How to choose background music for your business

Start with what people are doing

Write a short description of the experience you want: an easy conversation over coffee, a lively training floor, an unhurried browse or a quiet treatment. Use it to judge music choices before getting attached to a genre.

Two areas in the same business may need different treatment. A hotel reception and its breakfast room can share a welcoming tone while using different selections.

• Conversation-led spaces: listen for vocals or sharp changes that compete with speech.
• Movement-led spaces: look for sustained energy and comfortable transitions.
• Quiet spaces: pay attention to sudden entrances, long silences and distracting textures.

Write a brief you can use to compare offers

For example: a single café with conversation at tables, a quieter opening and a busier lunch service; mostly instrumental music; one main room; a predictable monthly budget. Add the venue country and any separate uses, such as events or videos, so a provider can explain the actual scope.

Use the same brief for each provider so you can compare the answers. Fill in: business type and country; rooms or outdoor areas; opening hours; preferred styles, vocals and languages; and your target monthly budget, including currency. Ask what the quoted price includes and how staff would run the music each day.

Open Hours brings original music and permission for covered background use together in a subscription. Create an account and add your venue country to see the available local plans. The licensing overview explains the model; contact us for uses outside the offered scope.

• Music fit: desired energy, vocals, styles and the length of a typical day.
• Operational fit: locations, rooms, staff access and equipment.
• Offer fit: total recurring cost, included use, billing period and any relevant local requirements.

Choose energy before choosing a genre

Jazz can be sparse and gentle or lively and demanding. Electronic music can be spacious or driving. A genre is a useful starting point, but it does not tell you how a whole selection will feel.

Try one calm, one warm and one upbeat direction. Compare them against the same description of your space. In our collection you can use the genre and energy filters together, then inspect the stations that fit.

• Listen to the transition between tracks as well as the opening.
• Check vocals and lyrical language against the people using the space.
• Keep staff preferences in the conversation without letting one person's favourites define every shift.

Listen where your customers will hear it

A track heard through headphones at your desk can feel different through the speakers in a busy room. Make your final choice in the venue, at several listening positions and during more than one part of the day.

Treat this as a practical listening check, not a volume formula. Start low, check whether normal conversation feels comfortable, and adjust for your equipment and setting. A music subscription does not replace any applicable workplace sound requirements.

Shortlist two options and make a note for each one. Use the same listening positions, and compare them during a quiet and a busy period once the provider has confirmed permission for your trial. Write down what you would keep or change rather than giving each option a score.

• Conversation: can customers and staff speak comfortably where they normally sit or stand?
• Vocals and transitions: do lyrics draw attention away from the activity, or do changes between tracks interrupt the mood?
• A whole shift: ask the team which selections become repetitive or tiring after several hours.
• Daily operation: note how staff choose the right selection and who will handle changes.
• Your decision: record the preferred option, its quoted recurring cost and any questions still waiting for an answer.

Plan enough variety for the people who stay

A guest may hear a few songs; a team member may hear the whole day. Keep a note of selections that become repetitive, abrupt or tiring over a shift, and use that feedback to broaden the programme.

Avoid solving repetition by mixing every style into one station. Keep a coherent feeling while varying instrumentation and intensity. Our station descriptions and public samples help you compare directions; use your account playback to check sound and repetition across a realistic shift under your plan’s terms.

Check the use before putting it on all day

A downloadable file, an online playlist and a venue music service can come with different permissions. For any provider, ask for the terms covering your catalogue, location and intended use, and keep the answer with your account records.

Once you have chosen a direction, sketch your opening, busy period and wind-down. The public day planner saves a draft on this device. In your account, save a venue schedule and choose Follow saved schedule to run it in the open browser on an awake, connected device.