Let’s compare background music streaming services. What will fit your venue?
Background music is an essential and often underestimated component of creating customer loyalty and a wonderful experience. Thoughtful music selection can help establishments like bars, cafes, hotels, retail stores, spas, and gyms strengthen brand identity, boost the audience’s satisfaction, and stimulate consumers to make purchases.
The MRC’s report found that 65% of participants believe it’s crucial for venues to provide a compelling ambiance through music and 54.9% say they spend more time at a place when enjoying songs. According to a five-month study carried out by experts at HUI Research, restaurants playing tailored music that reflects their culture can push up sales by over 9%.
This way, background music should not be considered as a minor detail. To make music a powerful tool, you should choose a music streaming service that will suit your specific needs. In this article, we’ll consider music streaming solutions in detail to help you choose the right one for your business. Let’s begin.
- B2C music streaming apps
- B2B music streaming services
- Free/Paid radio
- Royalty-free music streaming
- In-store radio
B2C music streaming apps
B2C music streaming covers applications designed for personal, non-commercial use. However, many establishments such as bars, cafes, restaurants, spas and beauty salons use music playlists provided by B2C products due to their benefits.
Advantages
1. Large music library
Popular B2C background music streaming services offer a large music library with numerous playlists to meet different tastes. You can find music selections of multiple genres, eras, and duration. The majority of B2C apps display the number of likes for every playlist, so that you can see what people love the most.
2. Low cost
To access a B2C music streaming service, users often do not have to pay at all. Since businesses generally need to add employees to the platform to curate background music, they have to acquire a Premium plan.
Spotify, for instance, has a family plan that gives access to six Premium accounts and costs $16.99 per month. Furthermore, Spotify provides a free trial.
3. Automated music curation
A lot of B2C music streaming apps are powered by artificial intelligence (AI) technology. AI algorithms can compile playlists tailored to the needs of various businesses and automatically curate background music as well.
4. The possibility to create playlists
The majority of well-known B2C music streaming services—involving Spotify, YouTube, and Amazon Music—allow users to compose their own playlists. If you know how music affects customer mood and behavior, manual playlist creation is a sure way.
Drawbacks
1. Not licensed for commercial use
B2C music streaming services are designed for private use only. This means businesses cannot broadcast tracks provided by B2C apps publicly. Otherwise, you may have to pay fines or encounter lawsuits from the music rights holders.
2. No playlists tailored to different venues
Music has to match your brand identity, venue’s atmosphere, the target audience’s preferences, and staff tastes. A classic European restaurant, for instance, can play jazz and piano music while a cocktail bar may opt for R&B, jazz, lounge, soul, and light electronics.
When curating background music, it is important to consider aspects such as playlist scheduling and duration. You should also take into account the language of songs in playlists.
If you own an Irish pub, playing national music resonating with the ambiance is what people expect from you. In case you sell French and German goods (solely or among others), it is advisable to switch on compositions in these languages to increase sales.
And there are a lot more examples of how played music should differ depending on the venue type. However, B2C music streaming services tend to offer a limited number of customized playlists.
3. Low control over background music
Choosing playlists in B2C streaming apps, a business is unlikely to have full control over background music. You may not be able to skip or block songs, adjust the volume, or remove ads. On top of that, you may lack the possibility to manage music in multiple locations or limit unsupervised broadcasting.
4. AI algorithms play inappropriate music
Artificial intelligence may be either a strength or weakness. Automating background music curation, sometimes AI algorithms may start tracks that don’t fit the atmosphere and guest mood at all. Or AI can switch incompatible songs. As a result, you are likely to encounter issues such as reduced consumer engagement and increased churn.
Examples of famous B2C music streaming apps: Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and Pandora.
B2B music streaming services
B2B music streaming platforms are designed for commercial use. Popular applications provide large libraries of licensed tracks and playlists customized to various business types, from bars and restaurants to retail stores, gyms, spas, and beauty salons. What’s more, B2B curation solutions have functionality necessary for background music management.
Advantages
1. Large music library
Well-known B2B music streaming apps contain large music libraries, with the number of tracks typically ranging from 1 to 100 million. Basically, B2B music broadcasting solutions contain hundreds and thousands of playlists, as well as personalized music stations.
2. Music curated by professionals
To offer playlists and stations perfectly tailored to business use, many B2B music streaming apps cooperate with professional DJs.
3. Background music control
Full control over background music is among the primary benefits of B2B music streaming services. You can skip songs, adjust the volume, and download compositions for offline playback. On top of that, it is possible to use a B2B music streaming app on any device.
A number of B2B music curation platforms give access to advanced features like multi-zone broadcasting, remote music management, and explicit lyrics filter.
4. Music licensed for commercial use
You don’t have to worry about legal issues associated with fines and lawsuits when using a B2B music streaming service. It will take care of all music rights and licenses.
Moodby Play, for instance, has dozens of agreements with famous labels, publishers, and collective management organizations (CMOs) that involve Warner Music International, Warner Chappell Music, Sony Music Publishing, ICE, Blue Sun, SUiSA Digital Licensing, SESAC, SPA, and AKM Autoren.
5. Brand personalization
B2B music streaming services offer a wide range of playlists customized to different brand types and audiences. You will be able to choose from a large catalog of music managed by experts. Additionally, the majority of B2B music curation platforms allow users to compile their own playlists.
In Moodby, we suggest our clients to compose personalized stations to meet their business-specific needs. Professional DJs are ready to help you curate background music and introduce updates on a regular basis to keep consumers engaged.
Drawbacks
1. Higher price
As a rule, B2B music streaming services have higher prices compared with other options. A market leader Soundtrack Your Brand has a fixed price of $34.99 per month for the US and Canada.
2. Royalties
Establishments may still have to pay royalties for utilizing a B2B music streaming platform.
Examples of trusted B2C music streaming solutions: Moodby Play, Soundtrack Your Brand, TouchTunes, Rockbot, AMI, Cloud Cover Music, and Nightlife Music.
Free/Paid radio
Advantages
Radio is another option you should consider for background music streaming. You can choose from free or paid radio stations that broadcast music over the airwaves or online. Radio is a good music solution for small bars, cafes, and restaurants with a single location and without specific needs.
1. Available for free or at a low price
Establishments can use radio for playing background music free of charge or at a low price, which makes it a good solution for small businesses.
2. Licensed for commercial use
Under certain specific conditions, you don’t have to obtain a license to employ radio publicly. Companies are allowed to play a terrestrial radio station if the venue is smaller than 2,000 square feet. Additionally, you can use a radio in case an eating or drinking place does not exceed 3,750 square feet.
Larger businesses can utilize radio to stream background music only if they have fewer than six speakers and no more than four in one room. In other cases, you need a license.
3. Local or niche content
Radio can provide local or niche content. You can choose radio stations that cater to your location, industry, or customer segment. For example, you can play a radio station that features local news, events, or weather updates that can make your consumers feel more connected to your brand.
Drawbacks
1. Not matched brand identity
Background music played via radio may not align with brand positioning and client profile. Radio stations can play irrelevant, outdated, or offensive compositions, damaging your brand reputation and increasing churn.
2. Ads and interruptions
Numerous advertisements, jingles, commercials, and talks are likely to annoy shoppers, destroying the ambiance and customer experience.
3. No control over the music played
Radio doesn’t offer enough control or customization. You may not be able to choose songs, set a schedule, adjust the volume, or compile your own playlists. You may also have to deal with poor sound quality, signal interference, or reception issues that can affect the quality of your background music. On top of that, you cannot control music in multiple locations.
Examples of radio music streaming solutions: Vanilla Radio, Radio Record.
Royalty-free music streaming
Royalty-free music streaming platforms do not impose any payments or licensing fees for their songs and playlists. Basically, royalty-free music is composed by independent artists or producers who have waived the rights to collect royalties from their tracks.
Advantages
1. Available for free
A business doesn’t have to pay any royalties to play background music in public.
2. Licensed music
All music compositions added to a royalty-free music streaming platform are licensed for commercial use.
3. Broad music choice
Royalty-free streaming services provide the possibility to choose from a wide range of music genres, styles, and tempos that can suit your business goals and target audience’s preferences. In addition, you can create your own playlists or use curated music selections tailored for different types of venues.
4. Control and customization
Control and customization are among the key advantages of royalty-free music streaming solutions. You can skip tracks, adjust the volume, and download songs for offline playback. Furthermore, platforms of this kind offer high-quality sound without ads and interruptions.
Drawbacks
1. Unknown music
Basically, royalty-free streaming solutions include no or few popular and trending songs that can appeal to the wide audience. As a consequence, background music a venue plays may sound generic, repetitive, or boring to a part of listeners.
2. Lack of updates
Royalty-free music streaming platforms typically don’t have a dedicated customer support team to update playlists by requests.
Examples of royalty-free music streaming services: Jamendo Music, Epidemic Sound, and Soundstripe.
In-store radio
In-store radio is a type of background music solution that allows establishments to create their own radio station. You can use a software platform or hardware device to upload music files or stream tracks from online sources.
It is also possible to add voice messages, advertisements, or announcements for advertising your business or communicating with customers. In-store radio is especially suited for retail stores and large chains of cafes or restaurants.
Advantages
1. Full control over the background music
In-store radio offers more control and customization than other background music streaming services. You can skip songs, adjust the volume, and schedule tracks while managing music from multiple locations.
2. Highest customization level
With in-store radio, establishments can customize music playlists according to the time of day, season, or occasion. You’ll be able to upload your own content tailored to your brand image and customer profile, thereby improving the audience’s engagement and driving sales. The ease of playlist updates is another strong point of this background music streaming solution.
3. Integration with internal systems
To promote your goods or services and generate profit, you can integrate in-store radio with internal point of sale (POS) systems, commercial audio visual (AV) systems, or/and digital signage. Thanks to this, you’ll receive a powerful marketing tool to boost your business performance.
Drawbacks
1. Music curation takes time and effort
Background music management (content uploading, scheduling, updates, etc.) is likely to require more time and resources. You may have to invest in software, hardware, or personnel to handle the technical aspects of music curation through in-store radio.
2. Not licensed for commercial use
In order to play background music through in-store radio, you may still have to acquire a license and pay royalties. What’s more, you may have to comply with certain rules or regulations regarding the use of music in public places.
Examples of in-store radio providers: Cloud Cover Music, Rockbot, and Mood Media.
Wrapping it up
Using a background music curation service that matches your needs is crucial to creating a wonderful atmosphere, building customer loyalty, and increasing revenue. The main task is to take a music streaming solution that will enable you to achieve goals in the optimal way. This includes budget, time required for music management, existing resources (whether you have experts to curate music or not), and venue characteristics.
If you aim to adjust the atmosphere to different time of day and occasions, you should carefully pick and mix playlists. Here playing trending songs and hits may not work. To learn more, check out the guide to choosing background music for business.
A survey of over 2,100 restaurant clients revealed that guest engagement increased when a company used brand-fit music compared to random well-known songs. Analysts found that playing no music at all is better than playing random popular music, which cut sales by more than 4% compared to silence.
So, we recommend that you integrate a background music streaming app that provides playlists tailored to a range of business types.
Moodby Play, for example, is a B2B music streaming platform that contains millions of licensed songs, numerous playlists, and 500+ personalized stations. On top of that, Moodby Play provides a digital jukebox for guest entertainment. Start a 30-day free trial!
