NATURE SOUNDS IN A HYPERMARKET A case study on the modified soundscape of commercial spaces in Finland You're only in the parking lot when you can already hear the music, and it gets somewhat louder when you approach the sliding doors of the hypermarket. After crossing the hallway, you enter the interior goods section through the automatic swing gate, which clatters when the gate collides with the pole. Suddenly, the music mixes with another piece playing from the car stereo aisle, and only a few metres away, there is a loud digital display unit playing music and dialogue, advertising a lawnmower. At one point, you hear all the three different pieces of music concurrently. Leaving the cacophony behind and strolling ahead towards the produce section, you unexpectedly hear the familiar sound of a bird singing cuckoo , cuckoo , cuckoo. As you are walking towards the fruit and vegetables section, you are suddenly surrounded by the sounds of a humming forest. (Recorded listening walks 16.9.2016.) This study examines the use of nature sounds and sound design in a semipublic commercial space. The hypermarket experience narrated above represents one of the experiences of the participants of our study. Music can be heard in most semi-public commercial spaces-coffee shops, malls, at the hairdresser's, airports, buses et cetera. Sound researcher Jonathan Sterne (1997: 23) argues that