Best Ways to Play Background Music for Businesses & Stores

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Background music can increase a customer's positive associations with your business. The better the soundtrack, the more they'll think of you and your brand.

Your background music options include the following:

  • Play the radio
  • Hire a band
  • Connect with a streaming service
  • Work with PROs directly

Let’s dig into each of these options, and we’ll provide some information on background music, so you’ll understand just what the tradition is all about.

Best Ways to Play Background Music

Since music is so important to the human experience, you want to provide your customers with music:

  • They will love.
  • That is appropriate to your brand.
  • That is easy to access.

Four avenues are available.

Play the Radio

If your business is smaller than 2,000 feet (or 3,750 for eating or drinking establishments), you can play the radio through something that has fewer than six speakers. But you can't use something like an internet radio. It must be a standard program you can pick up through a traditional receiver.

Work With PROs Directly

Performing rights organizations (PROs) manage copyright distribution for musicians, performers, and composers by issuing licenses to their catalogs. If you are interested in a certain song, musician, or composition for your business, you must contact the PRO that oversees that copyright. They can issue you a license for their music, which gives you a limited time to access their catalog.

Each PRO manages a different catalog, with little to no overlap in artists.

These are the major PROs in the United States:

  • Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI)
  • The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP)
  • SESAC

Since each of these organizations manages a different catalog of songs, you may find that you need to purchase licenses from more than one of these groups to get all the music you want for your business. This can get expensive and cumbersome.

Instead, you might consider working with a music streaming service specializing in business licenses.

Connect With a Streaming Service

Too many business owners have turned to their music options (smartphones or tablets with a music streaming app) and found themselves the focus of lawsuits for copyright infringement. Commercial music for business is not included with personal streaming services like Spotify or Pandora.

These services manage individual music licenses for the songs they have available, so you can legally listen to a radio station or make a playlist for personal use as a subscriber or free user. Music for businesses (music played in a retail or public space), which reaches dozens of people, is considered a public performance of that piece.

Companies like Cloud Cover Music allow you to create a playlist, share it with your customers, and do so without breaking the copyright or any laws. You truly are getting the best of both worlds.

Hire a Band

If you'd like to hire a band, you'll still need to work with those who hold the copyright. A live performance is based on an original work, and the person who created it deserves to get paid. If your band plays all original works, these rules don’t apply, of course.

You’ll also need someone to play around the clock to help your customers. Few bands want to play this often, and those that do can charge a pretty penny.

How to Add Background Music Easily

The quickest and easiest way to play background music for your business patrons is to work with a streaming service. Getting started is easy.

First, you'll need a streaming device, such as a computer or tablet. This device must connect to the internet at all times, and you should be able to tap it and change it as needed.

Next, you’ll need speakers. The amount you’ll need is up to you and your room. Some people want dozens to flood the space, and others like a few in high-impact areas. Start small and see what your customers think. Adding more is easy.

The History & Psychology of Background Music

Most research into music and brain function shows that listening to some types of music can improve productivity, happiness, and creativity regarding work-related tasks.

Background music, especially without vocals or lyrics, can enhance focus and improve mood when dealing with repetitive or boring projects. However, additional research suggests that some music with lyrics may improve focus even more by relieving monotony.

A study published in 2015 found that participants had better facial recollection (a measure of memory) and that the group remembered new human faces better with emotionally touching background music or complete silence, but not with ambient sounds. It was hypothesized that music that aroused emotions helped tie the new faces into the participants’ memories.

This suggests that, when you’re considering background music for your business, you want music that does not disturb your customers but can help them form a positive emotional attachment to your store or brand.

The Muzak company popularized the concept that good background music could benefit patrons’ emotional state in the 1940s. While this company has long been associated with mellow and saccharine piped-in music, especially in elevators, the breakthrough of attaching music to a business was huge.

Muzak became most notoriously associated with elevators because companies began using calming tunes to soothe people who were nervous about enclosed spaces or heights. This became more prevalent as skyscrapers became part of the urban landscape and more people had to travel up elevators regularly.

Corporations chose Muzak because the company pioneered the concept of pleasant music having a psychological impact. Around World War II, Muzak patented the idea of stimulus progression, an approach to music for employees that increased in tempo every 15 minutes to increase workers’ productivity.

This psychological experiment blossomed into a boon for retailers and restaurants. They began playing instrumental music to keep patrons in their stores longer, enjoying the atmosphere and potentially buying more.

A survey of consumers found that 61 percent reported music was important or very important in their lives. When people experienced retail music they enjoyed, the following was found:

  • 35 percent said they stayed in the store longer
  • 31 percent reported they would revisit the store
  • 21 percent reported they would recommend the business to others
  • 14 percent reported they would buy more items

Similarly, when a business played the wrong music, 44 percent of participants reported that they were negatively impacted to a large or very large extent.

Choosing the best background music for the customers you want is key to your business’s ambiance.

Finding the Perfect Background Music

At Cloud Cover Music, we have a range of music to fit any business.

We can help you identify the right music for your store, and we have all the licensing issues covered. Contact us today, and we’ll help you get started.

The major PROs in the United States include:

  • Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI)
  • The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
  • SESAC
  • Global Music Rights (GMR)

Since each of these organizations manages a different catalogue of songs, you may find that you need to purchase licenses from more than one of these groups to get all the music you want for your business. This can get expensive and cumbersome. Instead, you may consider working with a music streaming service that specializes in business licenses.

Finding the Perfect Background Music

At Cloud Cover Music, we have a range of music to fit any business.

We can help you identify the right music for your store, and we have all the licensing issues covered. Contact us today and we’ll help you get started.

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