Licensing guide: Is your business paying for the wrong music service?

“83% of small businesses who play background music use personal music services”

Read the full report here

Since then, we’ve been wracking our brains trying to figure out why millions of business owners pay for a service that’s no good for business.

Lack of knowledge

The study revealed that confusion is rife. A lot of small business owners just don’t know what the legal differences are between playing a personal music service like Spotify, and using a music provider with a business license.

“In the U.S., 71% of small business owners incorrectly think personal music account gives them the right to use it for background music in their business”

Read the full report here

But ignorance can’t be the only explanation.

Music is often an afterthought

As a business owner, you want your customers to love your brand. So you invest time and money in bringing your brand to life – making sure everything from the service through to the décor and lighting makes your customer’s experience better.

But you often forget about the music. So right before the doors open, you quickly jack in your phone and choose a playlist you like.

The problem with this – legal and ethical issues aside – is it hurts your business.

Research shows that while music that expresses your brand helps boost sales, random popular music can damage your brand. In fact, you’re better off not playing music at all than playing random pop music.

“Effect on sales of playing music that matches brand values compared with playing random popular music: +9.1%”

Read the full report here

Of course, big retailers and restaurant chains never leave their music to chance. They use professional music services and work with music curators to design and schedule a perfect brand-aligned soundtrack across their businesses.

This sounds expensive – and it often is. But playing music that’s bad for business is more expensive in the long run.

The perfect tool for small businesses

So we’ve come up with a solution – a product that gives small business owners the same kind of professional music service that the biggest companies use.

Create Soundtrack

• Lets you select your brand values and the energy level you want your customers to experience.

• With a few clicks, you get a soundtrack that’s exactly right for your brand, that you can play across your business – or businesses – all from one app.

Give it a go

The real proof, of course, comes with trying it yourself. Play around with Create Soundtrack and enter the values of brands you’re familiar with. Does the soundtrack that comes out feel right for that brand?

Or use it to test your brand values when they’re in development. Tell the interface what your values are, then see how they sound – and if that sound is right for your brand.

There are plenty of other great features too:

• You can delete songs you don’t like

• You can filter out songs with explicit lyrics

• You can control all your music in all your premises from one app.

We could go on telling you how great it is. But the point is, it makes sense to spend time thinking about your music. The right music is good for your customers, good for your brand – and good for your business.