Why in-store music shapes sales, and what that means for your sound system
In retail and hospitality, silence rarely works in your favour. No sound means no atmosphere. The wrong sound can push people out the door. Music isn't background noise. It shapes how long people stay, how they feel, and what they buy.
What the research actually shows
In-store music influences consumer behaviour in several consistent ways. Slower tempo makes people stay longer and spend more. Faster tempo increases energy and suits high-traffic zones. Genre and style influence product choice, with classical music shown to nudge customers toward premium purchases like more expensive wine. A good musical fit with the brand improves mood, service perception, and overall store appeal.
There's a catch, though. Letting staff choose the playlist can actually reduce sales. One study found that employee-selected music led to lower sales in women's fashion stores. The issue isn't taste. It's consistency.
Consistency is the part most systems get wrong
Bolia used to distribute music to stores on USB sticks. Store managers had to remember to swap the playlist, press play, and set it to repeat. When they forgot, the store fell silent. The fix wasn't better musical taste at store level. It was removing the decision from store level entirely. With Spottune Cloud, headquarters now updates music across every store with one click.
Rains takes the same principle further. All 48 of its stores worldwide run from a single cloud dashboard at headquarters. No local manager touches the system. As Rains opens new stores, each one is added to the same dashboard rather than becoming a new local decision waiting to go wrong.
Fit matters as much as consistency
The research on musical fit shows up clearly in how different brands use Spottune. At Lush, music is part of the sensory identity of the store, not background filler, so a Sub was added to the standard setup to deliver the full-spectrum, bass-forward sound the brand's playlists are built around. At Leica, the opposite instinct applies. The brief was restraint: the same calm 360-degree sound on both floors of the store, tuned per speaker so it never competes with the precision the brand is known for.
Neither store uses generic background music. Both use sound that fits the brand specifically, which is exactly what the research says drives mood, perception, and ultimately sales.
It isn't only about customers
Music also affects staff. A well-designed sound environment improves employee satisfaction and reduces turnover, and a happier team delivers better service, which feeds straight back into the customer experience. At Camping Mar, the system was simple enough that staff installed it themselves, with no technician and no disruption to service. A system that's easy to live with day to day removes one more source of friction for the people running the floor.
What a system built for this actually requires
Spottune is purpose-built for retail and hospitality, not a consumer Wi-Fi speaker pressed into commercial use. 360-degree omnidirectional sound delivers even coverage with fewer speakers through Omni Track speakers. A 1.9 GHz wireless connection avoids the interference and lag that crowded Wi-Fi networks create, which matters in any space already dense with guest devices, as Hotel Kämp found running sound through its lobby and bar. Cloud-based control manages zones, playlists, and volume from anywhere, the same control that let Bolia and Rains remove the guesswork from hundreds of stores combined. Installation mounts directly into existing lighting tracks via the plug-and-play system, and the layout stays flexible as the space evolves.
Whether the business is one café or a global chain, the research points to the same conclusion: music shapes the experience, and the system delivering it should be built to match. See more examples in the full case library.
