I had read and I did understand. Music gives me a headache, so it would drive me away from using the Metro.

Waiting for the tram this morning some yoof was listening to some [LIFTED] hip-hop track on his phones speaker. It's bad enough that the track is crap but it's made worse via the medium of tiny weak speakers. I'd take the Brussels system over this any day!

I used the Brussels Metro for 4 years and you don’t notice the music after a while. It’s hardly loud so if you’re reading or listening to your ’Pod it disappears into the ether.

TBH thinking about it, I can't help but feel that any British attempt would also be an advert fest.

So how do people over there feel about it? Does it make a difference to commuting experience? Why does it work over there but it wouldn't work here?

I couldn’t say, but the fact that it never came up in conversation suggests that, like me, most people didn’t really notice it.

I only used the Metro casually, rather than every day as a commuter, so I can’t comment, but when I did travel at peak hours the experience was much more pleasant than the Tube. But that might be due to the fact that, as Paul (hairy dalek) said above, the stations are much more open and spacious and not so far below ground.

I don’t know whether it would work in London. Bruxellois are much more laid back than Londoners to start with.

The London Underground network is pretty noisy already, and adding piped muzak won't make it any sweeter.

It's nice, sometimes, to have places that don't add unnecessary noise to the environment. I've walked into shops, only to turn round and leave straight away because the management has deemed the music level must be set at night club volumes. Wandering round shopping centres which have that awful cloying piped muzak burbling away doesn't make my life any better, made worse by the blasts of different contrasted audio clutter when you walk past various stores.

We live in a busy, crowded and noisy island. Isn't it nice to not have extra noise added to the environment, especially an already noisy one like the London Underground?

I prefer just the ambient sounds in public spaces, rather than someone else's choice of music.

I agree entirely, can’t stand muzak. There’s enough noise in the world without unnecessarily and unilaterally adding to it.

It's not the muzak on the Brussels Metro that's the problem. It's the smell of piss - especially at the Bourse station that's the problem.

Ah, the unmistakeable aroma of Brussels, particularly delightful on a Sunday morning. At least it masks the smell of the dog [LIFTED].

Remind me, why did* I love living in Brussels. (*and soon will, again)

I do that too.

Can you imagine what the staff might think at these stations? Two weeks after it's brought in:
Manager: I'm sorry to see you go Fred, why are you leaving again?
Fred: The music makes me angry...

"Pop" is such a general term as well. If they used the back catalogue of Top of the Pops I think I'd think again about being late for a train...

Then there's the money...Surely some sort of license must be paid for this and that's only going to come from the regular passengers. They've not needed it before, why do they need it now?

That's the excuse they would use for including adverts. Of course they would probably do more than cover cost of licensing.

Surely audio adverts and music would distract from the video ones playing on the platforms? My attention is pulled about 10 directions on the tube already.

There were video adverts on some of the busses in London. That went after a year.