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Sonos is a leading American audio technology company that is best known for pioneering wireless multiroom audio systems, which make it easy for listeners to stream music and other content throughout their homes. The company continues to innovate, creating wireless speakers, home theater systems, headphones, architectural components, and integrated home audio solutions that revolutionize how people listen and connect to sound.

Brick-and-mortar is bouncing back in a big way: analysts project that American consumers will  

 on in-store purchases this year. That makes 2024 the perfect time for retailers to invest in new ways to attract customers, drive sales, and even expand their business.

In this competitive landscape, business owners must do everything they can to set their stores apart and provide the best customer experience possible. This is especially true considering all the major retail events occurring over the course of the year — from the holiday season to the sales specific to your store or industry.

So, whether you’re selling electronics, luxury apparel, or consumer packaged goods, you need to create an environment that’s more engaging for buyers by creating the right shopping experience.

One often overlooked aspect of this experience is the music in your store. By finding the best music for your retail space, you can help drive customer purchases at any point in the year.

A photo of the inside of a retail store with clothing and home items, and an adult and child shopping and having an amusing conversation

Why you need to give your customers the perfect sound year-round

People are familiar with the emotional and mental benefits of listening to music in their personal lives, whether turning around a bad day or helping cement memorable experiences. But in the retail world, music also represents a low-cost, low-effort way of driving consumer behavior. It’s your behind-the-scenes employee that helps create an environment where customers are more likely to buy your products.

 of your music all impact the way customers navigate your store and make purchase decisions. Softer, low-tempo music can help calm shoppers during frenzied sales events, giving them more time to circulate and find the right items. If you’re looking to capitalize on high volume, fast-paced music will encourage shoppers to move quickly through your space, clearing the way for new customers.

In the current thriving retail landscape, matching your music to the occasion — whether it’s the holiday season, a back-to-school sale, or a typical weekend — gives you the competitive edge you need to boost business.

How to set the stage for any retail event with music

The shopping rush around major holidays and seasonal sales is critical to your business. Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the winter holidays drive a huge percentage of retail sales. The holiday season alone brings in 

, with some industries bringing in even more during this time. But that doesn’t mean you pack it in for the rest of the year.

There are plenty of other occasions throughout the year that you can use to drive sales — from Hallmark holidays to the new product releases and milestones unique to your business, not to mention the everyday interactions that form the foundation of your business.

Here are some tips for finding music to match major retail events over the course of the year.

Major seasonal celebrations like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and the lead-up to New Year’s can be incredibly lucrative for your business. And as you well know, they’re also incredibly busy. But in terms of the music, these holidays couldn’t be simpler: play the classics.

Stick with the classics during major holidays

Shoppers love the nostalgia of searching for gifts to a backdrop of festive lights, decorations, and cheerful ballads. Playing the right mix of holiday music will bring back those fond childhood memories and motivate your customers to find that perfect gift to create new ones.

The best part? These tried-and-tested classics are about the song rather than the singer, so you can use independent or mainstream artists from commercially licensed streaming services to achieve the same effect as the original versions.

The winter holidays naturally take up a lot of attention, but there are plenty of other events throughout the year that you can leverage to promote your business. Hallmark holidays like Valentine’s, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day are key opportunities for specific retail niches like jewelry, electronics, and apparel.

Don’t forget about those Hallmark holidays

A National Retail Federation survey projects 

Mother’s Day spending alone to reach over $35 billion this year

Capitalizing on these spending splurges can be as simple as finding a station that plays music centered around appreciating mothers, fathers, and significant others. It’s a simple addition to the atmosphere in your store that accentuates your decorations and promotional efforts to generate more business.

You don’t need to rely on your calendar as a reminder to generate a buzz for your store. Building hype during the “off season” helps create a steadier flow of business, which is especially helpful for highly seasonal industries. Creating your own sale or retail event is the perfect way to do this.

Build hype for new sales, products, and locations

Music can help you create an energized, exciting environment for events specific to your business — like store-specific sales, new product releases, and even the launch of a new location. Using upbeat, louder music during overstock sales or ribbon-cutting ceremonies helps gain customer attention and engage your staff.

right sound system and streaming capabilities

, you can even coordinate your music across locations to create a truly seamless brand experience.

The only thing worse than no music at all is listening to the same playlist over and over again. Not only does it get stale for any of your regulars, but repetitive music is also incredibly frustrating for the staff who have to hear it day in and day out. Energize your customers and set the stage for better employee interactions by introducing some variety into your retail sound.

Use a catalog of music to keep your sound exciting year-round

People’s moods and interests change throughout the year, and 

. Building flexibility and variety into your atmosphere with a large catalog of music helps you match the energy of the season. Plus, it’s an easy way to keep your atmosphere from becoming stagnant.

In between all these seasonal sales and retail events, it’s important that you build up the foundation of your brand sound with music that fits your brand. Whether you speak to trendy retail shoppers with top hits or cocktail lounge diners with smooth jazz, establishing your background music within a particular genre helps establish a connection with specific customer bases.

Match your brand sound to your retail vertical

To get the most return on your music investment, ensure the genre played in your store also aligns with the category of merchandise you sell.

Studies find that creating alignment between the background music and sentiments around the product category in a story can increase the 

willingness of customers to pay for those specific products

. For instance, shoppers tend to spend more on luxury products like jewelry, sunglasses, or high-end electronics when classical music plays in the background.

Between all the playlists for holidays, sales, and seasonal events, it’s important to consistently bring things back to your brand sound.

A photo of two people looking at a tablet device and holding a discussion in a retail store with bicycles hanging on a wall in the background

Find the perfect retail store playlist with Sonos Pro

Now you know how to create the perfect background sound for any and all retail events throughout the year — all that’s left is to find the right music streaming service.

Sonos Pro is a comprehensive sound solution for your business that offers a catalog of commercially licensed music to retailers, restaurateurs, and other business owners. It includes music that can be played worry-free in any retail environment.

With the Sonos Backgrounds Premium Tier, you get access to music from mainstream and independent artists, plus the following benefits:

Ad-free stations to provide a seamless background sound

Choose from hundreds of different programs to keep your music fresh

Music categorized by business type and season to easily match the mood

Filtering of explicit content and themes to ensure music is appropriate for everyone

Pre-scheduling features that let your employees focus on providing amazing service

A secure system that restricts access to anyone except admins

Sonos Backgrounds also has an Essential Tier, which includes access to a variety of stations and music from independent artists.

the comprehensive Sonos Pro sound solution

 that includes stereo-quality speakers and a central dashboard that lets you monitor and manage the system from anywhere.

Whether you’re gearing up for the holiday season, opening a new location, or just keeping your brand sound exciting, retail playlists are critical to your store’s success. With Sonos Backgrounds, you can easily find the best music for every retail event.

 provides retailers and other business owners with the perfect sound for any environment.

*Sonos Pro is only available in certain territories.

A photo of a technician on a ladder installing a Sonos speaker in a boutique retail store, with aromatherapy items arranged on a shelf and a desktop computer and keys on a desk

How To Choose the Best Music for Every Retail Event

Music plays a subtle yet crucial role in your customers’ shopping experiences. The rhythm, tempo, and genre of your retail store music define the ambiance of your business and, ideally, leave a lasting impression on your customers.

Most retailers invest significantly in visual aesthetics — the perfect layout, captivating displays, and impressive staging — but often underestimate the power of a well-curated sound experience. Sound, or the lack thereof, is an element of your store’s atmosphere that customers may not actively notice but will definitely feel: studies find that supermarket shoppers 

spend over $8 more per person when uplifting music is playing

Playing the right retail store music not only amplifies your brand identity but also speaks to your target audience, making their shopping experience more unique and enjoyable. This is why understanding how to effectively use music in your retail store can be a game-changer for your bottom line.

This blog post will explore six ways you can use background music to create the perfect sound experience for your customers, including:

Using the right commercial music streaming service

Choosing music that aligns with your products, customers, and brand

Finding the right speakers for your layout

Using tempo and volume to drive traffic flow and purchases

Switching things up to keep customers engaged

Using remote monitoring and management to maintain control

How to amplify your retail atmosphere with Sonos Pro

A photo of a technician on a ladder installing a speaker at a retail store

Create the ultimate shopping experience with background music for your business

Music, when used right, can be a silent salesman, creating a welcoming shopping environment that sways customers’ decisions. Using the right background music helps set the tone for your customers, cement your brand strength, and bring a consistent, familiar atmosphere to every new location.

For instance, the luxury clothing and apparel brand, Faherty, has over 50 locations across the United States. With so many stores, it needs more than displays and decor to establish the laid-back, beachside vibes its customers have come to love. Faherty uses 

 and its extensive library of background music to find the perfect sound and deliver it consistently across each store.

6 tips for getting the sound right in your retail store

Crafting the in-store sound experience that Faherty and other successful retailers deliver is about so much more than pressing play on an app. It’s the harmony you achieve with an extensive music selection, quality speakers, and your ability to easily monitor and control your sound system.

Of course, there’s a lot of planning that goes into your retail sound system before you realize any benefits. To help speed up the process, here are six tips kickstarting your brand sound overhaul:

Streaming music in your store isn’t as simple as it is in your home, primarily because of licensing requirements. Using a catalog of commercially licensed music ensures worry-free streaming for you and payment for the independent artists whose work you use.

Use the right commercial music streaming service

Services like Sonos Backgrounds, Soundtrack Your Brand, or Mood Media provide access to large libraries of licensed music for retail stores and other commercial uses, complete with playlists curated by genre, mood, and retail type.

The music you play in your store should be an extension of your brand. Whether it’s a single genre or a mix, the sound should resonate with the products you sell, the audience you serve, and the experience you want to create. For example, customers are more 

 like jewelry, cologne, or art when classical music is playing in the background.

Choose music that aligns with your products, customers, and brand

Finding music that strikes the right balance takes time — you need to observe your customers to learn their musical preferences and shopping behavior. Next, you experiment with different artists, genres, and volumes to see which combinations produce the best results. This is another reason why it’s so important to have a large catalog of music at the ready.

Speaker quality and placement are crucial to the overall atmosphere in your store. You need speakers to fill your space with high-quality music, and you need to place them so the sound is consistent and clear no matter where a customer is throughout your store.

Find the right speakers for your layout

 can easily fill up to 250 square feet with clear sound, so larger stores or those with high ceilings likely need multiple speakers to create the perfect atmosphere. WiFi-enabled speakers are easy to install and give you a sound system that scales alongside your business.

The tempo and volume of your retail music also have a major impact on customer behavior. Research shows that high-tempo, high-volume music encourages quick movement and faster checkouts, while a 

slower tempo makes customers spend more time browsing

Use tempo and volume to drive traffic and purchases

So, if you offer expensive products like furniture or electronics that require more customer consideration, playing low-tempo music at a softer volume will slow the pace of your customers and give your sales staff more time to work their magic. On the other hand, high-volume stores, like big-box and discount retailers, might opt for louder, fast-paced music to streamline the buying process.

You can also be strategic with your tempo and volume; adjusting the music based on the time of day or nature of sales can effectively drive customer behavior.

Do you like hearing the same music day in, day out? Playing the same tunes over and over can tire out even your most loyal customers and build a lot of frustration in your staff. Finding your brand sound doesn’t mean sticking exclusively to a handful of songs, playlists, or genres — there’s 

Switch things up to keep customers engaged

With the right commercial streaming service, you gain access to a large library of music to keep the ambiance fresh and engaging while still ringing true to your brand. It empowers you to take back your time with curated playlists for any environment. Access to more music also lets you align the sound of different seasons, holidays, or sales events — making the shopping experience more relevant and enjoyable for your customers.

Managing music in a bustling retail environment can be challenging for owners who also have to oversee staff, help customers, and address other operational and administrative concerns. There’s not a lot of time between your daily tasks to manage music or answer questions from staff about your sound system.

Use remote monitoring and management to maintain control

, you can check the music, volume, and speaker settings within each store from anywhere with ease. So you can maintain a consistent atmosphere across all locations without the risk of employee distractions or mishaps. Remote control features also let you empower your most trusted employees by giving them exclusive system access.

A photo of the inside of a retail store with clothing and home items, and an adult and child shopping and having an amusing conversation, with a 3D rendering of a retail store and a screenshot of the Sonos Pro dashboard

expertise in home audio and quality sound

 to the world of business. With the Sonos Pro offering, retailers can access commercially licensed music, high-quality speakers, and a central dashboard for complete control over their sound system. Not only does this offering provide the true Sonos sound experience, but it also simplifies the process of managing retail store music with:

Complete control over a library of commercially-licensed content.

Premium support from a customer success manager.

So, whether you’re a small boutique or a retail chain, incorporating the right music into your retail environment can enhance your customer experience and boost your sales. 

 and start creating better shopping experiences for your customers with a comprehensive sound solution.

A photo of a technician on a ladder installing a Sonos speaker in a retail clothing store, with a view outside to a city street

6 Tips for Creating A Better Retail  Experience with Music

It’s a Friday night and the nine-to-five crowd is just getting out of work. Many of them are looking to go out for a meal with their friends or family to catch up, vent, kick off the weekend, or simply relax and wind down. All that’s left is to pick the right spot. But the question is: what’s the right restaurant for the occasion? The food, pricing, and service quality all factor into that decision, but there’s another key part of the equation — the restaurant’s atmosphere.

There might be dozens of Italian restaurants in the area, but only one of them has the authentic decor and music that brings back memories of that post-college backpacking trip with friends. Or maybe someone wants to celebrate an anniversary at the gastropub where they met their significant other. Regardless of the occasion, the most memorable dining experiences are often tied closely to the ambiance within the restaurant.

 important factor for determining where to eat — more so than recommendations from family and friends, positive online reviews, or even the speed of service. Clearly, curating a great restaurant experience is essential to long-term success.

In this post, we’ll take a look at what goes into creating the ideal atmosphere and how the  music you play is central to this process.

How to create the perfect atmosphere in a restaurant

Provide a visual experience with decor, lighting, and furniture

Establish your restaurant brand with a theme

Elevate the ambiance with background music

How the right background music amplifies your atmosphere

The presence of music makes food taste better

Genre increases both spending and perceived authenticity

Volume determines the quality of the experience

Create the perfect restaurant atmosphere with Sonos Pro

A photo of a member of staff working in a restaurant, inspecting something on a tablet device

Unforgettable dining experiences begin with your restaurant atmosphere

The late chef Anthony Bourdain once said, “I think food, culture, people, and landscape are all absolutely inseparable.” What he outlines here is that the dining experience is about much more than just the food itself — it’s about the thoughts, memories, feelings, and sensations it elicits.

The atmosphere in your restaurant is created by combining tangible and intangible elements to influence the dining experience of each customer. Tangible components like the food, decor, lighting, and music interact with intangible elements like culture, theme, and the overall “vibe” of the restaurant.

For instance, a fine-dining French restaurant may create a luxurious ambiance using dim lighting, elegant decor, and the soothing melodies of classical music. A trendy brunch spot, on the other hand, might embrace natural light, colorful decor, and vibrant sounds to inspire a lively crowd.

As a restaurateur, you already have the food and service figured out — here’s how you can make sure your visuals, theme, and music work together with the rest to improve your restaurant experience.

There’s an art to creating the perfect ambience in your restaurant. From the lighting and decor to the restaurant name and theme, all of these components work together to set the stage for a particular experience.

In addition to the food itself, the decor should align with a central theme to represent the restaurant’s identity, its personality. From there, the background music you play helps bring the experience to life.

The restaurant experience starts well before the food is served. The process kicks off as your customers walk through the door, hit by the aroma of your food and the lights, furniture, and decor of your space. Outside of the aesthetic appeal, visual elements are important because they help tie the experience to specific emotions and themes.

This includes art, cutlery, glass and tableware, lighting, and anything else they see that will impact the customers’ perception of the restaurant.

A restaurant’s theme is the underlying concept or “vibe” that the establishment conveys to its customers.  While the theme is distinct from the restaurant’s cuisine, menu, or service style, it plays into these and other tangible elements to accentuate the overall atmosphere.

For example, a fusion restaurant might recreate the energy and cultural authenticity of the Thai floating markets by using boat-shaped decor, brightly colored umbrellas, hanging lanterns, and blue lighting to create the effect of being on a river in Bangkok.

Music has the power to tap into the emotional realm, subtly influencing the mood and behavior of your patrons. Carefully selected background music not only complements your restaurant’s aesthetic but also works in harmony with your menu and theme, creating a cohesive sensory experience.

Music plays a vital role in shaping the theme and brand of your restaurant. But even more importantly, it shapes the customer’s perception of the dining experience in a variety of ways.

A photo of a bartender at work in a restaurant, looking at something on a mobile device

How the right background music amplifies the restaurant atmosphere

Music is one of the most important, yet often overlooked, parts of a restaurant’s ambiance. It accentuates the sensory experiences from the food and influences 

. Studies have even indicated that the right background music can affect tipping behavior in certain demographics.

Layering sensory experiences on top of one another can have an additive effect on our perception of experiences. Sound and taste are one of those powerful combinations. 

 finds that people’s rating of deserts increases across a variety of flavors in the presence of their preferred music versus its absence.

Positive music decreases the impact of long wait times

Having a long wait list during peak hours is a great problem for any restaurant owner to have, but it’s also the cause of poor dining experiences. Standing around in a waiting area is a frustrating experience, but you can 

 by playing positive music to diffuse the situation and create a relaxing atmosphere for your customers.

Tempo determines the pace and size of a meal

Restaurants can use the tempo of background music to set the pace of a meal. Studies show that high-tempo music increases the overall 

duration of the meal and the amount of food and drink they order

.  So, whether you want to lengthen meals for more upselling opportunities or drive turnover to generate more business, the music’s tempo can significantly influence the dining speed of your patrons.

It’s not just the mere presence of music that impacts your customers; the genre has a specific influence on both how much they spend and how authentic they believe your restaurant is. For restaurants offering cuisine from a specific region or culture, playing music from that area enhances patrons’ perception of the food’s authenticity.

How To Choose the Best Music for Every Retail Event

6 Tips for Creating A Better Retail Experience with Music

Create the Perfect Atmosphere in Your Restaurant with Music

How To Remotely Manage and Monitor Music in Your Retail Store

Background music for cafes: how to amplify your business and customer experience

How To Set Up a Music System in Your Retail Store

How Restaurants Can Use Music to Increase Customer Retention

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Create the Perfect Atmosphere in Your Restaurant with Music