If you want to start playing background music for business, Pandora CloudCover is here to help. Background music can be tricky to get right, as you need to stay legally compliant while also making sure to set the right mood.
We’ve outlined how you can start playing the right types of music to start shaping your brand and even improving sales. We also explain how to avoid some of the common mistakes businesses often fall into when just starting to play music.
10 Tips to Help You Succeed in Your Business
The overall customer experience is greatly shaped by music and not just by its presence. The right type of music can have a substantial effect on your customers, helping to increase your bottom line and encourage repeat business.
Here are 10 tips to ensure the music you play is best benefiting your business:
1. Legal Compliance Is Key
Most music, at least most modern music, is copywritten and needs to be properly licensed for use if you intend to play it for customers. Many businesses don’t understand the legal limitations around music and get themselves into serious trouble playing whatever is popular or seems appropriate without the right licenses to do so.
You can play music at your business, but you need to learn how this licensing works. One of the major benefits of companies like Pandora CloudCover is that we can ensure you are legally set to use a wide variety of music that fits your brand. We take care of the hard parts, so you can focus on running your business.
2. Match Music to Brand Identity
Every brand has its own identity that customers become familiar with. When using music, a business should aim to match what it’s playing to the brand it hopes to establish for itself.
This is called audio branding, and it’s easy to overlook. How odd it would feel to hear heavy metal music at a store selling children’s toys? Sometimes audio branding is obvious, but other times, it's not.
Some songs are admittedly more versatile than others. Inoffensive pop and rock songs are commonly used by many brands. While you can stick to safer choices like this, it’s at least something you should always be thinking about when choosing music for your business.
3. Understand Your Audience & What They Want
Somewhat linked to the previous point, a business should also consider what type of atmosphere is likely to appeal most to its customers.
Importantly, music is only part of what creates atmosphere. Getting both the audio and aesthetic experience of a space correct is important for keeping customers engaged and making them feel comfortable in your spaces.
Music should be additive. Pay attention to the tone and lyrics of the music to make sure it's actually contributing to the inviting, friendly atmosphere most businesses aim for.
4. Align Musical Tempo With Time of Day
Part of running a business is understanding humans on a psychological level. People wax and wane in terms of energy, engagement, and what they want to hear. A good habit is to try to match musical tempo with the time of day.
For example, music can typically be more lively in the middle of the day than early in the morning. This is especially true of businesses operating during very early hours. A song that’s exciting and fun at 2 p.m. may be grating and overwhelming at 6 p.m.
5. Volume Is Crucial
Pay close attention to volume when playing music for customers. If it’s too quiet, it’s going to be hard for customers to hear it and it may not do its job. After all, you’re not going to be engaged by something that’s barely audible.
At the same time, very loud music can be off putting (and, at the extreme, even painful).
6. Impact the Customer Journey with Customized Playlists
Playlists can help a business shape the customer journey in their stores or other places of business. Put simply, every song you’re playing should not only be appropriate to your brand, it should add value.
You may also want to avoid having playlists shuffled (although, in that case, be sure to have multiple playlists to avoid being too repetitive) to further tailor the exact experience a customer is likely to have. It’s really about taking a bird’s eye view about your overall goals.
7. Avoid Music Fatigue
Staff and repeat customers will get tired of a playlist if they constantly hear the same songs over and over again. At least a few times a month, make sure you are varying playlists to help keep things feeling fresh. Otherwise, even genuinely good music can start to feel monotonous and boring.
8. Not All Business Settings Require Lyrics
Songs with spoken lyrics aren’t necessary or even desirable for all businesses. This is especially true in models where employees are regularly talking to customers while music is playing. For example, in a law office, it would be strange to play loud music in the lobby that might affect a person’s ability to communicate with the receptionist.
This is a balancing act. Songs with lyrics are often among the most popular, but it is harder to focus on conversations when listening to those types of songs. If lyrics don’t make sense for your business, there are plenty of songs to choose from in genres such as instrumental, classical, and jazz.
9. Utilize Seasons & Events With Your Music & Messaging
Many customers love seasonal music (with Christmas music a huge favorite). Keeping in mind that you still want to maintain your tone and brand, it’s often a good idea to use music to shape the atmosphere for particular holidays and upcoming events. There are tons of stations and mixes fit for the holidays, even Halloween and spooky stations!
Just make sure to also consider our point about music fatigue. Some businesses forget to keep music appropriate to seasons or events varied enough to keep people excited and engaged.
10. Music Can Elicit Emotions
Music can have a very real emotional impact on listeners. Many songs tell stories, and almost everyone has certain emotions they link to particular songs, musicians, or whole genres of music.
At the core of playing music is understanding how music impacts customers. You want your music to have a generally positive emotional impact. If customers like what you’re playing, they’re more likely to stick around and give you repeat business.
Create the Best Background Music Experience With Pandora CloudCover
Pandora CloudCover can help you create the best background music experience possible while engaging with customers, increasing revenue, and avoiding any of the legal complications often associated with trying to play copyrighted material. If you want to shape your brand with music without the typical hassle, explore our site to see what we can offer. If you have any questions, contact our team today.