) instead of developing a long and rich career, nurturing an audience of fans, etc.”

This has led to a new scene of musicians finding alternative ways to release and promote their music. The social media boom supports this DIY movement, bringing more diversity for artist profiles, and more freedom for music genre fusions. In our curation process, we are constantly discovering up and coming artists who are extremely confident, who know what they want and who wouldn’t let any major label take that away from them. For me – for us – the endless supply of new talent is amazing to see, even if it also means you have to dig even harder to find what’s really special.

Where is the industry heading and what are the main trends?

I just read in an article that a third of musicians may leave the industry because of financial losses from the pandemic. It clearly follows that the remaining artists must produce great music, and have to understand how to innovate and ride the wave in order to survive. At the moment, one of the new trends is that the music industry is becoming aware of the value of real fans in the digital age. A famous example is Cardi B’s OnlyFans account, where she offers behind-the-scenes footage from video shoots and other “real life” content for a monthly subscription fee. Live streaming sites like Twitch and Mixer also gain popularity, because they are less saturated and commercial than Youtube. Twitch is home to musicians and artists of all sizes, allowing them to connect with fans who are engaged and supportive of their work via live concerts and chats.

“With all the venues closed and festivals postponed due to Covid, I see a real boom of live music and events soon after, it might come back stronger than ever. There’s always amazing creativity flowing in the arts after a major disaster or crisis.”

What 10 songs would be on your playlist today?

Fiona Fiasco, Melodiesinfonie – Strong Ankles

Buzzy Lee – High On You

Cate le Bon – Home To You

YACHT – They Want To Eat Your Lunch

Massive Attack – Be Thankful For What You’ve Got

Stevia, Susumu Yokota – Penguin On Desert

Andy Stott – Luxury Problems

Christy Essien – You Can’t Change A Man

Whirlpool Productions – From Disco To Disco

Brijean – Moody

What soundtrack would you give to CC/magazine?

Something colourful and bold; very contemporary but contrasting with lots of buzzing acts like Lava La Rue, SAULT, Benny Sings, Xav Clarke…

What are you working on at the moment?

Since we are not able to travel around to meet the amazing people behind the brands we work with, we use the time to focus more on strategic and conceptual projects such as new product development, which is super exciting and challenging. We are also looking forward to launching our new website soon and a new version of our player. Musically, we are currently developing the music identity for a new Members Club in Barcelona, which promises to be a great addition to the city’s offering, and as we already know the great team from other projects, it’s a lot of fun to do.

Favorite place to get lost in…

Authentic book & magazine shops! I just love them, even if the decision-making process is always hard because I want to take home more than I can carry. In Barcelona, I can’t go past La Central bookshop with its cute café near MACBA. Recently I also discovered a shop at Fundación MAPFRE with an excellent collection of artistic photography books, highly recommended!

A dream…

“Oh, one of my big dreams, is that beaming becomes part of our daily lives and the whole world and all our favourite places and people are just a blink away.”

Then our days could look like this: Meetings in Paris in the morning, pasta for lunch in Rome, a free afternoon in Bali on the Bingin beach, going to a bar in Lisbon for a friend’s birthday after work, and being home for dinner with my boyfriend in Barcelona. Wouldn’t that be fun?

A wish

It’s such an obvious wish at this point, but I just want the pandemic to be over soon, leading to less worry about people at risk, lots of long-awaited friend and family reunions, warm hugs, concerts, and crazy parties…

(*) Pics: Movement.