Fitzroy helps celebrate Interrail's 50th Anniversary with an adaptive audio experience responding in real-time to each traveller’s views
Interrail Develops Unique SoundTracks for Every Single Train Traveller
Jul 12, 2022
In 1972, a one-time offer was introduced to European youths aged 21 and under to promote friendship between nations and European exploration via rail. Fast forward 50 years and Interrail offers one Pass that gives unlimited access to over 30.000 destinations in 33 different European countries.
To celebrate this milestone Interrail is launching ‘SoundTracks’, a real-time, adaptive audio experience that responds to a traveller’s location, time of day, scenery and weather. Creating a unique, constantly changing soundtrack for every single traveller on Interrail’s entire European rail network.
“One of the best things about train travel is just sitting down and watching the beautiful landscapes slowly roll by”, Fitzroy, Interrail’s creative agency, explains, ”We thought, how amazing would it be to have a real-time generated soundtrack that changes as your journey progresses. Day turns to night, it changes. Countryside turns to mountains, it changes. It starts to rain, the view from your window changes, so the music responds to that. All in real-time, for each and every Interrail traveller.”
To make this ambitious project happen, Interrail worked with advertising agency Fitzroy and interactive installation designers Circus Family. “All we need from a user is their GPS location, we get that anonymously. Just from that metric we can deduct all the other variables needed to run the experience. Basically what we did is ‘paint’ the map of Europe so the software knows if we’re in a major city, or the countryside, coastal region or the mountains.” According to Circus Family.
“We are really happy to give Interrail travellers an even more beautiful and memorable experience than ever before with SoundTracks” Kavita Kooijman, Brand Manager at Interrail says, “We are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Interrail Pass all year, and wanted to offer something special to our travel community this summer to celebrate the spirit of train travel and European exploration.”
For anybody who’s curious, the SoundTracks experience is now live at SoundTracks.fm, although it obviously works best when paired with the view from a train window.