Our Assumptions

• Your music service enables scheduling of playlists.
• Your broad objective is to maximize the value of your business.
• You understand your customer demographics and how they might change throughout the day and week. Age is the most important factor.

The Six Hacks

1. Take a weekly calendar view and plot your store hours. Block off any time periods where demographics naturally shift. For example: does your restaurant serve more Baby Boomers at lunch and more Gen Xers after hours? Is there a happy hour when the pace and volume need to go up? Does your retail store serve more moms during the day and families after 3:30? Do weekends bring in a different demographic?
2. Decide on a vibe you want your business to project to each demographic. This may outweigh demographic shifts entirely if you have a specific sound you want regardless of who's in the room - just balance that with what makes each demographic comfortable. And make sure your genre selections make sense for your business. You don't want traditional Italian music in an Asian bistro.
3. Use your music scheduler to add day-parts based on the blocks you created, your desired vibe, and your audience.
4. Do not schedule music when no one is going to hear it. Playlists have a limited number of songs - don't waste them on an empty store. This ensures employees who are there all day hear the fewest repeats possible.
5. If you have employees on site after hours for cleanup, setup, or stocking, schedule something specifically for them. You'll make them happier and preserve songs for business hours.
6. Listen, get feedback, and adjust. Listen to the music yourself, gather input from employees and customers, and use that information to tweak your selections and scheduling until your business sounds exactly how you want.

Like anything worthwhile, getting this right takes some time and effort. But the end result - a business environment that sounds great and makes sense for your brand - is well worth it.