On Wednesday (6/17) at radio station WNYC, Kate Hinds writes that in New York City’s subways, “The sound you hear when you swipe a MetroCard is more of a toneless beep than anything approaching music. But former LCD Soundsystem front man James Murphy is on a quixotic quest to change that.… Now Heineken … is launching a campaign to make Murphy’s ‘subway symphony’ a reality. The company has launched a website, worked with Murphy on a video, and is trying to get traction for the project on social media.… MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg [says] you can’t mess with the turnstiles…. ‘The function of these beeps is to allow visually impaired people to use the subway efficiently and effectively.’ … Murphy is not the first person to come up with the idea of hacking the turnstile sound. ‘There was a high school kid, a Stuyvesant grad,’ said Lisberg, ‘who emailed us and proposed substituting soothing chords for a cold, dismissive beep.’ He offered to write the code for it. The answer remains: NO.’ ” The article includes audio of the actual turnstile beeps and Murphy’s proposed sounds.
Posted June 19, 2015
