From PSCYVOTV to Jessie Ware's Devotion campaign, we've seen a lot of examples lately of music marketing slowing right down. But we had yet to see the actual music consumption itself slow down...until now.

Listen Carefully is an interactive design project created by Jonas Breme at the University of Applied Science in Potsdam to raise awareness about the fact that, 'listening to music has switched from an active activity to a passive activity.' Frustrated by the fact that music consumption has become, for many, merely the backdrop to their busy lifestyles, Breme designed a pair of headphones that puts music firmly in the foreground. His custom 'sensitive' headphones force users to focus purely on what they are listening to by literally turning the music off if the user moves...

Equipt with a built in acceleormeter, a digital potentiometer and an Arduino Montor, any movements picked up by the headphones causes the playback volume to drop, forcing the user to sit still, relax and enjoy. As Breme explains, 'Listen Carefully rains the user to focus on hearing their music again.'

While the headphones may be the wrong choice for listening to dance music or taking to silent discos, the project nevertheless is an interesting concept which ties into our Digital Downtime trend and aims to make us question our current forms of consumption. Check out the video above for more info.