ome call it innovative marketing. Others emotional marketing. Whatever name you wish to give it, the fact of the matter is, even for bars and restaurants, clever marketing is fundamental. In a market that is full to the brim with 'new' ideas and concepts distinguishing yourself from the crowd is all important. This is why recent years have seen an increase in bars releasing in-house music compilations together with professional music publishers.

From Ibiza to Paris: the growth of a phenomena
It all started in the nineties when José Padilla, dj at Café del Mar in Ibiza, had an idea: offer clients a cd based collection of lounge and chill pieces regularly played in the bar/ disco so that clients could listen to the music at home. Since then the Cafe del Mar has produced over 20 compilation albums.
From Ibiza the idea soon spread to Paris where Claude Challe, dj of the coolest locales in Paris, signed the first compilation from the Buddha Bar. The disc sold over three million copies. It soon became the symbol of the locale itself, whose concept is: avant-garde bar, fashionable restaurant, night club with exotic and sophisticated atmospheres. The chill-out music playing in the background went into the CDs, whose fame preceded the bar's abroad, so much that a question rises: what would the Buddha Bar be without its CDs?
Challe then opened another bar, this time called Nirvana, with its own Lounge cd. The in-house cd compilation idea became so popular even hotels began to follow suit. In fact here the first hotel to publish its own CD was Hotel Costes in 1987. Once again with co-operation of Claude Challe together with Stephane Pompougnac. From London to Amsterdam and even Rome (which has a sister club to the Supperclub in Amsterdam), the in house cd compilation boom was well on its way.

An opportunity for Italy
In 2000 designer hotel Carducci 76 released an ambient music cd of the same name produced by Paolo Sgimzo. This was followed by a cd from 10 Corso Como, the Milanese concept store featuring a restaurant, art gallery and boutique. Other notable establishments to have released compilations are the Ketumbar in Rome, The Blue Moon in Cortina, the Maffia in Reggio Emilia, Maison Espana and Magazzini Generali in Milan. The list is set to grow. Already Una Hotels has produced a CD called UnaMusica and last July the Grand Hotel Minerva (part of the Concerto Fine Italian Hotels group) released its own title.

Diana Garden: new look (and new cd) every year
One name stands out though, the Diana Garden in the Diana Majestic Hotel in Milan where in 2002 the bar utilised Diana Garden-Tribe in perfect harmony with the colonial furnishing of the bar at the time. This was followed by Diana Garden-La Dolce Vita with the co-operation Mark Barrott of Future Loop Foundation, when the bar underwent a complete re-styling. This year Hotel Diana came up with hclub diana, presenting the baxterlounge, a new room situated in the garden area featuring leather and cotton couches, steel minimalist tables and mirrored walls. The latest compilation hclub cd, once again from Mark Barrott and Andrea Monta of Good Ear Production, features sounds that go beyond the classic definition of lounge and chill-out. With a marketing operation straight from the manual, the compilation was simultaneously presented at the hclub>diana Majestic and at the hclub Doney in the Hotel Westin Excelsior in Rome with the two clubs being connected by video.

Agua Marina's "one night" stand
Another idea is that of hosting one night events connected to particular sounds. The Agua Marina, a music collection from PartyMuzik; and the fifth from New York Bar of the Cafe Atlantique in Milan (with pieces chosen by Claudio Coccoluto and Joe T. Vannelli) where customers can bring home a memory of an after dinner event such as "dinner club house" and "after tea".

Production values
It seems producers like compilations too. Sanpellegrino, for example, has come out with Dining Music for high class restaurants, while as the soundtrack to the opening of its Sugar Café in Messaggerie Musicali illy chose the voice of Francesa Sortino for a cd called Kiss Me. Even well known names such as Bombay Sapphire and Champagne Laurent Perrier have produced cds. As has Pelissero, a young wine production company from Piedmont, which as part of its Long Now project has released a cd of music by Brian Eno.

In the end compilation cds are marketing operations designed to promote the image of a locale.
In general they are sold in the locale itself at a price that varies from 15 to 20 Euro, though some have been known to go over the 20 Euro mark. The amount of cds released in Europe is huige but, unfortunately, many of them are very similar and often are quickly and poorly produced. Remember: when it comes to communicating with the public, quality counts and anyone interested in releasing their own compilation cd is advised to do so with professional guidance.

 Mariangela Molinari