Choosing the Right Music App for Your Bar or Restaurant: Apps for Specific Situations

When people go to a bar or restaurant, a huge part of that experience is the atmosphere. Playing the right music and shaping the overall “vibe” you’re putting out to customers with specific music apps can have real benefits, including improving the customer experience and generating more sales. 

There isn’t one perfect solution when it comes to this. You need to understand the specific type of business you’re running and the customers you have to make sure you’re playing the perfect tunes for your model. 

TouchTunes: Best Jukebox Music 

TouchTunes is an app designed to serve as the modern jukebox, with a large catalog of music and playlists that can be selected for play. Restaurant and bar managers can talk to their team about several of the jukebox models they offer, helping to make the customer jukebox experience easy and reminiscent of the days of old when the jukebox ruled bars and restaurants all over the world. 

TouchTunes can be a good option for establishments looking to bring back this old style of playing tunes. The service offers the modern flair necessary to keep it appealing to an audience that didn’t grow up in the age of the golden age of the jukebox. TouchTunes lets customers play anything from a jukebox that is customized to have the tunes you think are most appropriate for your venues. 

This sort of jukebox experience can be great for establishments that have distinct sections, allowing music to be played without too much bleeding into other areas. If playing music at lower volumes, you can even feature jukeboxes at individual tables. 

Just keep in mind that part of the fun of a jukebox is that customers can choose the tunes. Make sure you have limits in place so people can’t (intentionally or not) play music so loudly or repetitiously that it hurts other customers' experiences. 

King Trivia: Music & Games Combined

King Trivia stands out from the other options we discuss in this article, as it’s a growing phenomenon designed to make the classic pub quiz game more accessible. 

They offer a variety of options, but one we’d like to highlight is their Music Bingo, which combines playing portions of many popular tunes with a bingo format. Running competitive events can help you better connect with customers, getting them emotionally invested in your bar or restaurant, while also attracting people who might not otherwise have even visited but who love these types of competitions.  

This combination of music and game has a very broad appeal, but it’s especially great if you know your bar or restaurant attracts many music lovers. King Trivia makes running these types of events easy and affordable. Add in the typical one-drink minimum at these events, and you have a great way to bring in some extra revenue while getting people excited to visit your business. 

King Trivia has their quizzes highly gamified. Customers are able to download an app and form teams that play in seasonal leagues, and their scores are tracked and compared to other players. 

SiriusXM for Business: Best for Radio Settings

SiriusXM for Business allows venues to play a variety of modern, radio-style channels to their customers, all properly licensed and easy to use. Unlike some of the other offerings discussed here, this also allows a business to play more talk-focused content (although music channels are obviously still available).

This service is highly customizable, with the ability to manage music scheduling, adjust audio messaging, and more. They also offer some tools and software integrations that might be of interest to savvy bars and restaurants, including the ability to add SiriusXM to the Sonos App, allowing you to better control what’s playing and where in various areas of your business. 

Pandora CloudCover: Best Background Music Solution

With an expansive catalog and easy-to-use interface, Pandora CloudCover is the best background music solution available for bars and restaurants. We have a huge library of music, all properly licensed, that allows any restaurant or bar to customize playlists to their clientele. 

We have vast experience in the restaurant and bar industry, and we know how to tailor playlists to fit a range of different types of establishments. Whether you run a country-style diner or an upscale cocktail lounge, our large library of music can cater to your needs.

We have a variety of plans, aimed at meeting the auditory needs of any bar or restaurant, big or small. We pride ourselves in offering our clients the hits from The Beatles to Beyoncé to Taylor Swift, all without commercials or other interruptions.

The biggest draw of Pandora CloudCover is that our services cover most of what the typical bar or restaurant is going to want. You can choose from a huge catalog of music, make playlists that fit your brand, and play them out to customers without worrying about licensing issues. We also offer stellar customer support, making the entire process easy and enjoyable. 

References

Jukeboxes. TouchTunes.

King Trivia Player App. King Trivia.

Business. SiriusXM for Business.

At These Restaurants, Good Sound Is Just as Important as Good Food. (April 2024). The Wall Street Journal.