We've written about several sites that help travellers plan their routes, but not until recently had we come across one that incorporates accompanying music. Sure enough, though, a new site from UK-based sound system manufacturer Harman Kardon does just that, giving users an entire playlist of location-inspired music to listen to during their trip.

Users of Amplified Journeys, which is now in beta 1.0 and free to use, begin by entering the starting point and destination for their trip, along with an artist or the musical genre or mood they're interested in. Amplified Journeys then puts together a set of detailed driving directions with an accompanying playlist including tracks inspired by landmarks and artists from points along the way. A trip from Paris to Munich focusing on dance music, for example, returns a playlist of some 110 tracks that can be clicked on for more information, edited, and then exported to iTunes. Harman Kardon recently demonstrated Amplified Journeys through a series of features in TopGear magazine, each covering a different musical journey: Glasgow to London via Manchester, for example, along with tours of Los Angeles, Detroit and Berlin. A video on YouTube, meanwhile, demonstrates the site at work.

Music and travelling have always been a natural mix, so what better way to advertise Harman Kardon's products—and create some nice goodwill—than by giving away a little musical free love? This could become hygiene in the trip-planning world! (Related: Louis Vuitton's walking tours of Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai.)

Website: www.amplifiedjourneys.hk
Contact: feedback@amplifiedjourneys.hk

Spotted by: Elizabeth Morrissey

Lucky Seven makes custom caps that bear the logos of fictional companies featured in cult films and television shows. Founder Jay Jay Burridge is a self-proclaimed seventies kid, who spent much of his childhood wearing a Star Wars cap. Burridge, who is an artist by trade, founded the London-based company as a hobby, and turned it into a successful online business.

Lucky Seven's caps are all made to order. On the company’s website, customers are invited to design their own caps by choosing either a mesh or army style cap, a colour combination from an extensive palate, style of captain's laurels, and the preferred fictional company's crest. Want to declare your loyalty to the promise and opportunity of Blade Runner's Off World Colonies? Done. Prefer people to think you shot J.R. because of your Ewing Oil cap? No problem. Every order is shipped in a Lucky Seven hat box, and caps are priced at GBP 30.

The company has cleverly focused on a very narrow niche—not just customized caps, or accessories featured in movies, but caps with logos of fictional yet memorable entities. Immediately recognizable only to likeminded fans, a Lucky Seven cap is both a conversation starter and an insider's status symbol. Which is the kind of added value that can help a small business grow. One to learn from!

Website: www.luckyseven.tv
Contact: info@luckyseven.tv

Launched in November 2008 by two British radio presenters, Fauxshow creates personalized radio shows that put a recipient in the spotlight. Designed as an unusual gift experience, Fauxshows are most frequently produced for weddings and birthdays, although any request will be catered to. Customers pick a recipient's favourite music tracks and submit anecdotes for the presenters to read out in the show. Arrangements are then made for friends and family to call in to Fauxshow and record messages about or for the recipient. Jingles and effects are added in the final stage of recording to make the show sound as authentic as possible. Around three weeks after ordering, the show arrives on CD, ready to surprise and delight.

Fauxshow is still a tiny start-up, and the presenters welcome calls from customers to discuss ideas. Pricing is GBP 200 for a 5-song, 5-message show, or GBP 250 for 8 songs and 8 messages. Other options are available on request.

There's no stopping the personalization avalanche! And as Fauxshow demonstrates, you don't have to be a major player to get in on the game. (Related: Customized love songs.)

Website: www.fauxshow.co.uk
Contact: www.fauxshow.co.uk/contact.html

Spotted by: Jonathan Fletcher

Feeling there were limitations of working with a conventional label, British beat duo Groove Armada left Sony BMG and teamed up with Bacardi in April of last year to offer fans music in a new way. Rather than restrict song sharing in order to sell more tracks, the band offers incentives to those who spread their music the furthest.

Six weeks before Groove Armada will be releasing their new EP through traditional download stores, the first track appeared Bacardi B-Live, where registered users can download it for free. They can access the second track as soon once they've shared the first with 20 friends. The third MP3 can be heard when the first has been shared 200 times, and the fourth when 2,000 'friends' have hear the first track. Sharing is made easy by supplying users with widgets for their websites and Facebook profiles. The sharing application was launched last week and will be available until 2 March 2009.

Bacardi also funded the creation of Groove Armada's latest release, scoring the rights to use the music in advertising and other promotions. B-Live also hosts and streams live music events around the world. Groove Armada claims to be pleased with the arrangement because it lets them give away their work and build a dialogue with fans. "It encourages people to interact with the music in a slightly deeper way than just nicking and downloading it," says Tom Findlay, one half of the duo, in a BBC interview.

It's not just distribution that's been upended by the internet: band funding, management and festivals are also evolving. There's still a huge potential to rethink business models in this industry. Time to get creative!

Website: www.bliveshare.com
Contact: info@bliveshare.com

Spotted by: Susanna Haynie

Now that manufacturing, media and music have all been turned into bespoke, personalised concepts, it seems it's time to overhaul the previously passive experience of theatre.

Call Cutta in a Box is a theatre experience for one audience member at a time. As they enter a barely furnished room in a normal office building, a phone on the desk starts ringing. Upon answering it, they're put through to a worker in the Descon Limited Call Centre in Calcutta, but, refreshingly, they're not pitched insurance policies or long distance plans. Instead, the participant spends their time getting to know the person at the other end of the line. And that part isn't play-acting: the person in the call centre really is 10,000 miles away, using their real personal details and stories. And this means that every performance can be unique and, in some ways, more meaningful than a scripted piece.

The installation—dubbed “an intercontinental phone play”—is the work of German theatre company Rimini Protokoll. It began touring last year, visiting Copenhagen, Dublin, Amsterdam and Paris before hitting New York in January and February 2009. It's been a while since we've covered an interesting concept in theatre—the last time was in 2006, with Teatr Rozmaitosci's play that took place in the audience's home. There's clearly a lot of room left to innovate and grab people's attention—budding directors, we look forward to covering your work! ;-)

Website: www.rimini-protokoll.de
Contact: info@rimini-protokoll.de

Spotted by: Judy McRae