By Our lives have a soundtrack.
Sometimes, the soundtrack is by choice—the playlist we put on during our commute, the vinyl record we play while cooking dinner, the podcast we listen to while getting our 10,000 steps.
Sometimes, it’s by happenstance—the alarm clock blaring, the rooster crowing, the neighbor’s dog barking, the tea kettle whistling.
And sometimes it’s by design—but not yours.
Studies have found that music can shape a person’s mood, and over the years, that research has been applied to the commercial realm. Companies have started using music—no, not elevator music—to sculpt an in-store shopping experience, so when you walk into many stores, each song has been selected and put on a playlist for a specific purpose.
Some stores want to make you feel relaxed. Other stores want to energize you. All stores want to make you willing to buy their product.
C-stores can have particular challenges when looking at music because of their diverse clientele—across geographic regions, dayparts, ages—but several stores have focused on using music to establish a brand identity and to encourage people to spend their money in the store… then come back soon.
“The right music makes a difference,” said Bradley Golden, president of Music Technologies International (MTI), which has been providing stores with background music for 35 years. “Having music is very important. And having the right music is even more important.”
Billy Colemire, the director of marketing for Stinker Stores, one of MTI’s clients, said, “Sometimes, it can seem like a really small task to simply add music into our stores. However, the feedback from employees and customers is resoundingly positive. We found a way to be a bright spot in the lives of our employees and customers in a very quick and simple manner.”
MTI works with a number of c-stores—along with Stinker Stores, MTI lists Jacksons, Keith’s Superstores, Kum & Go, Rutters, Wawa and YesWay as clients on its website—to ensure that the music playing when customers walk in creates a welcoming, fun environment.
“Stores want the customers to return, they want to brand the sound of their stores, they want to evoke nostalgia in some cases, they want to create a positive experience,” Golden said. “You can really create emotion with music.”
Music keeps customers engaged—and happy
To start the playlist process, MTI asks its customers a number of questions: what their target demographics are, what their typical store hours are, who the customers are at different times of day, where the stores do the most business.
That’s because a geographical region can help them decide what songs to put more of on playlists. For stores with a lot of Latino clients, there might be a number of Spanish songs on a playlist. But even that can vary, too; the music in a Texas store might lean toward regional Mexican (think Tejano), while music in stores in Florida has more of a Cuban or Dominican flavor (think reggaeton or salsa).
A store’s customer base varies, too, as the day progresses. People coming in during the morning rush might be between 16 and 54 years old—on their way to school or work. Next might be soccer moms or dads. After that, it might be older men. And so forth. So a playlist needs to appeal to different demographics throughout the day.
After some back-and-forth, MTI builds out a base form playlist.
“That’s the backbone,” Golden said. “That’s the essence of a store’s format. That’s the thing people will associate with the brand. That’s the secret sauce.”
But if, for example, a c-store retailer has locations that are more skewed geographically or in age, percentages of different subformats can be blended into the base format—maybe one country, Latin or hip-hop song in every five.
A playlist generally has thousands of songs on it and is updated frequently because, as Golden said, you need to have a lot of variety. A store’s visitors can be creatures of habit, so you don’t want them to come in at the same time each day and hear the exact thing—a customer would likely remember that, and not fondly.
“It would be a major faux pas for your customers to hear the same song playing,” he said.
All of MTI’s music is fully licensed—they choose not to play what’s called buy-out or royalty-free music—and the company tries to make its options deeper than just the hits. But they still try to target artists the company knows are popular, which, right now, Golden said, are: Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Imagine Dragons, Pink, Beyonce, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles and Luke Combs.
“We try and keep things current because, especially in the convenience store industry, there’s a huge element of a younger demographic,” Golden said.
In general, MTI looks at radio play and Billboard charts to figure out what people might want to hear. Pop music dominates because it emphasizes energy and tempo, but country and R&B artists with crossover appeal get plenty of airtime.
Stores need to be careful because some popular songs geared toward Gen Zers are more risqué or profane. MTI has people on staff who monitor language and subject matter, including in foreign languages, such as Spanish.
Idaho-based Stinker Stores focuses on upbeat music its customers and employees will really enjoy or sing along to. While Colemire doesn’t have any hard data to demonstrate that music has helped with sales, he said he agrees it does “from an anecdotal experience, at least.”
“Music is a form of media that already resonates with so many of our customers and employees,” Colemire said. “We chose to prioritize music within our stores to create a more comfortable shopping and working experience. “
Stinker Stores has fun with the music, too. It started a “Summer Lovin’” promo in early July that ends in late September and worked with MTI to loop in many songs from “Grease” to “create a more immersive shopping experience,” Colemire said.
Sometimes, customers want to rock out
Music is also a priority at Gilbert, Arizona–based c-store Air Guitar. In fact, music is really at the heart of the business. Eric Seitz and Craig DeMarco couldn’t come up with a name for this venture. While they were driving together, Seitz started strumming an imaginary guitar. DeMarco’s wife, Kris, looked at the two men and said, “There’s your name.”
While it’s the first venture for the two together, neither is a stranger to the retail world. DeMarco has 26 restaurants, while Seitz runs Bro Retail Group, which operates 21 c-stores at Chevrons across Arizona. Because music is such a big part of their lives and their friendship, Air Guitar’s playlist had to rock—literally.
For the store’s music, Seitz creates playlists using the app Rockbot, which claims to have over 18 million songs licensed for businesses. The app has different settings—AirGuitar primarily focuses on its modern rock and classic rock offerings—and takes all the explicit language out. That rock music is then played on the store’s four subwoofers and 18 speakers inside and outside the store; Air Guitar is divided into three zones, and the volume can be adjusted in each section depending on traffic.
“We can have a huge concert if we want to,” Seitz said. “We like it really loud, to the point where I want a couple of people to go, ‘Wow, it’s really loud.’ It’s fun. It’s about an energy and a vibe and being happy. And if you’ve got great, loud music playing, it’s hard to be upset.”
Once, over “many, many margaritas,” Seitz said, he and DeMarco started a “name that tune” game. The competition to name a song first has spilled over into Air Guitar when they’re both in store.
(Seitz noted he’s winning the competition—“it’s kind of pure domination,” he said with a laugh.)
Air Guitar focuses on daypart, as well. The music starts a little more chill in the morning, then picks up as the day goes along. Although, Seitz and DeMarco have things set up so there’s not a lot of mellow music. There’s never any Beach Boys playing.
“We have people dancing all the time,” Seitz said. “Have you ever seen somebody unhappy air guitaring? … When you have great music playing, it’s really hard to have a bad moment.”
Making sure employees stay sane is a priority, so no song gets played more than once a day, and playlists get changed every month or so. Because, yes, employees matter, too.
Likewise, Stinker Stores typically alternates among a few different playlists each quarter and gives its stores the ability to choose among them to make sure everyone has a comfortable working environment.
A meme suggests that “retail workers should get together and sue Ed Sheeran” because some stores play his songs over and over and over again. Employees can be in a store from morning to night, so you don’t want to drive them crazy.
There’s no one-shoe-fits-all approach to music
There have long been different philosophies when it comes to in-store music. A 1982 study by marketing professor Ronald E. Milliman concluded that a song’s tempo could change a shopper’s behavior—get them to walk more slowly and spend time in a store’s aisles, for example.
Today, different brands have different ways of creating their brand’s sound. Trader Joe’s stores typically play music, but the genre or radio station is chosen by each individual store. One of MTI’s non–c-store customers, a jewelry retailer, makes it a point to ensure none of its playlists have any breakup songs. Some companies blend music with store ads to give shoppers a mood boost and inform them about new products and sales. Other stores, such as no-frills Aldi, play no music, to save money.
People are paying attention to what they’re hearing. A Twitter account called @WawaBangers used to tweet about what was playing in their Wawa on any given day.
But regardless of what is—or isn’t—playing when you walk into a store, that choice was almost certainly intentional.
In-store music used to be synonymous with the company Muzak, which became known in the 1960s and 1970s for its elevator music approach. But that changed in the 1980s when the company began to focus on licensing original recordings and included vocal music. Muzak is now owned by Mood Media, which works with clients such as T-Mobile, Marriott and Mercedes-Benz.
Danny Turner, Mood Media’s global SVP of creative programming, said curating an ideal playlist for a c-store is an “intricate” process because, while the target market is broad, “that doesn’t mean anything goes.”
“Amazing music experiences don’t happen on shuffle,” Turner said.
He said “dwell time” in a c-store is considerably less than in a grocery store, and a c-store environment “is driven and purposeful.”
“A one-size musical shoe does not fit all,” Turner said. “Understanding the key differentiators between business types is critical to creating a resonating music program.”
For example, he said, a restaurant might want to create an intimate experience, mask conversations at other tables or hide kitchen noise. A boutique or spa might want to maintain a consistent energy. And a c-store or quick-service restaurant might want upbeat, exciting and familiar music that will create energy.
“Some data points do demonstrate the importance of regionalization,” Turner said. “But many of those hard-wired borders are now being eliminated by technology. … For example, country music is enjoying an explosive discovery right now in the U.K.”
Other things to think about are how much you want a playlist weighted toward popular songs or toward songs your customers can discover through you. You want to think about the kind of energy you’re trying to create at different dayparts—“Think about how your energy levels change throughout the day and imagine the accompanying musical soundtrack,” Turner said.
Turner likes to surprise and delight listeners.
“Think of that moment at a club, lounge, wedding or concert where the artist throws you a creative curve ball, gives you that “oh-no-you-didn’t kind of experience,” Turner said, whether that song is a cover of a classic or something someone likely hasn’t heard in years. “The best thing is watching the actions, faces and expressions of customers and associates when listening to music. You can always tell if you’re hitting the mark.”
Music is often the first thing someone notices when they walk into a store.
Before you’re looking at the employees, the signs, the lighting, the products, you’re listening to what’s playing throughout the store.
“The right music matters. A lot,” Turner said. “The music ultimately speaks more loudly than anything else.”
A version of this article originally appeared here.
shannonigans 