Australia’s Qantas has removed the music selection from the inflight entertainment system on their domestic flights. This means no more radio stations, CD library or music playlists are available.
According to Australian Frequent Flyer, Qantas stated, “Research showed that fewer customers are tuning in to the radio and music channels. It also indicated many passengers on both domestic and international flights bring their own device with music already downloaded”.
Do You Listen To Music When Flying?
Ever since the iPod first came out, I have listened to my own music when flying. Sometimes it is nice to sit and relax and watch the world go by accompanied by some tunes.
This is more likely on shorter flights where there are no screens to watch a movie. On longer flights, I’ll invariably catch up on the latest Hollywood releases or the occasional classic movie.
-
- Grado headphones are fantastic, I’ve found.
Despite hundreds of flights, I think I have only tuned into the airline provided selection once. That one time, I probably listened to it for 10 minutes before going back to a movie. It’s just not for me.
The Qantas decision makes sense on their domestic network. They offer fast and free Wi-Fi on all flights to all passengers, so you can just use your usual Spotify, Apple Music or the content on your device to listen to the tunes you like.
Overall Thoughts
Considering airlines would need to pay for musical content in order for artists to receive royalties, it is probably best not to provide a service that few people are using. With the growing addition of Wi-Fi on board, providing this makes even less sense.
As Internet services in flight grow more reliable, we will probably see the removal of the entertainment screens in favour of streamed content to personal devices. American Airlines is already moving in this direction on its domestic fleet.
What do you think of music provided on the inflight entertainment system? Do you use it or is it completely useless? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
To never miss a post, follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
All my flight and lounge reviews are indexed here so check them out!
Featured image by Jordan Vuong via Wikimedia Commons.
Headphones by Mark Solarski via Unsplash.
I might be in the minority here, but I absolutely love the inflight music channels on American. In particular there is one channel called “American Jukebox” and I just love it. It has a huge variety with hits ranging from the 50s-90s. They do have many other channels and I’ve listened to those as well, but that was always my favorite. Sad they are removing all IFE from their ‘modern’ planes.
I’m finding this really interesting, where people are telling me what they like on certain airlines. I’m definitely going to have to check some of these out – American Jukebox sounds a lot like something I’d enjoy. Thanks for letting me know!!
Like you, it is rare I listen to music other than my iPod when flying. However, relying on Spotify or streamed services comes with its own problems. While WiFi on planes is a great step forward, the signal can be intermittent and I would imagine if the number of passengers using it for streaming is significant, the quality of signal could be significantly compromised. For example, SouthWestern Railway here in the UK provide WiFi, but you cannot stream, download large files or other big data uses so that everyone can stay connected. On Virgin Australia however, they have already removed… Read more »
I don’t stream music at all, I have all mine on my iPhone, which is mainly my CD collection and whatever else I’ve bought since I stopped buying CDs. I’ve tried the Wireless Internet on Virgin Trains and I agree, the signal is not great when travelling at speed. That being said, I did try the Wi-Fi on Qantas domestic and it’s actually pretty decent. It probably helps that they deliberately went for fast speeds and also that Australia generally has good weather. Qantas has the streaming to your device as well, and I think this is going to be… Read more »
I do like to listen to the “Airline music”. Norwegian has no music on its IFE either. Qatar has a wide selection, including music in other languages, to appeal to its very international customer base.
I will have to check that out when I next fly Qatar. It makes sense to listen to some international music, something I really should do more. Thanks for the comment, Alberto! 🙂
I can’t remember which airline it was on, I think Qatar, when there was absolutely nothing left desirable to watch on the IFE and I listened to a Fleetwood Mac album and an Oasis album. Mayit was BA, that sounds like a British playlist
I think that’s the reason I listened to the music that one time as well – there was absolutely nothing I wanted to watch on the IFE. I think that may have been Aer Lingus, but that’s a total guess! Thanks for the comment!
I actually just boarded my first Qantas flight 20 minutes ago and just looked thru the IFE movie selection and am incredibly impressed. There’s so many good titles I don’t know where to start. Also laughed a little because they have The Bodyguard, which happens to be the in flight movie from that DC-10 flight I told you about the other day (when the movie was new). The return flight was Last of the Mohicans which of course was also a new release at the time.
Well, maybe that’s why the music selection is being removed on Qantas, because they have such good movies to choose from. That’s pretty cool how The Bodyguard is there and that you remember the movies from both legs of that trip! I wish I had a memory like yours. Enjoy your flight and thanks for the update 🙂