Can music make your store feel more expensive?
Yes, measurably. In the 1993 wine-store test, classical music moved shoppers to pricier bottles at the same shelf prices, and lowering the volume alone has raised checks about 15 percent. The condition is fit: music that clashes with the brand destroys value instead.
Perceived value is one of the most powerful and least used levers in retail, and music moves it directly. You probably already know which of those two wine stores wins, and so does the research.
Genre sets the quality tier
The cleanest demonstration is the 1993 wine-store experiment in Advances in Consumer Research. With classical playing instead of top 40, customers bought the same number of bottles at higher price points. Same inventory, same prices, same staff. The music changed which quality tier felt appropriate for the room, and hands followed. The spending side of that research, the restaurant replication and the two conditions that decide whether the lift shows up at all, is covered in can the right music make customers pay more? This note is about the perception side, and that runs deeper than genre.
Volume is its own signal
A subtler one most people miss. A 2003 study in Perceptual and Motor Skills tested volume in restaurants. Soft music, just lower volume rather than a specific genre, raised the average table tab by about $3, roughly 16 percent. Genre didn't matter. Volume did. Soft music signals quality. The room where conversation flows easily feels more refined than the one you have to shout across, and refined reads as worth spending in. Most stores run a little loud.
Bad fit destroys value
The other direction is real too. A 2006 study in the Journal of Business Research showed music can actively destroy perceived value. When the music clashes with the brand, customers don't just ignore it. They rate the brand as less authentic, less coherent, less trustworthy. Premium leather goods under dorm-party music make the products look cheaper. The soundtrack drags the whole perception down with it.
The actual point
Music shapes perceived value through at least three channels. Genre builds quality associations. Volume signals refinement. Brand fit either backs up what everything else in the store says or contradicts it. There's no neutral setting. If the music is an afterthought, your perceived value has a leak you haven't found.
This is one piece of the wider picture. The full read on store music and customer behavior walks the research in order, and for the practical version, see how to make your store feel premium.
Sources
- Areni, Charles S., and David Kim (1993), "The Influence of Background Music on Shopping Behavior: Classical Versus Top-Forty Music in a Wine Store," in NA - Advances in Consumer Research, Volume 20, eds. Leigh McAlister and Michael L. Rothschild, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, pp. 336-340. View source
- Lammers, H. B. (2003). An oceanside field experiment on background music effects on the restaurant tab. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 96(3 Pt 1), 1025–1026. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.2003.96.3.1025 (PMID: 12831285) View source
- Beverland, M., Lim, E. A. C., Morrison, M., & Terziovski, M. (2006). In-store music and consumer–brand relationships: Relational transformation following experiences of (mis)fit. Journal of Business Research, 59(9), 982–989. View source
Store music and customer behavior: what the research shows
Forty years of studies on how store music moves dwell, basket size, spend, and how premium a store feels.
Research note
How does music affect customer behavior in retail?
What controlled studies show about how store music changes dwell time, product choice, and spend.
Research note
How does music set the mood in a store?
The pleasure-arousal mechanism behind store atmosphere, and how emotional fit between music and space affects spending.
Research note
Is your store's music driving customers out the door?
How mismatched and overly loud music shortens dwell time and pushes customers to leave faster.