When Staff Become DJs: The Hidden Cost of Background Music for Retail and Hospitality

By Magnus Linn, Head of Music Development at Startle

I grew up in a musical family, where music lessons and learning an instrument were not optional. By the time I was three, I was practising scales on the piano.

Performance never really interested me. What fascinated me was why music works, why certain songs feel right in certain spaces, and why some environments feel elevated and others feel slightly off.

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Today, as Head of Music Development at Startle, I sit between sales and our team of curators. I spend my time helping multi-site retail and hospitality brands translate their identity into sound. That means brand discovery sessions, playlist briefs, blueprint development, and working closely with our curators to make sure every track supports the wider strategy.

It is varied and creative, but it is also more strategic than most people expect.

One of the biggest misconceptions I come across is this:

“Music? We’ll just let the store team handle it.”

On the surface, that feels harmless. In reality, it is one of the fastest ways to dilute your brand.

In retail and hospitality, background music is rarely treated as strategic, especially across multi-site brands where consistency is harder to control. But it should be.

Why Letting Staff Control Background Music Creates Risk.

Music is subjective, and in this case, that’s precisely the problem.  

Because everyone has their own unique taste, everyone assumes they know what works. A store manager likes house music, a supervisor may prefer acoustic covers. Someone else just presses play on a popular streaming playlist.

Individually, none of these choices are unreasonable. Collectively, they can create chaos.

Across a multi-site estate, that leads to inconsistencies, off-brand moments, and could even lead to customer complaints that feel hard to trace. 

What was meant to simply be background music quickly becomes a liability.

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Music Is Not Background - It Is Brand Communication.

Marketing teams will spend weeks refining tone of voice. They will debate adjectives in a headline, test imagery and layouts.  

Yet music, which plays for hours at a time in a physical space, is often left to chance.

There is a concept in academic research called musical fit. The higher the perceived fit between music and brand, the higher the perceived quality and value. When music aligns with a brand’s identity, customers subconsciously process the environment as more cohesive and considered.

When it does not align, friction appears. And this might be subtle. The space feels slightly confusing, the quality does not match the price point, or maybe the atmosphere does not reflect the brand promise.

You may never see it written in a review, but customers feel it.

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The Dangerous Middle Ground.

Interestingly, musical fit is not about playing it safe.

You can succeed at either end of the spectrum. A prestigious tailoring brand might play Britpop and create an intentional contrast that feels confident and modern. That works because it is deliberate.

The real danger sits in the middle.

Generic playlists, inoffensive background noise, music that could belong to any brand.

When staff are left to manage music themselves, that is usually where you land. It is not terrible. It is just forgettable - and forgettable is expensive.

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The Operational Cost No One Talks About.

Beyond brand perception, there is an operational reality.

When stores control their own music, head offices start losing oversight. Playlists can drift over time, you risk running into licensing issues, and it becomes hard to refine or review as there is no data available. 

What starts as a simple solution becomes another moving part to manage.

In multi-site environments, small inconsistencies multiply quickly. Fifty stores playing fifty different interpretations of your brand is not a small issue - it is structural.

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Why Human Curation Still Matters.

People sometimes assume that an algorithm can solve this.

Algorithms are useful. At Startle we use data to refine and prune playlists, and it massively helps us remove tracks that do not perform as expected while keeping everything sharp.

But curation does not start with data - it starts with instinct and experience.

Our curators have worked at places like Spotify, and some of them have DJed for global brands. They have spent years in hospitality and retail spaces. They know what a cosy café feels like, and they understand how tempo affects energy at 7pm versus 2pm. 

An algorithm has read about those spaces, but it has not been in them.

That human understanding is what prevents music from becoming generic.

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Control Without Killing Character

The goal is not to remove personality from stores. It is to create a clear framework. A blueprint that defines the sound of the brand. Scheduled playlists that evolve throughout the day, and guardrails that prevent accidental overrides.

When that foundation is in place, local teams can focus on what they do best: Serving customers, managing operations, creating great experiences.

They do not need to be DJs as well.

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Why this matters

Have you ever walked into a restaurant with no music playing at all? It feels sterile and slightly uncomfortable.

Most brands understand that music needs to be there. Fewer understand that it needs to be intentional.

Music is not decoration or filler, but rather a really powerful communication channel.   

When you leave it to chance, you risk inconsistency.

When you treat it strategically, it becomes one of the most powerful tools you have to subconsciously shape perception, influence behaviour, and reinforce who you are.

And that is far too important to leave to whoever has the aux cable.