Meet the Profit-Maximizing DJ

Yale Fox, a professional DJ, has applied a more scientific approach to his job than most: he studies nightclub behavior and tries to respond in a profit-maximizing way. His undergraduate thesis aimed to “determine a format that provided maximal amount of customer satisfaction and highest bar?revenues.” So when he’s working, Fox plays a carefully calculated mix of songs balancing genre, gender, and so on. Check out his blog for more on the psychology of music, including a discussion of a paper on the “Manilow Method — a technique used to deter local youths from late-night loitering and noise-making. Essentially, a combination of Barry Manilow’s greatest hits and classical music were blasted from a local parking lot that was typically overrun with loitering teens.” We blogged about this a while back; for the most part, the Manilow Method worked. [%comments]