Muzak on corporate videos... Why do they do it???

[Kermit power]

A question for anyone in marketing/PR here...

I've just been trying to watch a training video. Very slickly produced, and seemingly excellent content, but completely ruined by having bingy-bongy Muzak over the top of it.

This seems to happen all the time in corporate videos... Why on earth do people do it? Are they secretly taking backhanders from the Muzak copyright holder, or is there some belief in marketing circles that it somehow makes people pay more attention or something?

I've just gone off to try and find a transcript of the training, which completely defeats the object, but even at the third attempt, I just couldn't get past the infuriating muzak, and it's not even the worst I've encountered!

[Spice_Weasel]

I think that the video production companies either commission or buy in very cheap musical arrangements and avoid any expensive licensing agreements where the more a video is shown (and the music heard) the more they'd have to pay in royalties etc.

No background music would make the videos rather dull in places where there is no action or dialogue so i guess they think they need the muzak there.