One of the tools that marketers have in their arsenal to try to engage their targets is music. Hey, everybody likes music, right? As consumers, we listen to music as entertainment, a way to enhance experiences and make life more enjoyable. And ever since Nike used The Beatles’ “Revolution” to sell us shoes back in the late 80s, we have grown accustomed to hearing songs we love, songs we hold dear to our hearts, in association with the marketing efforts of brands that want to relate to our lives, whether we like it or not.

But the problem for marketers, needing to be relevant to and in touch with the consumers they need to attract, is how to choose the right songs for that group of consumers. This problem exists because nobody listens to the same music anymore. Mp3 players, free downloads, and ear buds have fragmented our musical listening experiences down to the personal level, which is the way each of us wants it. We listen to what we want, when we want it. We don’t listen to the radio anymore. If we do, it’s a satellite station of our choosing, designed around a niche. Each of us is a niche, with our own play lists from our own devices playing the soundtrack to our own lives into our ears, for no one else to hear. Or share.

There is undoubtedly a lot of great new music out there. But which new track from which artist will appeal to a large group of consumers in the same way? It’s anybody’s guess. There is no safety for marketers when there is no common ground.

But everyone is familiar with old songs. Just look at this list from 1969. If there are more than 20 songs from that list you haven’t heard, you probably are under the age of 25 and are the only child of strict, non-musical parents. Because that music came from a time when we all watched the same TV shows at the same time every night and heard the same songs on the same radio stations, then went out and bought those songs on vinyl discs that we all played on our home stereos.

As music to market by, old music is arguably more relevant to a large audience than newer songs, simply because we HAVE all heard it, and shared it. It will elicit an emotional response that maybe we as marketers can better predict.

After traveling across the country recently, I was struck, no, I was assaulted, by a very annoying occurrence: piped in music. It is everywhere you go now. In restaurants, bars, airports, casinos, seemingly anywhere people are gathered, maybe trying to hold a conversation, it’s there, blaring away.

Understand, I have nothing against music. I love music. I listen to it a lot. Most people do. But in the current world we live in, music has become a personal choice. To demonstrate this for yourself, grab three co-workers, jump in a car, start driving and put in one of your favorite CDs. Or try to find a radio station on XM that appeals to the four of you. It’ll be a miracle if you reach a consensus. It’s because there are so many choices, so many fragmented influences, and so little shared musical experiences anymore that it is virtually impossible to play a list of songs that appeals to the masses.

We are individuals-each of us a fingerprint. And music, like marketing, can no longer take a mass approach. Why even try? The true music lovers are already jamming their favorite tunes into their heads with ear buds, anyway. Or constructing playlists from online sources that reflect their personal tastes. So the piped-in power ballads by some obscure alternative rock band is destined to reach the wrong ears 90% of the time. Outside of a nightclub environment or a first date, how could a sexed-up diva doing vocal riffs on the subject of a one-night stand ever be the appropriate musical backdrop to anything?

My recommendation to those in control of public spaces is this: Can the canned music. Leave DJ-ing to the DJs. Maybe we can get to a place where technology allows our music collection to follow us around via WiFi, and it will play automatically into our heads so that only we can hear it. Until then, let’s just agree to shop, eat and travel in blissful, individual silence.