Music is a part of everybody’s lives whether you actively listen to it in your leisure time, or if you just hear it in passing. However, people may also be unaware of the effect that background music can have on their experiences within gyms, in retail shops, hairdressers, restaurants or bars.
With this, it is important for the business to identify the right sort of music for their venue and to fit their clientele, as when the music is too loud, not fitting or hard to listen to- customers are less likely to stay or return.
The music choice of your business can help to enhance your customer’s experience, keep them in your business for longer, encourage return custom and increase your sales.
This article is designed to extend your knowledge on 4 reasons why your business should consider using background music and how it can positively impact your venue and clientele. Within this article you can find out more about how your background music can help to:
Build the right atmosphere.
Set your customer's pace.
Extending Dwell Times.
Create a memorable shopping experience.Before playing music within your business, you need to ensure that you have the right legal rights. There are some complicated legalities to consider when playing music.
Many of us pay for subscription music streaming services monthly to enjoy our favourite artists and may believe that this means they can play this music within their business or venue. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case, and their terms and conditions usually state that their service is for personal entertainment and not for commercial use. This means that they cannot be played publicly by a business in gyms, restaurants, bars, radio stations, shops, restaurants, cafes or other public places.
In order to play music, you need to have the correct permissions. Within the UK, many businesses are required to have a license to play live or recorded music such as:
Radio's
CD's
Music Channels - Build the right atmosphere
Background music is used for more than just filling the silence, it can help to change the atmosphere of your business. The atmosphere of your business matters to your customers and should matter to your business too. In a study on “Store Atmosphere, Mood and Purchasing Behaviour”, there were suggestions that the atmosphere of your business can affect how your customers rate your establishment.
Building the right atmosphere might sound like a scary task- but it doesn’t have to be. This can be as simple as differentiating your brand, choosing a target audience and to think about how you want your customer to experience your brand, venue or business. Background music can assist you with this, using the tempo, volume and timbre to help pace your customers, create ambience and help to characterise your business.
- Set your customer’s pace
Background music can positively impact all your customers, even those that are waiting in line or hoping to speak with a manager or customer services’. Science has indicated that when humans listen to music, dopamine is released and as a result, we become happier. The human body is also found to prefer music that sounds pleasant and research has noticed a link between this and the likelihood of being entrained by the music, with rhythm, and movement being intertwined with music.
- Extending Dwell Times
Dwell time often refers to the amount of time that people spend in your venue and the speed that they move around or eat in your venue.
Music is immensely powerful at changing the pace of people- this is commonly used during sports, if we want to run quickly we tend to choose music that has a faster tempo, and if we want to be calm such as during a yoga session the music is softer and slower to aid with relaxation.
This can be translated into your venue too, for example faster music will encourage shoppers and guests to leave faster and spend less. As a result, many venues tend to play more positive and liked music to aid with customer satisfaction and happiness, whilst increasing dwell time. If clients enjoy their time within your venue, they are more likely to browse for longer and purchase more- whether this is food at a restaurant, clothes in a shop.
- Create a memorable shopping experience.
Music serves a bigger impact on people than we may first think, studies show that emotion is the same area of our brain as memory. This therefore suggests that if the music you play compliments your business and helps to form a memorable experience, then powerful emotions can be created towards your brand. This can help to improve visitors’ or customers’ experience in your venue, which may help to improve the likelihood of return custom/ recommendations/ positive reviews- which can equally encourage more custom to your business.
Background music speakers can be discreet, through an overhead system this can help with the quality and as it means that the volume stays steady and is easier to achieve a more uniformed dispersion of sound. They are also very versatile pieces of technology and can be designed to play different music throughout your venue, without affecting the quality. This is typically popular in staff- only areas or toilets, where people may not want the same genre of music.
