Employees are back at the office, but crave the peace and quiet of WFH: Companies are changing up the setup of their offices, including equipping them with “quiet rooms” to accommodate employees returning to a hybrid work model after years of covid-induced WFH, the Financial Times writes. Office days, in a hybrid work setup, are usually slated for collaborative work, socializing, and bouncing ideas off each other but some employees still need their privacy and quiet in order to complete the tasks at hand. Employees who were once able to focus and work efficiently in a loud office may have lost that ability after two years of working remotely in an environment under their own control, prompting the need for quiet spaces in any open-plan office. “When you’ve spent two years alone, you become very sensitive to noise. What we’re hearing from HR departments is that people are hypersensitive to their environments,” one expert tells the salmon-colored paper.

Libraries in the US and Canada are launching streaming platforms promoting local music, thanks to MUSICat, Vice reports. The Madison Public Library created the Yahara Music Library, an online music library that features local musicians’ music was created in 2014, with help from Preston Austin and Kelly Hiser. Upon completing the project, the pair realized that they had a software prototype that other libraries interested in using could tweak and launch as well. They then built software platform MUSICat, which public libraries in Pittsburgh, Nashville, Fort Worth and New Orleans have used to launch their own streaming services. While in no way comparable to the giants like Apple Music or Spotify, more than 12 public libraries across the two countries began offering their own community-oriented music streaming services in a bid to promote local artists and local music scenes.

They even pay better: New Orleans’ local library streaming service, Crescent City Sounds pays local artists USD 250 to license their song to the New Orleans Public Library for five years, no small figure in comparison to the few cents per stream offered to independent musicians by larger streaming players like Spotify.