Image Credit: Australian Road Safety Foundation

In partnership with The Australian Road Safety Foundation, Spotify are inserting dramatically slowed down songs when drivers enter school zones in Queensland, Australia.

As schools re-open in Australia, the ARSF are working with creative agency Brother & Co and Spotify to bring awareness to road safety, particularly in school zones in Queensland. According to a release from the ARSF titled ‘Geo-targeting technology to keep kids safe in school zones’, if drivers enter within five kilometres of a school zone, Spotify will insert one of ten dramatically slowed songs at the end of the current playing song and play a road safety message. This is to help drivers who may not have noticed signage.

The selected slowed songs comes from Queensland’s leading musicians including The Jungle Giants, Caitlyn Shadbolt and Shag Rock, who donated their songs.

According to research from ARSF, three quarters of Queensland drivers admitted to speeding, with 29% of drivers admitting to speeding at least weekly and 42% admitting to speeding once every few months. Continuing by stating, road trauma is the number one killer of children aged 14 and under.

The Slow Down Songs campaign will only play to Spotify Free members. Spotify Premium subscribers’ listening experience will not be disrupted. We are currently unsure whether there is a way to turn this feature off, as it could become an issue for those living with the school zone. Perhaps Spotify will only play the songs and message when they recognise you’re in the car. These questions are sure to be answered as testing continues.