What music should I actually play in my store?
Not a genre. Across the controlled tests, customer preference was the only variable to reach statistical significance: music your customers actually like, fit to what the store is. Here is how to find yours.
Every retailer asks the same question, and most answers are wrong, because they name a genre. The research doesn't say play jazz or play lo-fi. It points at one thing almost no one measures, and it isn't genre or tempo. It's fit.
What actually predicts whether music works
A study in the Journal of Services Marketing tested what predicts whether music helps or hurts a retail space, measuring tempo, volume, and customer preference. Preference was the only statistically significant predictor. Tempo and volume didn't reach significance. Whether customers actually liked what was playing was the whole game. You can obsess over BPM and genre all day, but if the people in the room don't connect with it, none of it lands.
Liked and a fit, at the same time
It's more than "play what people like," though. A study in the Journal of Business Research found that when music doesn't fit the brand, it actively damages perception. Customers who sense the mismatch downgrade the brand. A separate Journal of Services Marketing study found the best outcomes came from music that was both liked and emotionally congruent with the space, and the worst came from music that was disliked or wrong for the room. You need two things at once: music customers enjoy and music that fits the brand.
Fit in action
A study in Advances in Consumer Research put classical against top 40 in a wine store. Classical didn't sell more bottles, the count held, but people bought more expensive ones. The genre signal matched the product category and primed customers toward the higher shelf. A follow-up in Environment and Behavior replicated it in restaurants, where diners spent about £3 more a head with classical than pop, and pop performed almost identically to silence. Not bad. Just adding nothing.
When fit goes wrong
A Journal of Business Research study tested a Christmas scent and Christmas music together. The scent alone, no Christmas music, backfired and felt off. The same scent with Christmas music worked. The signals have to tell the same story, and a mismatch between what customers hear and what they see or expect creates friction that kills spending. A surf shop playing classical piano feels wrong even though classical piano is pleasant. The test is coherence, not pleasantness.
The actual answer
Three constraints at once. Music your specific customers enjoy. Music that fits your brand. Music whose emotional tone matches the experience you're selling. All three move by store, by season, by time of day. The research doesn't say play lo-fi beats. It says play music that fits, and fit isn't something you settle once on opening day.
Picking the music is one piece of this. The full field guide to store music and customer behavior lays out why fit matters, in order.
Sources
- Herrington, J. D. (1996). Effects of music in service environments: a field study. Journal of Services Marketing, 10(2), 26–41. https://doi.org/10.1108/08876049610114249 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
- Oakes, S. (2000). "The influence of the musicscape within service environments." Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 14, No. 7, pp. 539–556. (The closely related synthesis of liking-and-congruity interaction is Oakes, S. & North, A. C. (2008), "Reviewing congruity effects in the service environment musicscape," International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 63–82 — a different journal.) View source
- 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
- North, A. C., Shilcock, A., & Hargreaves, D. J. (2003). The Effect of Musical Style on Restaurant Customers' Spending. Environment and Behavior, 35(5), 712–718. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916503254749 View source
- Spangenberg, E. R., Grohmann, B., & Sprott, D. E. (2005). It's beginning to smell (and sound) a lot like Christmas: the interactive effects of ambient scent and music in a retail setting. Journal of Business Research, 58(11), 1583–1589. 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
What's the right music tempo for a retail store?
What music tempo does to shoppers depends on musical key, how crowded the store is, and who is in it.
Research note
Can store music change which products people pick?
How musical priming steers product choice toward congruent categories, and why awareness doesn't cancel the effect.
Research note
Can music make your store feel more expensive?
How music acts as a quality signal, raising perceived value, brand prestige, and purchase intent through affect transfer.