10 things music can do for you
Music is often an overlooked part of a brand identity, especially in comparison to visuals, but it has a huge part to play in creating the right mood in out of home environments.
Music speaks to our emotional centre. The second we hear certain sounds we recall memories and associations, we are transported back to certain places, filled with feeling and our mood can instantly be changed.
This is why Liveqube creates handcrafted playlists for each client. The team spend time getting to know the brand, their objectives and target audiences then schedules the sounds to reach those goals.
Christian Steenstrup, Music Director at Liveqube explores 10 ways the power of music can be harnessed in out of home environments.
To enhance authenticity
For restaurants serving country specific foods, spas looking to capture the origin of a treatment and bars themed around a certain genre, music can be used to enhance the feeling of authenticity. By hearing the sounds that we would associate with the desired location every fifth song, it helps to reinforce these associations and make the experience more authentic.
To make you stand out
Using audio as a part of your brand is a powerful tool for giving your space its own personality and vibe. Whether you get this right from the very beginning or it’s something that becomes more established as your business matures, changing the audio is significantly quicker and more cost-effective than a visual rebrand, but just as powerful.
To calm people down
Music can have a calming effect, slowing people down in certain situations and encouraging them to take it easy. In-car parks, for example, a guest may have had a stressful journey to the location, so playing classical music as they walk from the lot to the store helps them to relax along the way.
To decrease perceived waiting time
Standing in-line is different with music. A study by the University of Liverpool found that there is a positive relationship between background musical tempo and the perception of wait times. A slow-tempo piece significantly enhances feelings of positivity, satisfaction and relaxation.
To liven up the atmosphere
On the flip side to the above point, music can be used to create a party atmosphere and liven things up. This takes place in bars for example as they transition to an evening dance space, changing the vibe entirely. In fast-food restaurants music reflects the pace at which customers are looking to collect their food and enhances the efficiency of the food preparation team.
For image and lifestyle
For a lot of our clients, their audiences change throughout the day, along with the reason for them being there. From quick work lunches to leisurely evening meals, sophisticated drinks with friends and a lively dance session into the night. Music helps to create these lifestyles and we use a technique called day parting in our schedules so that these transitions happen automatically.
To avoiding the ‘library’ silence!
By playing music, customers feel less embarrassed when asking for help. This is especially useful at pharmacies or in banks, places where you have private matters to discuss and don’t want to be overheard.
To set the pace
Music has the power to subtly influence behaviours and help set the pace. Slower music, for example. leads to slower shoppers, which in turn leads to shoppers having more time to discover and interact with more products. In Milliman’s supermarket study, he found that, on average, sales volume was 38% higher on days when stores played slow background music.
As entertainment
And of course, music isn’t just for the background, it also has it’s time in the limelight! This is often associated with live music being played but during Covid it hasn’t always been possible for some of our clients to get live acts in, so when a bar would have normally transitioned to a live DJ, we have been filling that slot.
As a timing function
Within wellness and beauty environments, music has an obvious part to play in helping customers to relax, but it is also cleverly used by the team as a timer. Playlists are created to last a certain amount of time giving the therapist audio clues as to how much time is left so they can keep on schedule.