"People higher than the people here"

From a Style section piece on the effect on shop employees of "the same few dozen Christmas songs played in a loop, day and night," during the holiday season:

As if that were not enough, there is another eerie, Orwellian distraction: where is the music coming from? "I have no idea," Diana Nazario, 20, a cashier at a Duane Reade in SoHo, said, looking at the ceiling. "I think it's a system installed, and they control it. We can't control it."

Who are they?

"I have no idea," she said. "I'm guessing people higher than the people here."

How creepy--who are the higher powers pumping music into Duane Reade? Somehow I'm imagining that, after the (non-24-hour) branches close for the day, after the employees are well on their way home, a sinister band of men in business suits enters each store and, using special remote controls, programs the next day's music.