The Personal Music Stylist: Ensuring That Your Music Matches The Undulations Of Your Condo

Lately, when I read the parts of The New York Times that are given over to the leisure pursuits of New York’s overmoneyed–you know, your “Sunday Styles,” your “Dining In/Dining Out”–I wonder about when certain features were assigned. “Oh, this had to have been reported and fully edited back in September,” I think when I glance at the tables of contents proffered by T, the Times‘ style magazine. And I thought the same thing today when I came across a piece on people who are hired as music designers for peoples’ apartments–basically, they’re people who have enough knowledge of music that they can be contracted with figuring out what albums won’t “clash” with the decor of their clients’ oh-so-tasteful condos, and advise proper listening habits to those clients who like what one designer calls “Meg Ryan stuff.” Wait, does this mean that as the recession deepens, the world will be forced to take all of its musical cues from rom-coms? Heaven forfend!

Though they consider clients’ musical preferences, stylists said they are paid to be the final arbiters of what songs work in a space. “When clients hire me, they are buying into the Coleman brand of taste,” Mr. Feltes said. Stylists typically charge between $50 and $250 per hour of music, which they usually download onto iPods but which can also be delivered on CDs.

Joe Wagner, 50, a commercial real estate developer and investor, hired Mr. Feltes last year to provide music for two homes with very different styles — a rough-hewn stone, wood beam and stucco lodge in Aspen, Colo., and a white brick colonial in Palm Beach, Fla. “I wanted music for both places that set the mood and reflected the environment,” Mr. Wagner said.

Mr. Feltes compiled about 48 hours of music divided into playlists particular not only to each residence but also the activity and time of day, like, for example, Latin jazz tracks for a lazy afternoon floating in the pool in Palm Beach or opera selections for a morning reverie while gazing at snow-capped mountains in Aspen.

“When someone walks in and hears great music, it’s like looking at a wonderful painting on the wall that gives you certain emotions,” said Mr. Wagner, who gets his playlists updated quarterly. “I love that I don’t have to think about what to put on. It’s already done for me.”

With so many genres and artists, it’s hard to stay on top of everything that’s available. ITunes, the online music store, has a catalog of over eight million songs. And there are countless new performers whose work is not so widely distributed.

“Our clients are the type who send people all over the world to find the perfect spoon, or doorknob or type of marble,” said Jeffrey Reed, a club D.J. and a founder of Audio Sushi, a custom music service in London with an international clientele. “My job is to find the perfect music.”

Could you imagine if these guys were around when CDs were still sort of in vogue? We’d have an entire exegesis on whether or not one should organize their collection by color. I guess we should thank the big copyeditor in the sky for the little things these days.

Does This Song Match My Sofa? [NYT via the rich girls are weeping] [Pic by me]