As a restaurant owner, your life is filled with decisions. Should you use cloth or paper napkins? Should you serve tacos or spaghetti? Should you make people order at the counter or the table? One of your most important decisions involves music.
The benefits of background music for your restaurant include a reduction in background noise, a more pleasant atmosphere, and the opportunity to build your brand. As a restaurant owner, your decision doesn’t involve whether you should play music but what music to play.
We’ll outline the benefits of background music and help you understand how to get started.
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How Background Music Can Benefit Your Specific Type of Restaurant
Background music is loosely defined as tunes played within an environment in which something else is happening. In some restaurants, background music is quiet enough to ignore. In others, it’s loud enough to sing along with. We’ll outline how music is used in a variety of different settings here.
Full Service & Fine Dining
In a restaurant that’s designed for good food and great conversation, choosing the right music is critical.
The benefits of music in full-service restaurants include the following:
Enhanced Ambiance
Classical or jazz music could create a sophisticated and luxurious atmosphere, making the dining experience more special for guests. In 2020, researchers wrote about the connection between jazz and fine dining.
They noted that most high-end restaurants played jazz. Since that’s true, customers expecting luxury are likely to expect jazz. Meet that expectation, and you could serve your customers well.
Improved Customer Experience
Researchers say that ongoing noise can cause our bodies to release stress-related hormones like cortisol. Making your patrons and staff feel stressed isn’t likely part of your ideal restaurant experience. Music can help.
The right tunes can mask sounds that people might consider noise. Music can also help people focus on something they like instead of something they don’t. They can hear conversation rather than clanking dishes in the kitchen.
Increased Sales
In 2015, researchers conducted a survey about music heard by patrons in restaurants in Canada. They found that 75% of patrons enjoyed their food and drink more when recorded music was playing, and that same percentage said they would stay in the restaurant longer.
When consumers linger, they are more likely to spend more in your establishment.
Quick Service & Fast Food
Music often accompanies our daily activities. Researchers say that Americans spend an average of 20.7 hours listening to music every week. We often listen to that music when we’re snacking or sharing a meal with someone else.
The benefits of music for quick-service restaurants include the following:
Positive Influence on Customer Behavior
Upbeat music could encourage quicker dining, which can keep the line moving efficiently and increase customer turnover rates.
For example, in a study published in 2023, researchers provided 26 women with meals accompanied by music that was fast, moderate, or slow. They found that songs considered moderate resulted in faster eating speed and more food and drink consumption
Boost Staff Morale
A lot of the research on restaurants and music involves patrons: how much do they eat, how do they feel, and how they perceive the overall experience.
Remember that many of these benefits apply to your staff members as well. When music is playing, they aren’t forced to listen to patron conversations, hear cooking noises, and more. Staff may also appreciate songs they can hum or sing along to during a hectic shift.
Increased Brand Identity
For some customers, the music is critical. In 2023, researchers conducted a survey of 1,000 American customers across age groups. They found that, among Millennials, music was the second most important feature they consider when choosing a restaurant or bar.
Knowing your customers and playing the songs they like and expect could help define your brand and ensure they choose you over someone else.
Traditional Dining
Pleasure is among the main benefits of background music for your restaurant.
Other benefits of music in traditional restaurants include the following:
Creates a Comfortable Environment
Familiar and pleasant background music can make diners feel at home, enhancing their overall dining experience.
Researchers say that different types of music can impact the way consumers behave. For example, rock music tends to increase alcohol consumption, while classical music reduces the intake of savory foods.
Masks Unwanted Noise
Restaurants are filled with noise. Your patrons may hear conversations from other tables, cooking noise, and staff chatter. Those sounds aren’t just unpleasant. They could also be harmful. Music can ensure your customers stay focused on the food, drink, and overall experience.
Encourages Longer Visits
For example, in 2006, researchers asked 78 college students to participate in a study for a full week. During some meals, music was playing. In others, the students ate in silence. The researchers found that students ate more and stayed at the table for longer while the music was playing.
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Understand the Law
U.S. copyright law protects people like singers, musicians, and publishers. They have the right to control public performances of their work. Any time you play music in a restaurant, it is considered a public performance of a song. You need a legal agreement, and a payment, to ensure you don’t break the laws.
You can’t get an arrangement like this if you create a playlist and push it through your speakers. You also can’t buy a CD and play it legally. You need a legal arrangement.
Some business owners meet this requirement by contacting all of the performing rights organizations (PROs), such as BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC. They pay fees to all of them, and they can play any song they want.
You could work with a company like Pandora CloudCover instead. These companies arrange with the PROs and give their customers access for one fee. This is a much simpler way to get access to the music you want to play in your restaurant.
How to Get Started
Partner with Pandora CloudCover and get the help you need to access all of the benefits of background music.
Choose one of our pre-programmed channels, and start playing music immediately. Customize those channels or make your own from scratch. Control the music through a platform, and switch things up from your device.
Contact us for a free 14-day trial and test-drive the product with no risk. Terms and conditions apply.
References
IFPI’s Global Study Finds We’re Listening to More Music in More Ways Than Ever. (December 2023). IFPI.
Listening to Music While Eating is Related to Increases in People’s Food Intake and Meal Duration. (May 2006). Appetite.
How Does Background Noise Affect Our Concentration? (January 2010). Scientific American.
Leading Effects of Music Heard in Restaurants According to Customers in Canada. (December 2015) Statista.