British Museum bangs the drum for online music

Visitors who take smartphones to the British Museum's Akan Drum exhibit will be able to download the soundtrack to the display.

The museum's first interactive playlist features Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and Beyoncé's Single Ladies, as the exhibition explores Africa's influence on a range of music.

The drum is originally from the Akan region in Ghana where it was played at religious ceremonies, and is one of the oldest surviving objects of the transatlantic slave trade.

It was collected in the early 1700s in what was then the British colony of Virginia – now part of the US — and acquired by Sir Hans Sloane, whose collection formed the basis of the British Museum when it was founded in 1753.

Matthew Cock, the museum's head of web learning and audiences, said: "When you visit the exhibit, there is music playing in the background, and also slides showing photographs projected onto the wall.

"By simply pointing their phone at a code on the wall, visitors will be able to instantly download the playlist our experts have come up with, and see the slides."

The system is made possible by barcodes, called QR codes, that are printed on the information labels under the drum. Visitor with smartphones can take a picture of the codes and are given links to listen to either listen to the songs on music service Spotify, or buy them from iTunes.