You enter a shopping mall and in your sight, you see various business stores, where each one of them implementing different types of music in the background to manipulate your actions, without you even realizing it.
No matter what type of store it is, whether its a fine dining restaurant, fast food restaurant, fitness club, car showroom or a grocery store, each and every one of them will use the vast elements of music to the most.
For instance, if you enter a fitness club or a gym, there wouldn’t be slow and steady music in the background, but instead, upbeat and fast songs are used to encourage the people to move along to the fast tempo of the music. Didn’t know that? Don’t worry, there are even more shocking ones to come.
In contrast, when you enter a fine dining restaurant, the music in the background is set to be more relaxed and calmer, so that the customers enjoy the peaceful atmosphere, and would hopefully return due to its environment. However, the music isn’t kept too slow in casual restaurants, as they use songs to pace the movement of people’s hands as they use forks and knives slightly faster so that they can have a faster table turnover, for other customers to be seated. This is all done through the magic of psychology, and how music is listened to by people, only to make them do certain things unknowingly.
See how every store uses music in their own way to make the best of business?
Music is used as an important strategy since it carries many benefits.
Firstly, it establishes an image for the brand whether it carries a carefree, family-friendly or energetic atmosphere. Elements like tempo and dynamics are used to communicate a personality for the customers. Music helps drags customers into the store.
Imagine yourself walking around in a mall, and you pass by a store playing the music of your liking, you would most likely be drawn towards entering the store. Likewise, if you are specifically looking for some formal wear, you wouldn’t enter a store with rap music in the background. Think about it.
Music is all about setting the mood, and by creating the perfect mood for the customers, it would make them want to stay longer in the store.
Not only that but the speed of music, also known as the tempo, plays a vital role in the movement of the customers around the store. During peak hours and closing time, have you ever noticed that the music becomes slightly faster? Here’s why.
Fast music increases the movement pace, hence making them shop faster and slow music is used in off-peak times to inspire the customers to browse for longer. Shocking isn’t it?
The only time you would probably pay attention to the music would be while waiting in a long queue. It is the only time that music is served for entertainment so that you won’t get bored, therefore making the long queue feel shorter.
To test it out, I went to 5 different business backgrounds and recorded the music to find the beats per minute using this method:
Method of measuring the song:
- Play a song and tap or clap to the beat for 10 seconds
- Multiply it by 6 to get the beats per minute of the song
- Either clap the beat out using hands or use a software tool
- Once you have measured the tempo of a piece of music and are now comfortable, compare it to other types of businesses
- Measure and record the beat while you are in the business, or record it then measure at home
- Compare the range in beats per minute for each of the types of stores
- Rank the store types from lowest to highest average Beats per minute.
The stores that I visited were Starbucks Coffee (Cafe), NTUC (Grocery Store), Gym, H&M(Clothing store) and Din Tai Fung ( Fine Dining), and I have ranked them below according to the bpm of the song being played in the background:
- NTUC = 36 bpm
- Din Tai Fung = 51 bpm
- Starbucks Coffee = 72 bpm
- H&M = 102 bpm
- Gym = 174 bpm
From the results, I can conclude that the more movement required, the faster and higher the beats per minute of the song being played in the background.
Overall, music helps enhance the experience of the customers, as well as contributes towards its brand personality and if used properly can help increase sales and number of customers.
Psychology of Music 
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