In the past month, Overhead.fm added playlists highlighting great, but strikingly different, musical traditions. For indie kids and the businesses that serve them, we’re bolstering our selection with a Guitar-Driven Indie Rock Playlist. For their parents and grand-parents, we’ve also released a phenomenal collection of traditional pop and vocal jazz in our Crooner Classics playlist.

The Crooner Classics playlist stretches from the dawn of the microphone through the mid-1950s. It features artists like Frank Sinata, Tony Bennet, and Dean Martin. Because this is such a great musical tradition, this is one of our deepest stations - you can listen to it for days without hearing the same song twice. For an even broader range, the Crooner Classics playlist would be a great fit with our Motown and Memories station or our Best of the 60s station in a mix playlist.

Swinging far to the other side of the musical timeline, the Guitar-Driven Indie Rock playlist features both classic indie-rock anthems from the ‘00s and cutting-edge tracks by bands like Rubblebucket and The Hold Steady. This playlist is perfect for the skinny-jean and PBR crowd, but it is still brand-friendly and safe for any business.

As Overhead.fm grows, we are excited to continue adding playlists that both widen Overhead.fm’s musical breadth and dive deeper in exciting niches. If either Classic Crooners or Guitar-Driven Indie Rock could be a fit for your business, we encourage you to give these playlists a try.

In addition to Overhead.fm’s webapp, iOS app, and Android app, we have long offered a dedicated wifi tablet for businesses that would prefer to not bring their own device. Today, our tablet is joined by a new sibling designed to specifically address the needs of larger enterprises.

The headless player is a small device that connects to your existing wired network via an on-board ethernet jack and connects to you amplifier using a standard 3.5mm port. The headless player is pre-configured before it leaves the Overhead.fm office. A customer need only connect the player to power, internet, and an amplifier, and it will automatically power on and start playing music as scheduled. Like other subsidiary accounts, these players can be controlled remotely using Overhead.fm’s scheduling interface.

By design, the headless player does not include a display. We expect most enterprise customers will install these players in audio cabinets without a display and control the players entirely remotely, though we do include an HDMI jack and USB ports for maximum flexibility.

Unlike most dedicated music players, the Overhead.fm player receives updates automatically over the internet, so any new features added to Overhead.fm are immediately available on installed players.

In recent weeks, Overhead.fm has been testing the headless player with select businesses across the country, and today it is ready for general availability. The headless player sells for $74.95 including free shipping. To order a headless player, please contact your Overhead.fm representative.

Full specs:

• Dimensions: 3.5” x 2.8” x 1”
• Audio: 3.5mm stereo
• Internet connectivity: Ethernet (included) or optional wifi adapter ($12.95)
• Additional connectivity: HDMI and USB for optional display, keyboard, and mouse connectivity
• Power supply included

Overhead.fm wishes you a happy holiday season

Stores across the country are heading into the craziest time of the year, and Overhead.fm has the music to keep your customers in good cheer. This season, check out our Holiday Hits or Christmas Classics channels. And if you want to mix a little holiday spirt in to your existing format, consider adding these playlists to a mix playlist.

Whether you sell mochas, sweaters, or winter beers, we hope this season is great for your business. Happy holidays in advance from everyone at Overhead.fm.

Since 2012, Overhead.fm has offered one of the most sophisticated interfaces for administering music schedules. Now, that same level of control is available for your promotional messages.

Starting today, we’re rolling out a new interface that allows you to schedule different messages on different days and at different times during the day. These message schedules are attached to the same user groups as your music schedules, so it also makes it easy to target messages at different markets.

Want to try it out? If you have messages, simply go to “Scheduling” and either create a group or select “Edit Message Schedule” on an existing group.

Canadian restaurants, bars, retailers and more who originally signed contracts with DMX Music have had their accounts sold to Stingray Digital. Mood Media, which acquired DMX in 2012, announced that it sold eight thousand commercial accounts to Stingray Digital Group. The client’s contracts were sold by Mood Media for approximately $11 million USD. In the current turmoil of the largest in-store media companies, contracts that were signed by DMX customers before 2012 have seen ownership of those contracts change hands multiple times. Muzak customers have had a similarly complex past couple years, including the company’s emergence from bankruptcy in 2010 and subsequent purchase by Mood Media in 2011.

Due to the long term nature of traditional media contracts, the value of DMX Canadian accounts has earned Mood Media US$9.5 million immediately with another US$1.7 million over the next 12 months. This may be a positive change to these customers, which, according to Mood Media President and CEO Steve Richards, “are not core to our current geographic growth strategy”. This should be a welcome influx of capital for Mood Media, which has seen its stock price more than halved each of the past two years (since acquiring DMX).

Mood Media has historically been a Canadian corporation and is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, but moved its headquarters to DMX’s original hometown: Austin, Texas. Montreal-based Stingray has also recently purchased Dutch Broadcaster Archibald Media Group on June 13th to broaden its suite of services to include significant music television channel options in the Netherlands.