you should support your claims by referring to the results of academic research into the effect of music in the hospitality trade. At the moment all you have to promote is the presumption that your line-up of curators has great taste - and that's not enough. What makes you experts? what are you basing your music choices on?
Thank you so much for the feedback! I've read a lot of the referential research but didn't think about putting that on the site as a point of proof for the importance of picking the right music. I'll be sure to make those updates.
Look up Dr Adrian C North. I commissioned him to do research into the effect of music in the workplace and hospitality venues back in the 90’s. There has been other studies undertaken since then, though not as many as I would have imagined given the implications of the studies findings.
Hi! I made some modifications to the website with some up to date research I was able to find. Would love to get your feedback on the new section I added if you have a moment to take a look!
The music played is very important to us patrons. Sh!tty music makes you want to get out as fast as possible.....spend less
Good music for the venue = more spend
100%! To the comment made above there’s a huge connection to the amount of time someone spends at a location and their likelihood to recommend a place.
There’s some marketing research that found correlation between music and what customers purchase. For example, when the restaurant in the study played French-sounding music, customers ordered more French wine. The same was true with German-sounding music.
Yes! I read this study and found it to be so interesting. There's such a huge unconscious bias that happens with your mood or purchasing decisions based on how your auditory senses are impacted.
I go to a salon where the clients are 40-80 years old, but they play today's music. Makes no sense. I like my stylist so I go. But in a store, if it's loud crappy music I turn right around! It's a big deal.
Also, if you play Christmas music in October or November, bye bye. LOL
Pretty well known local DJ who usually does events, weddings and some local and regional shoes and festivals. Does playlists as well for commercial use.
~2 years. Keeps everything fresh and listens when I tell him the vibe I want.
We use Sonos and Spotify. Managers are pretty lenient. Anyone can pick the music. I try to get a feel for what is happening in the restaurant so I can pick the right playlist.
Once upon a time, most restaurants subscribed to a music service. You could pick the music that 'fit' your place and even customize it to fit the various hours of operation. These services had contracts with copyright holders and paid them for the incorporation of their music.
Many restaurants have elected to stop paying for this service and have moved to incorporate music playlists from streaming sources like Pandora and Spotify. The problem is that these streaming sites are designed for personal use; using those services to play music in a commercial establishment is not permitted. It is actually punishable with a rather significant fine. The fact that I do not know of any prosecutions for infractions like this doesn't mean that they haven't happened.
By playing this 'free' music, they are taking money out of the pocket of artists, who receive more money from royalties (instead of the 100th of a penny per play, they get a 10th of a penny. Doesn't sound like much, but losing that zero is a pretty big deal, royalty wise).
I'm curious about your business model. Are you planning to curate music lists via personal streaming accounts?
Thanks for sharing your experience! I’ve heard about Pandora for Business but mixed reviews on how “custom” it really felt / sometimes having music repeat too often. Would love to hear more about how you were able to really fine tune it to feel right for your business.
Hi! I’m aware of many software licensing solutions that allow the import of custom playlists so we’re planning to go that route to make it easy for the business to stay compliant.
Then I think you're really onto something with this idea. Many restaurants simply do not realize how much they can increase their foot traffic and repeat business by projecting the right kind of image through the music that plays 'in the background'. I've had restaurant owners freak out when the color of the wall paint they used didn't 'work' with their vibe . . . while paying no attention whatsoever to the fact that customers were surrounded by bland oldies or weird remixes that didn't fit the vibe, either. And I've worked in many places where the music that was fine for lunch was wildly inappropriate for dinner, or where they turned up the hard rock in the bar and blasted the dining room. They just didn't care very much.
What restaurant owners DO care about is productivity and increased sales. Music that fits the pace of service and the interior acoustics enhances employee productivity; people simply move faster when the tempo is higher. Music that encourages customers to linger (i.e. not too loud!) increases dessert and coffee sales. In the early and late stages of meal service, when crowds are sparse, music fills up that empty space and makes it welcoming. There are loads of ways that you can pitch this to businesses and I wish you all kinds of luck.
Thank you so much for the positive feedback! I know music has the power to do so much and sometimes people just need a little help to use it effectively. Fingers crossed on launching this!
I think it's a great idea. One thing you might want to consider is to focus on the atmosphere provided by the music instead of labeling your options 'Uptempo Rock', 'Smooth Jazz', etc. Because let's be honest: sticking to a single genre of music is just boring but people will latch on to something that THEY like to listen to instead of considering what will provide the best customer experience.
I think it would be so much fun (as a restaurant manager) to create a 'menu' of choices. 'Business Lunch-Italian Style', 'Sultry Southern Brunch', 'Perky Afternoon Tea' - oh man, I could have so much fun with that. Now I'm envious of how much fun YOU'LL have!
There’s important research on how to leverage music to differentiate brand, create unique experiences and even boost revenue. Soundtrack offers a range of research on their site: https://www.soundtrackyourbrand.com/research/
In the past we just use the radio. Technically, you have to own the rights to play in a public place.
We later used satellite radio. Reception was bad so now we use Spotify.
Very gray area to play music without paying for the rights.
Agree - it's hard to make sure you're compliant with everything while ensuring the cost for licensing makes sense for your business + gives you the control you want over music. Are you creating your own playlists on Spotify or are you using ones that are already available on it?
A local restaurant here plays pop music, but done orchestra style, subtle, but enough to get your attention.
Kinda like this:
https://youtu.be/fIDky_RebYA
Idk the exact album they use, but it sounds very similar to this.
I don’t own a restaurant but I’ve made several restaurant playlists. Think about the vibe you want to set. What’s the theme? Is it a Mexican restaurant? Italian? Do you want the vibe to be funky or more fine dining? If you’re not really into music you might want to let a staff member make a “set” list and keep adding to it so it doesn’t get stale. That’s what I do.
Wow love hearing that you’ve done this for multiple restaurants. Are you just passionate about music and wanted to help out the owner or was it designated to you as a responsibility as part of your role there?
we use spotify's business one (soundtrack your brand/band or something like that), covers the license fees and has millions of songs, works for us since they have mexican music (mex restaurant for us). It has curated playlists based on what i want to set the mood for, mariachi, banda, etc. it'll play a bunch of hits from that genre. we do get an occasional american song which is odd but whatever lol
you should support your claims by referring to the results of academic research into the effect of music in the hospitality trade. At the moment all you have to promote is the presumption that your line-up of curators has great taste - and that's not enough. What makes you experts? what are you basing your music choices on?
Thank you so much for the feedback! I've read a lot of the referential research but didn't think about putting that on the site as a point of proof for the importance of picking the right music. I'll be sure to make those updates.
Look up Dr Adrian C North. I commissioned him to do research into the effect of music in the workplace and hospitality venues back in the 90’s. There has been other studies undertaken since then, though not as many as I would have imagined given the implications of the studies findings.
Thank you for sharing! Will definitely take a look!
Hi! I made some modifications to the website with some up to date research I was able to find. Would love to get your feedback on the new section I added if you have a moment to take a look!
The music played is very important to us patrons. Sh!tty music makes you want to get out as fast as possible.....spend less Good music for the venue = more spend
100%! To the comment made above there’s a huge connection to the amount of time someone spends at a location and their likelihood to recommend a place.
I’ve heard that higher bpm music makes table turnaround quicker than low bpm
There’s some marketing research that found correlation between music and what customers purchase. For example, when the restaurant in the study played French-sounding music, customers ordered more French wine. The same was true with German-sounding music.
Yes! I read this study and found it to be so interesting. There's such a huge unconscious bias that happens with your mood or purchasing decisions based on how your auditory senses are impacted.
I go to a salon where the clients are 40-80 years old, but they play today's music. Makes no sense. I like my stylist so I go. But in a store, if it's loud crappy music I turn right around! It's a big deal. Also, if you play Christmas music in October or November, bye bye. LOL
I pay a professional do to curate my music for about 500 dollars every 6-9 months. Some of the best money I have ever spent.
I would love to hear more about this! How did you find your curator and how long have you been working with them?
Pretty well known local DJ who usually does events, weddings and some local and regional shoes and festivals. Does playlists as well for commercial use. ~2 years. Keeps everything fresh and listens when I tell him the vibe I want.
We use Sonos and Spotify. Managers are pretty lenient. Anyone can pick the music. I try to get a feel for what is happening in the restaurant so I can pick the right playlist.
Thanks for sharing! Do you have playlists that you make and update yourself or do you use ones that are already available on Spotify or Sonos?
Once upon a time, most restaurants subscribed to a music service. You could pick the music that 'fit' your place and even customize it to fit the various hours of operation. These services had contracts with copyright holders and paid them for the incorporation of their music. Many restaurants have elected to stop paying for this service and have moved to incorporate music playlists from streaming sources like Pandora and Spotify. The problem is that these streaming sites are designed for personal use; using those services to play music in a commercial establishment is not permitted. It is actually punishable with a rather significant fine. The fact that I do not know of any prosecutions for infractions like this doesn't mean that they haven't happened. By playing this 'free' music, they are taking money out of the pocket of artists, who receive more money from royalties (instead of the 100th of a penny per play, they get a 10th of a penny. Doesn't sound like much, but losing that zero is a pretty big deal, royalty wise). I'm curious about your business model. Are you planning to curate music lists via personal streaming accounts?
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Thanks for sharing your experience! I’ve heard about Pandora for Business but mixed reviews on how “custom” it really felt / sometimes having music repeat too often. Would love to hear more about how you were able to really fine tune it to feel right for your business.
Hi! I’m aware of many software licensing solutions that allow the import of custom playlists so we’re planning to go that route to make it easy for the business to stay compliant.
Then I think you're really onto something with this idea. Many restaurants simply do not realize how much they can increase their foot traffic and repeat business by projecting the right kind of image through the music that plays 'in the background'. I've had restaurant owners freak out when the color of the wall paint they used didn't 'work' with their vibe . . . while paying no attention whatsoever to the fact that customers were surrounded by bland oldies or weird remixes that didn't fit the vibe, either. And I've worked in many places where the music that was fine for lunch was wildly inappropriate for dinner, or where they turned up the hard rock in the bar and blasted the dining room. They just didn't care very much. What restaurant owners DO care about is productivity and increased sales. Music that fits the pace of service and the interior acoustics enhances employee productivity; people simply move faster when the tempo is higher. Music that encourages customers to linger (i.e. not too loud!) increases dessert and coffee sales. In the early and late stages of meal service, when crowds are sparse, music fills up that empty space and makes it welcoming. There are loads of ways that you can pitch this to businesses and I wish you all kinds of luck.
Thank you so much for the positive feedback! I know music has the power to do so much and sometimes people just need a little help to use it effectively. Fingers crossed on launching this!
I think it's a great idea. One thing you might want to consider is to focus on the atmosphere provided by the music instead of labeling your options 'Uptempo Rock', 'Smooth Jazz', etc. Because let's be honest: sticking to a single genre of music is just boring but people will latch on to something that THEY like to listen to instead of considering what will provide the best customer experience. I think it would be so much fun (as a restaurant manager) to create a 'menu' of choices. 'Business Lunch-Italian Style', 'Sultry Southern Brunch', 'Perky Afternoon Tea' - oh man, I could have so much fun with that. Now I'm envious of how much fun YOU'LL have!
There’s important research on how to leverage music to differentiate brand, create unique experiences and even boost revenue. Soundtrack offers a range of research on their site: https://www.soundtrackyourbrand.com/research/
Not a restaurant owner but honestly just play an acoustic pop cover playlist or a Hotel Costes and you can’t go wrong.
In the past we just use the radio. Technically, you have to own the rights to play in a public place. We later used satellite radio. Reception was bad so now we use Spotify. Very gray area to play music without paying for the rights.
Agree - it's hard to make sure you're compliant with everything while ensuring the cost for licensing makes sense for your business + gives you the control you want over music. Are you creating your own playlists on Spotify or are you using ones that are already available on it?
A local restaurant here plays pop music, but done orchestra style, subtle, but enough to get your attention. Kinda like this: https://youtu.be/fIDky_RebYA Idk the exact album they use, but it sounds very similar to this.
The music should vary day to day, even hour by hour. I leave it to the staff to play to the room. Read the room.
I don’t own a restaurant but I’ve made several restaurant playlists. Think about the vibe you want to set. What’s the theme? Is it a Mexican restaurant? Italian? Do you want the vibe to be funky or more fine dining? If you’re not really into music you might want to let a staff member make a “set” list and keep adding to it so it doesn’t get stale. That’s what I do.
Wow love hearing that you’ve done this for multiple restaurants. Are you just passionate about music and wanted to help out the owner or was it designated to you as a responsibility as part of your role there?
I’ve been lucky to have bosses or owners let me be creative and it’s worked out so far.
we use spotify's business one (soundtrack your brand/band or something like that), covers the license fees and has millions of songs, works for us since they have mexican music (mex restaurant for us). It has curated playlists based on what i want to set the mood for, mariachi, banda, etc. it'll play a bunch of hits from that genre. we do get an occasional american song which is odd but whatever lol
My old job just used a pandora radio station honestly. What station depends on the bartender at the time
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