4 Background Music Tips for Restaurants
4 Background Music Tips for Restaurants
Mastering the art of background music can dramatically improve the dining experience for all your customers. The right music has a way of relaxing people, helping them enjoy themselves more, and contributing to overall ambience. However, the wrong background music selection can easily mar the experience, especially if the music is such a strong element that it can’t be ignored. To help your restaurant optimize its choice and overall use of music, consider the following four tips below.
Make Sure to Use a Commercially Licensed Music Source
When consumers buy music either digitally or on a CD, they are entering an implicit agreement that the music is only for their own private enjoyment. Playing that music in a public place, especially at a business, violates that agreement and can run your restaurant afoul of licensing issues. To prevent this, you can look to commercial music streaming services. Most commercial music streaming platforms let you customize or curate the music by genre and preference to fit your restaurant’s unique atmosphere. You can also purchase commercial license copies of music individually, but make sure you have a good rotation so that regular customers don’t get tired of the same tunes.
Balance Volume with Ambient Noise
Ideally, diners won’t have to shout to be heard, and the acoustics of your restaurant along with the volume of your music can be the deciding factors. For restaurants with open spaces and hard surfaces, conversational noise levels can easily spike, so be wary of adding on top of that with piped in music. Keep in mind, too, that poor hearing can contribute to things like incorrect orders. Solve the problem by paying close attention to music volume and overall noise levels when you have a full dining room. You can optimize volume so that the music can be heard and enjoyed without adding to the overall din. Having speakers placed optimally can help your music be heard clearly and make conversations more private, so consider investing in a sound system and sound-reducing décor through restaurant funding if ambient noise is a recurring problem.
Don’t Automatically Shy Away from Familiarity
Some restaurant managers or owners may think that pop music is passé or tacky, but people enjoy popular songs for a reason. If those songs are nostalgic to them or occupy a somewhat niche genre, they can actually come to your restaurant just because they enjoy your tunes. Try to avoid playing a generic Top 40 playlist for the month, though, since these songs are likely to already be saturating the radio. Instead, opt for hits from a few years to a few decades back, helping you straddle the line between familiarity and being too cliché. If you want a unique twist, you can often find piano covers or instrumental-only versions of music, helping people enjoy familiar melodies without getting distracted by lyrics.
Choose Music to Fit the Mood
The music you choose for your restaurant should suit a particular purpose and set the appropriate mood. An extreme example would be the nearly ubiquitous mariachi music playing at Tex-Mex establishments, but genres like bossa nova or classical can similarly fit the bill even if there aren’t direct parallels to your cuisine. According to psychological research, the right music choice can energize your diners just as easily as it can help them relax. Select genres that communicate something about the tastes of your establishment and your best customers, and don’t be surprised when your music colors people’s enjoyment of eating at your restaurant.
Improve Music Selection or Noise Conditions with Restaurant Funding
Noise levels and poor music choices can quickly destroy positive impressions of your business. You can improve the acoustics of your facility as well as your library of available commercially licensed music when you secure restaurant funding today. Working with ARF Financial means you can find a customized restaurant loan to help you accomplish your goals. We can approve you in 24 to 48 hours and your credit will not be impacted by this application! APPLY NOW.