New campaign for World Hearing Day – Yamaha Safe Listening Website

March 3 is World Hearing Day, and to mark the date Yamaha Music Europe GmbH is initiating a new website, “Yamaha Safe Listening,” dedicated to hearing health to raise awareness of safe listening.

March 3 is World Hearing Day, a date proclaimed by the World Health Organization (WHO). Consumer electronics company Yamaha Music Europe GmbH is using this day as an opportunity to focus more on hearing health in the future, and is therefore initiating a new website – “Yamaha Safe Listening” – which will serve as the basis for a campaign to inform people about the importance of safe listening.

That it is a company like Yamaha Music Europe GmbH that is dedicated to this topic is of course obvious, after all the group is considered to be one that is dedicated to the entire chain around listening, thus not only to playback via various consumer electronics products and personal audio devices, but also as one of the leading musical instrument manufacturers in the creation of music, and as a leading supplier in the pro audio segment also of all production processes around concerts and recordings.

Noise an everyday companion

It is a fact that we basically live in a noisy time, almost the whole day people are exposed to something, be it in traffic, in business and office rooms, while shopping, up to the evening relaxation in front of the TV or with music. For years, noise has been considered a major factor that can have a massive impact on people’s health. And since we ourselves cannot escape certain situations with particularly high noise pollution, it is all the more important to be particularly attentive to all those we can influence.

This applies, for example, to relaxing, which for many people fortunately goes hand in hand with the consumption of music. Never before has so much music been consumed as today, that’s a fact, and the constant availability of music via mobile devices such as smartphones and networked consumer electronics systems in conjunction with a wide variety of streaming services has been the main reason for this.

It is primarily young people who make particularly intensive use of these possibilities.

Many young people at risk of hearing loss

For example, Yamaha Music Europe GmbH states that a 2019 report by the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about half of people between the ages of 12 and 35 are at risk of hearing loss. The number is even expected to rise.

One of the most significant factors in this development, according to the organization, is the intensive, yet incorrect, consumption of music by this population group, whether at live events, in clubs, or more specifically, listening to loud music through headphones for extended periods of time.

Yamaha Safe Listening

Yamaha Music Europe GmbH is therefore focusing precisely on this issue, as since 2019 the company has once again been heavily involved in the development of headphones for consumers itself. From the very beginning, the company has placed the topic of safe listening at the center of the development process, and intends to push this commitment even further in the future.

Thus, all headphones available to date are based on safe listening, as Yamaha Music Europe GmbH itself describes it, and this applies equally to in-ear, on-ear and over-ear headphones. The solutions are therefore equipped with Yamaha Listening Care Technology, which is intended to provide the best listening pleasure even at comparatively low volumes.

Yamaha Listening Care Technology

So that the music does not have to be turned up louder to hear the entire frequency range, the Japanese company has integrated Yamaha Listening Care Technology into the new headphone models. This tunes the playback to suit the situation at hand, without simply increasing the level. The precise tuning of the sound also ensures more balance even at low volumes and a sound in which all high and low frequencies can be heard. This also protects the user’s hearing. Yamaha has drawn on its vast wealth of experience with sound design and earlier audio technology such as Yamaha YPAO Volume to develop this technology.

This technology can be found in the models already available as well as in the new Yamaha TW-E5B True Wireless Earbuds, for example, which is due to be launched on the market in the near future.

Thinking about hearing health

But let’s get back to the new “Safe Listening” website, which Yamaha Music Europe GmbH has now launched and which is dedicated entirely to the topic of hearing health. The aim of this new service is to raise awareness of the fact that there is an increased risk of hearing loss if audio technology is used incorrectly or too loudly. So, as stated in the introduction, the new campaign is designed to inform people about the importance of “safe hearing.” This special page is launching for several regions and countries, and is deliberately designed to appeal specifically to young people.

Yamaha Music Europe GmbH wants to inspire everyone to think about a better music experience and the long-term health of their hearing, in addition to just providing information on the topic, as the company itself describes the intention.

“As the world’s leading brand for sound and music, Yamaha connects with a wide range of customers, from music creators to music listeners. It is our social responsibility to ensure that our customers can continue to enjoy music for many years to come. We hope that the release of the ‘Thinking about hearing health’ website will be a good opportunity for many customers to think about the ‘True Sound’ listening experience and their long-term hearing health.”

Yoshiyuki Tsugawa, senior general manager, Yamaha Home Audio Division

Getting to the point

It is welcome that a company like Yamaha Music Europe GmbH is devoting more attention to health aspects around essential products in its own portfolio, specifically for example the topic of healthy listening in the area of personal audio devices, namely such as headphones. Precisely because such products are in fact our everyday companions, and are therefore used very intensively, it is gratifying that the manufacturer itself also mentions the risks involved. Of course, the new campaign “Yamaha Thinking about hearing health” is also being used to communicate the advantages of the company’s own solutions in a special way, but in principle, in our humble opinion, many more manufacturers should get involved in this way in order to achieve a certain sensitivity for this topic, especially among young people.