American Gets Jiggy With Edgy New Playlists as Airline Continues “Going for Great”

At American Airlines, celebrating the demise of elevator music is just one small, but important part of “Going for Great.”

The canned music played on American Airlines flights as passengers board and disembark from the aircraft hasn’t sounded quite so canned lately. In fact, the airline’s new and eclectic set list of indie selections has passengers tapping their toes as they stow carry-on bags in the overhead bins and, just maybe, discovering a new favorite recording artist in the process.

The move toward a more cutting edge playlist for the time American flights spend on the ground is a little noticed detail in the airline’s multi-faceted, $2 billion “Going for Great” reinvestment effort to revamp the customer experience. American Director of Inflight Entertainment Brian Richardson insists that although the company’s plans include high profile moves like placing the largest aircraft order in aviation history and completely refurbishing operational assets from gates and ticket counters to lounges and airplane cabins, it’s these small details that truly illustrate the airline’s commitment to going for great.

“The whole entire customer journey is very important,” Richardson told FlyerTalk. “Things like mood lighting, leather seats, some of our planes have walkup bars, our Wi-Fi is great. The fresh indie music is another way of creating that hip, upbeat environment to tie it all together.”

That attention to detail is evident in the way the arrival and departure playlists are selected by the airline. A standing committee debates and selects the songs with the idea of providing just the right soundtrack for different phases of the flight.

“We spend a good deal of time in determining what song plays when,” Richardson points out. “In terms of: Is it during the taxi? How long is someone going to be on the plane? How far into the playlist are they going to get? We are trying to tailor it, because not every song works in every environment.”

The new boarding music has already caught the notice of at least one well-known music aficionado. Kings of Leon bassist Jared Followill was impressed enough with the pre-flight set list to tweet:

.@AmericanAir is stepping up their music game. Playing The XX and @Phantogram over the speakers.

— Jared Followill (@youngfollowill) March 6, 2015

American first debuted its indie playlists on flights in October, and the surest sign that they’re a hit is the number of passengers using the Shazam app to identify their favorite new tracks. This is a phenomenon Richardson has seen firsthand on recent flights. “You can look around, we’ve got the speakers that are embedded into the panels above and you see people reaching up with their phones trying to catch it, to see what the song might have been.”

In response to overwhelming curiosity about some of the more obscure music selections the airline has chosen, American started publishing the monthly playlist for its pre-flight music programs. An exclusive sneak peak at the tracks for April’s boarding music reads like a lineup for Coachella or Bonnaroo festivals including Washed Out, Moby, Taken By Trees, Passion Pit and Parra for Cuva, among other indie music luminaries and cult heroes.

Richardson sees the move toward lesser-known alternative musicians and away from the piano-heavy soft rock-styled pop musicians that are the staple of in-flight programming as a natural progression that keeps the music fresh for what is essentially a captive audience. “That’s the best part about indie music,” said Richardson. “It’s not necessarily over-saturated to the point people feel like they’ve heard it too much.”

There was a time not so long ago when a mix tape was the ultimate method of expressing feelings for a loved one and American views the playlists it creates for its passengers in a similar light. “It’s about making people feel comfortable and feeling like they’re in an environment that they’re used to and they want to be in,” Richardson notes.

Like any good mix tape, a lot of thought went into how the music is arranged on American flights. “When planes land, the flight attendants, everyone is strapped down. If you have a song that is too loud or not right, no one is able to adjust it and it’s gonna play,” said Richardson. “That first song is key.”

Below are American’s boarding and arriving playlists for March.

American also provided FlyerTalk with this sneak peak of its boarding playlist for April:

[Photo: American Airlines]