Music in Retail Stores: Your Guide for 2026

Music in retail stores helps to create the right ambiance for your customers. The right music can set the pace for shopping and browsing, and immediately lets customers know what kind of store they’ve walked into. 

Because retail stores want to provide a welcoming atmosphere for their customers, corporate background music is becoming a large market in its own right. Mordor Intelligence values this market at just over $2 billion. 

Retail chains make up the single largest slice of that spend (40.4%). This is because the music playing over a store’s speakers has to be commercially licensed, not pulled from a personal streaming account. 

This guide covers what music in retail stores is, how it affects your brand experience, and how to measure whether your music is working for your brand.

What is music in retail stores?

Music in retail stores is the background audio a business plays across its sales floor to shape the shopping experience and retail environment. The music you choose works with lighting, layout, and scent as part of the atmosphere your customers move through.

In-store music, however, is public and therefore subject to copyright law. This means it has to be handled through commercially licensed music. This could include a dedicated business music service, or direct licenses from the organizations that collect royalties for songwriters. 

How to legally play music in your retail store

Consumer music-streaming subscriptions are built for personal listening, not commercial use. Spotify’s terms of use grant users permission to make personal, non-commercial use of the service and its content. 

Playing music through a personal account over speakers in a store is a commercial use those terms don’t allow. This is why a personal subscription doesn’t replace commercial licensing for a retail environment. Even Muzak, the original mid-20th-century elevator-music service, required commercial licensing. 

Failing to license your store’s background music can have real consequences. In early 2025, a Connecticut restaurant was named in a federal lawsuit by ASCAP for playing copyrighted songs without the appropriate performance licenses. ASCAP is seeking statutory damages, anywhere from $750 to $30,000.

Know the difference between different music rights concepts

There are a few different key concepts relating to music rights. It’s important to understand them when picking out music for your store.

Learning what each of these three concepts means can help your business stay compliant:

• Personal-use rights. What a consumer subscription grants: the right to listen privately, for yourself. This does not extend to playing music in a business open to the public.
• Public-performance rights. What you need to play music publicly in a store. In the United States, any music played publicly over speakers qualifies as a public performance under copyright law. Businesses generally must obtain licenses to play it legally.
• Royalty-free music. Music licensed under terms that don’t require ongoing per-play royalties. Royalty-free is not the same as license-free, and the specific terms still dictate whether commercial in-store use is covered.

Before you play anything on your sales floor, confirm the license explicitly covers commercial, in-store public performance. It’s safest to not assume that a “free” or personal plan qualifies for music in retail stores.

Understand performance rights organizations (PROs)

In the United States, the licenses for public performance are managed by performance rights organizations (PROs), which collect royalties on behalf of songwriters and publishers.

The major US PROs are:

• ASCAP
• BMI
• SESAC
• GMR

Each PRO controls a different catalog, so a single license won’t cover every song you might play. If a PRO finds you publicly playing songs from its catalog without a license, it can pursue legal action, like the ASCAP lawsuit against the Connecticut restaurant. 

This is the main reason most retailers use business music services (more on this next) when it comes to playing music in retail stores. Business music services handle multi-PRO licensing, so store owners don’t have to grant coverage themselves.

Use a licensed music service for business 

Business music streaming services secure commercial rights on your behalf, ensure artists get paid correctly, and provide playlists built for retail environments. They cover the public-performance licenses your store needs, and reduce the risk of an accidental copyright infringement.

Business music services tend to offer:

• Commercial-use licensing across major PROs
• Curated, retail-safe playlists
• Tools for breaking up and scheduling your day
• Profanity and explicit-content filtering
• Multilocation control
• Accurate reporting for rights holders

The demand for these services is substantial and growing. Mordor Intelligence lists the commercial background music market at $2.04 billion in 2026 and forecasts $2.78 billion in 2031, with retail chains as the largest end-user segment.

Compare popular business music services

If you want music that’s legal and easy to manage across one or multiple locations, consider these three providers that retailers commonly use. Here’s how they compare on verified business-use licensing, scheduling controls, and multi-location support:

Disclaimer: Music licensing rules and obligations vary by country, region, and situation. This section is general information, not legal advice. Confirm your specific licensing requirements with the relevant performance rights organizations or qualified legal counsel before playing music in retail stores.

Why in-store music affects your brand experience

There have been studies going back to 1982 that show how music impacts shoppers, and how music can shape a customer’s in-store experience.

Music is one of the few elements of a store that’s always on and always contributing to how the space feels. So of course it would play a big role in shaping the shopping experience.

Julie Brown, co-founder at apparel and lifestyle brand Province of Canada, says this about moving from ecommerce only to opening a physical store: “It really propelled our business. It made just an online brand into a physical living, breathing thing that people could experience.”

And music plays a big part in that. It can make your store instantly recognizable.

As Peter Dering, founder and CEO at travel bag brand Peak Design, says about his store, “You walk in a Peak Design store and you’re like, I get it.”

Big retail chains like H&M make music such a big part of their overall brand strategy, they even have a role completely dedicated to it. Bianca Frankly is the head of music and brand experience, something that has been a game changer to the H&M brand.

In June 2025, the Swedish retailer announced that it now claims the largest organic branded playlist on Spotify. The weekly series, The Sound of H&M, is uploaded every Friday and played through stores daily.

Bianca said on the Beyond Marketing podcast, “At the end of the day, it’s how your audience, how your customers perceive you. And that’s where the authenticity comes in, where you connect with music because it’s so pure.”

And if you need more proof of the power of music as branding, just scroll through posts on Instagram or TikTok tagged #retailmusic. 

How to choose music in retail stores

Choosing music for a retail store means matching a sound to your brand, your customer, and the behavior you want on the floor. The steps below move from defining your identity to fine-tuning the specifics, and keeping the music fresh over time.

Define your brand identity and target audience

The right soundtrack reinforces your brand, and how you want people to feel the moment they walk in. Start by connecting your sound to your customers.

In an interview with Forbes, Ola Sars, founder and CEO of music streaming service Soundtrack, says connecting your brand identity to your target customer is a good starting point. “What are their demographics, psychographics, lifestyles, and motivations? These will be the cues that define their favorite type of music, artists, and expectations as they enter the business and associate with your brand.”

The style you choose tells shoppers what kind of store they’re in. “A high-end boutique using sparse, moody tracks can signal exclusivity, while a discount retailer might choose upbeat, familiar hits to create energy and encourage quicker purchases,” says Nikki Wishart, music curator at background-music provider QSIC, in an interview with RetailBiz. 

“Music works hand-in-hand with visual design and customer service to create an environment people want to spend time in,” Nikki says.

Consider these questions to define your store’s sound:

• If your store were a person, what would be on their playlist, and what would they never listen to?
• Does the music you’re playing right now match the customer you’re trying to attract?
• Would your target customer feel at home the moment they walk in, based on what they hear?

Match tempo, genre, volume, and familiarity to your store goals

There are four pillars that help you match the music you play to your customer base and your store’s overall goals. 

Read more about tempo, genre, volume, and familiarity below, and how to match these choices to your business model. 

Tempo

Tempo is all about how fast or slow a track is, and it sets the pace of shopping. Ola says, “If your store’s bottom line benefits from a higher volume of customers moving through your space and checking out quickly, songs with a faster tempo would be best.” Quick-service restaurants and high-traffic discount retailers often lean uptempo for this reason.

Nikki from QSIC says tempo can be shifted throughout the day: “During peak shopping times, faster tracks in the 110 to 130 beats per minute (BPM) range can heighten energy and keep people moving, while off-peak playlists often drop closer to 90 to 100 BPM to encourage browsing.”

Tempo also plays a role in what you sell. A study in Frontiers in Psychology found that faster-tempo background music raised shoppers’ arousal and, in turn, their variety-seeking behavior when it comes to trying new products. 

Genre

Genre should fit your brand and your target customers. Music in retail stores influences not just how people feel, but what they buy. In a wine-shop field experiment, classical music led customers to buy pricier wines than when Top 40 pop played, according to Melodial’s Retail Music Research Report.

If your customer base is broad, audio zoning lets you tailor playlists to different store areas or times of day rather than forcing one genre on everyone.

Volume

Volume can also play a role in the shopping experience. Music that’s on the louder side can create sensory overload, pushing customers out of the store faster. 

Volume also interacts with tempo: a fast, loud playlist turns your store into a get-in, get-out zone, while a slower one set at a conversational volume turns it into a discovery space. Consistency matters too. Sudden volume spikes from ads or unbalanced tracks snap customers out of the experience, so aim for smooth transitions.

Familiarity

How well shoppers know the music in retail stores also affects their experience. Melodial research found that familiar tunes led shoppers to cut visits short by about 8% on average, while unfamiliar background music kept customers browsing longer and lifted sales by up to 9%.

Familiarity also plays a role in tempo’s effect. The Frontiers in Psychology research found that fast-tempo music only shifted variety-seeking when shoppers were familiar with the music; with unfamiliar tracks, the tempo effect faded. 

The takeaway for most stores is to create a mix of familiar songs with newer ones, rather than sticking to one extreme over the other.

Evaluate the following to align music choices and shopper behavior: 

• What is your customer’s mindset before they walk into the store?
• If you muted the playlist tomorrow, what parts of your brand customer experience would collapse or feel unfinished?
• What behavior do you want to see from customers on your shop floor?

Keep playlists fresh and intentional

Seasonal rotations, weekly refreshes, and small swaps keep your store’s music aligned with campaigns, product drops, and foot-traffic patterns. H&M, for example, creates a new playlist every week.

One approach is to mix anchor tracks that fit your brand with softer, ambient music that holds the room without distracting customers. This keeps a playlist recognizable as yours, while still giving you space to rotate in new material.

Test your playlist’s longevity with these questions:

• Would your customers recognize your store’s sound if they heard it somewhere else?
• Are your playlists mostly recognizable hits, or are you mixing in lesser-known tracks?
• Does the playlist feel intentionally designed, or like a bunch of random songs on shuffle?

Adjust music by time of day, traffic, and store data

Crowd size in a retail store tends to spike around lunch, again in the late afternoon, and then drops into quieter pockets. Because shopper behavior shifts with crowd levels, your music can shift too.

Nikki from QSIC says, “Early mornings call for calm, familiar sounds to gently wake people up. When crowds pick up, the music ramps up with rhythmic, focused tracks that complement the buzz. Later in the day, as things slow again, the playlist relaxes to help everyone, staff and customers alike, reset.”

Data-driven curation starts with knowing when your busiest hours occur. Shopify’s Sales Over Time report breaks retail sales down by hour or day, so you can see when your store is most active, and align music choices with real metrics. Shopify also tracks foot-traffic trends and lets you compare headcount with sales on the same timeline, so you can plan sound around the real rhythm of your business. 

For more granular counts, an app like Dor, a thermal-sensing people counter that mounts above the entrance, adds entry-level traffic data.

Sync your sound with foot traffic patterns by asking these questions:

• What are the natural traffic peaks and lows in your store, and are you adjusting your music accordingly?
• Are your staff noticing customer fatigue from the music, or does it feel like it’s shifting with the day’s rhythm?
• If you muted the soundtrack right now, would the room feel too fast, too slow, or just right?

Retail store music playlist examples by store type and goal

The role of music in retail stores changes by store type and goal. Here are a few retail store music playlist examples that consider tempo, genre, volume, and familiarity to support a specific shopping environment and brand presentation.

In each case, the music is chosen to match how the store wants customers to feel and behave, rather than to fill the room.

Take a look at this real-life example. 

Jazzi McGilbert, founder and owner at Los Angeles–based bookstore and community space Reparations Club, knew exactly what she wanted her space to feel like. She says, “Rep Club is a little ’70s-inspired, definitely doesn’t look like your average bookstore. It is very colorful and very warm, so kind of the opposite of an Apple store.” Jazzi’s music choice and playlists play a big part in curating this energy. 

How to measure the impact of your in-store music

To tell whether your soundtrack is working for your brand, look for correlations between changes in music and changes in customer behavior or sales. 

The metrics worth watching include:

• Average transaction value: Are customers spending more per visit?
• Conversion rate: Are more browsers becoming buyers?
• Dwell time: Are customers spending longer in the store or in specific areas?
• Foot traffic: Are more people entering the store?
• Customer loyalty: Are repeat visits increasing?

Here are a few ways to track those metrics so you can measure the overall impact of your in-store music:

Run A/B tests

A/B testing lets you see the effect of music in retail stores. Play Playlist A on some days and Playlist B on others, keeping other conditions as similar as you can, then compare metrics like average transaction value, conversion rate, or time spent in store.

Another option is to test new things through pop-up shops. Allegra Shaw, co-founder at apparel brand Uncle Studios, did just that. She says, “Our pop-ups were test dummies for what location would work, what kind of vibe would work. It was so great to do pop-ups because you get to talk to the customer, you get to learn about them in real life, and then you get to see how they interact with the brand and your product.” Gathering insight and test results from your pop-ups can help you solidify the right soundtrack for your flagship store.

To compare results reliably, pull your numbers from the same place each time. Shopify POS analytics shows net sales, average order value, and items per order for a location, and compares the day’s figures to the same day the prior week. 

For deeper analysis, Shopify’s retail sales reports break performance down by location, product, and staff. Gathering direct feedback helps too—ask customers what they think of the store soundtrack.

Match music tests to store metrics

A music test is only as useful as the metric you tie it to. Before changing a playlist, define a hypothesis, decide which store metric it should move, and measure that metric before and after the change.

Use a structure like the one below:

• Write a hypothesis. State the expected effect in advance, such as “slower-tempo music in the afternoon will increase average dwell time.”
• Pick the metric that matches the goal. Tie a browsing goal to dwell time or items per order or a sales goal to transactions per hour or average transaction value.
• Set a baseline. Record the metric over a set period of time before you change anything.
• Compare before and after. Run the new playlist for a comparable period, then measure the same metric using your POS analytics and retail sales reports.

Apparel brand Kenny Flowers uses Shopify custom reports to help pinpoint exactly what’s moving the needle in their flagship store. Founder Kenny Haisfield says, “We created custom reports that show us exactly how our Charleston store is performing compared to our other sales channels. This visibility helps us monitor sweet spots in store traffic, determine optimal staffing levels, and make data-driven decisions about everything from inventory to store hours.”

These kinds of reports can be used to monitor changes in store playlists as well and how they’re impacting things like foot traffic and sales.

Watch customer behavior in “focus zones”

If you use audio zoning, with different music in fitting rooms, at checkout, or around high-traffic displays, measure the metric that matters to each zone. 

Some metrics to pay attention to in different store zones include:

• Fitting rooms. Try-on rate, conversion rate.
• Checkout. Line abandonment, throughput speed.
• Promotional displays. Interaction rate, uplift in featured items.

Use staff and customer insights

Employees are on the floor all day. They notice when customers linger by certain displays, when the atmosphere feels right, and when someone comments on the music. Fold their observations into your measurement.

Your customers can be an incredible feedback tool as well. This is one thing Julie of Province of Canada discovered when she opened her first store. Julie says, “It’s amazing how much your customers will tell you if you just open yourself up to listening to them. Having the physical space to do that in is huge. We’ve learned so much from customers over the years.”