The Netherlands are more advanced than Americans in just about everything, so it makes total sense that they should also be the country that finally figures out a way to make McDonald’s cool. No, they haven’t slipped mind-altering substances into the Big Macs or anything; they’ve found a way to transform every customer’s tray into an electronic music studio. Yep, that’s right. It’s all done by printing paper placemats with a kind of conductive ink that can trigger an accompanying app when it’s scanned by a smartphone.
Developed by TBWA/Neboko and This Page Amsterdam, the marketing effort the company is calling McTrax employs a tiny battery, sliver-thin circuit board, and dozens of digital touchpoints to enable the instant creation of electronic music. And it couldn’t be more user-friendly; any customer can easily use it to create custom-made loops, beats, synth lines, effects, and even record their own vocals atop it all. No prior musical skills required. At this time, we can neither confirm nor deny the rumor that Steve Aoki is on a first-class flight to the Netherlands right now with plans to make his next album using nothing but beats derived from the McTrax placemats.