The right clip of that song, Bob realized, would make for an irresistible ice cream truck jingle.
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
The company that has a monopoly on ice cream truck music
The right clip of that song, Bob realized, would make for an irresistible ice cream truck jingle.
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I agree that music is a major marketing tool of the ice cream truck - it makes it memorable, as well as allows the truck itself to introduce itself in an unique way. If the ice cream truck just went around without music I guarantee I would stay in my backyard or inside and never even know it was passing. Whenever we heard the classic tunes (such as “The Entertainer) I remember my brothers and I running down street after street in hopes of catching the ever illusive ice cream truck. It was really interesting to hear that this music came in the format of a music box - with all these pre-loaded songs. This makes sense, because as a business owner, it seems difficult to sell the individual songs, but if you sell the device of making the noise (like the bell guy as well) you are sure to attract more customers.
I think I can say that this was the most interesting article I have ever read on this page. I really don’t know why I found it so interesting but I really did. It was such a fun article about a business that I didn’t even know existed, and learning about it was so fascinating. I never would have though a single company like owned ice cream truck music. I assumed it was just like CDs or the radio or something, I never really thought much of it. But the music on ice cream trucks is so important to the ice cream truck experience. What I really found the most interesting was that the ice cream truck music industry came from the music box industry. I never would have thought that. I really do have such a greater respect for ice cream truck music now. They talked about the art of choosing an ice cream truck song, and wow I really just never would have thought that it was such a process to choose the songs. I wonder though if one company having a monopoly on ice cream truck music is limiting. Maybe there is another kind of music that might be really successful on ice cream trucks.
I honestly did not know that there is business out there which thrives on music for ice- cream trucks. Initially, the article seemed bizarre to me because of the unconventional aspect of it, but as I continued to read it, I found myself deeply engaged in it, maybe because of how unconventional it was. To me, the idea that a music market monopoly exists to the point where it is being heard on everywhere ice- cream truck (imagine the millions of trucks involved) is so so interesting. It is like a genius idea. Mixing ice- cream with something as integral as music, and in a way, which only makes the idea to go and eat an ice- cream even better.
The CEO of the company really managed to hit a jackpot in the way he endorsed this concept and, in the way, that he executed it, to the point that he actually has created a monopoly.
Before reading this article, I never could have imagined the importance of the song the ice cream truck plays. Obviously it is the biggest way they can bring in customers, but I just never really realized that was the invention. I have always found it very interesting learning about niche issues, and I think this falls under that category. I always thought it was more of a norm or a tradition playing that same variant of music while an ice cream truck passed. In reality, it resembles a sort of art. The music has to carefully convey what the seller wants it to say, it wants to bring people in and lift their spirits up so that the brief interaction of selling the ice cream is optimal. This all to raise revenue, which is fascinating to me. It is very unconventional, and it adds much more charm to the concept of catching an ice cream truck outside the door.
Reading this article was genuinely very pleasant and interesting, and exposed me to an industry I had no idea even existed. This entire business model and practice is very interesting, and it seems as though Nichols Electronics has a lock on the market. This seems to be an industry that is better without changes or innovation, and Nichols Electronics is certainly benefitting from their history as the only place to get an ice cream truck music box. I think it is also very interesting that the Nichols family can continue to operate while selling only 300 to 400 hundred units per year. However it seems like this is possible due to the fact that the market is virtually impossible to break into. This article really educated me on something that I had no idea even existed, and I think it is great to see how influential sound can be. I am glad to see that Nichols Electronics is making positive changes based on the times and I hope they remain in the industry as long as they would like to.
Oooooooh this is so meta. The ice cream truck song is such a known thing that I never would have thought to question where it came from. It really is so fitting for an ice cream truck, so it’s cool to get to read this article and see where Bob Nichols was coming from. I find it so neat that because he was the founder of an electronics company, he had the ability to expedite the process of actually getting the music boxes into cars. I also had no idea they were ever actual music boxes? I guess I had always assumed this was a recorded sound on a speaker, but perhaps it is NOW and was not THEN? Very neat. I also love that they are starting to update the songs in the trucks with more versatile music styles. This could really help to bring a long-time tradition into a new world.
This article is pretty fascinating. The siren songs of ice cream trucks are such a staple of American nostalgia (although I wonder if they have become less prevalent in recent years, and if the current generation of older teens/young adults has the same reaction to hearing a passing truck that I do). I am glad to hear that the people who make the music boxes are engaging with racial justice and removed a song from their track list...but Turkey in the Straw is not the only problematic song. Camptown Races, for example, is a minstrel song. Maybe they pulled more than just the one, but it does not seem like it. If one song proves to be problematic, why assume that it is the only one? The American Songbook is laced with racism. As the article explains, replacing or adding new songs does not tap into nostalgia in the same way, and it is harder to identify ice cream trucks playing unknown songs. Shrinking the playlist might be a more successful option (although if they play the new song often enough, they’ll make the link), but I can hardly imagine how that might feel to the truck drivers.
The ice cream truck music is so iconic, I can hear it in the back of my head just by mentioning it. Had I never read this article, I would never have questioned why THAT tune is the ice cream truck tune. It just is. As such, learning about the history of ice cream truck music and the monopoly over such nostalgic tunes is absolutely fascinating! The link between ice cream trucks and music boxes is surprising to me, I never would have imagined those two fields being so closely tied. The discussion in the comments along the same lines as my own remarks reminds me that very little in the commercial world ever seems to happen. Something that may seem serendipitous or just convenient to a consumer is frequently intentional, having been designed by someone specifically to call the consumer's attention to said thing. Perhaps I am just cynical, but learning about stuff like this can ruin the magic of simple pleasures like the ice cream truck.
I thought this article was so interesting, specifically because it delved into an industry (can one company even be called an industry?) that I had honestly forgotten existed or really never thought about in the first place. Ice cream trucks were pretty rare in my neighborhood as a kid, but still instantly recognizable from the music that they played, and I don’t know why it took me this long to realize how important the music actually is for the trucks to be effective. Currently I live on a house on a moderately busy street and periodically we have people drive by blasting music loudly enough in their cars that we can hear from inside, but I would never mistake an ice cream truck for one of them, and the fact that basically all ice cream trucks use the same music really helps to explain why. When I read the headline, I wondered about how large the company would really need to be to have a monopoly like the one they currently hold, but I was a little surprised at the small number of machines that they actually produce per year. Even as the only real manufacturers, it seems like they would have difficulty making any sort of profit from this, unless the machines end up being inordinately expensive. Regardless, it was interesting to think about what makes an ‘ice cream song’ and how we instinctively understand the meaning when we hear it coming.
It’s amazing how pretty much anyone in the country can recognize the music and connect it with ice cream. The tunes are simple, nostalgic, and can get stuck in your head for days. This is so fascinating to me because I have never thought about where the music came from. It’s just something that I grew up with. It’s also interesting how one company not only created this extremely specific niche but has control over all the ice cream truck music that is played in the neighborhood. Nichols Electronics is responsible for such a distinct memory of many people’s childhood, hearing the sound of the ice cream truck and running outside to go get some. Now thinking about it, I’m not sure the last time I actually saw an ice cream truck. Hopefully with the recent rise in sales, the industry will come back and I’ll get to order from one soon.
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