Music for restaurants: how to choose the best music service and build the right playlist
How to create the right sound for every restaurant style, plus the features that make music easier for owners and staff
The role of music in restaurant experiences
Why music matters in restaurants
Music for restaurants is crucial to the customer experience. Guests will notice if they're eating in awkward silence, but even worse is playing music that's unsuitable for your venue, your restaurant's desired atmosphere and the time of day. While some eateries just press play on a playlist and forget about it, focusing on music goes a long way to make your customers stay longer. It can even impact how they perceive the quality of your food, potentially even affecting your bottom line.
Like everything else in your business, finding the right restaurant music solutions starts with your brand. Different dining experiences require different music and features – a fast-food chain has different needs to a fine dining restaurant. We'll cover a variety of venues later in the article, but matching your music to the venue's style is a good starting point.
But it's not just what you play – how you play it is equally important. Contrary to popular belief, you can't just connect Spotify or another personal streaming app to your speakers and hit play on a restaurant playlist. That's because the terms and conditions of these apps prohibit playing them in public spaces.
That's where business streaming apps come in. They provide music for restaurants and other venues, often including licensing in their subscriptions (or can show you how to obtain it) and their features are tailored to business use.
Essential music licensing for restaurants
All businesses playing background music on their premises must do so legally. If you play music where your customers can hear it, you'll need a public performance license, the restaurant music license that covers background music in commercial spaces.
An account with a personal streaming service does not cover the public performance license, and can't be used for commercial music for restaurants. Subscribing to a restaurant music service can save you some hassle – in the US and Canada, many platforms have a dedicated subscription that ensures legal music for restaurants. You pay a subscription fee that covers it, and they take care of the admin so you don't have to navigate copyright laws.
However, outside these countries, music licensing requirements for restaurants mean organizing your own public performance license through local performing rights organizations (PROs). Some streaming services can guide you through the necessary steps. A dedicated restaurant streaming service gives you peace of mind and allows you to run your business instead of worrying about copyright law.
Common misconceptions about restaurant music licensing
When setting up and playing music in your restaurant, make sure you avoid these restaurant music licensing pitfalls:
I already have an Apple Music/Spotify/etc. subscription, isn't that enough? Personal streaming services don't provide the necessary licenses for public playback. If you stream music in a restaurant, use a dedicated business streaming service. Not only does it provide the right licenses (or at least the resources to get them), but it also has features that are great for restaurant streaming.
I'm using a business streaming service, so all my restaurant music is covered legally. When you sign up for any streaming service, it's essential to check the terms and conditions. For a start – a music streaming service is only for recorded background music, so any other music (think for use in live performances) likely requires additional licenses. Outside the US and Canada, yo'll likely need to organize the public performance licenses yourself.
My restaurant is only small, so I don't need a license. If you're playing music for more than your own personal enjoyment, you need a public performance license. There's no limit to square footage.
It's fine if I only play royalty-free music. Always check the terms and conditions before playing royalty-free music in your business, as you may still need a public performance license.
You can read more in our article on restaurant music licensing.
What to look for in a restaurant music service
There are several restaurant music solutions on the market, but how do you tell them apart? Choosing the right music service for restaurants involves thinking about the music you want to play, how to play it legally and the other features that can make playing background music straightforward.
Most importantly, make sure you know which licenses you require (you can check out Soundtrack's music licensing pages to find out what's necessary in your country). A good restaurant music service will either bundle the public performance license into the subscription or provide guidance on how to organize these for yourself. This saves headaches and makes sure your business won't risk legal action or fines.
Next, check that the music service's catalog meets your needs. As people tend to spend an hour or two in restaurants, there should be enough music available for you to create on-brand playlists that don't repeat, and customers won't get bored or think you've skimped on music.
You can make things easier with a music service offering curated playlists – the best music services for restaurants have playlists available with your types of business in mind. You can find playlists to suit different dayparts, establishments and desired pace. This saves on decision-making and gives enough freedom to fit your specific brand.
Restaurant staff are busy people. Let them focus on service by keeping the music controls simple. Your chosen streaming service should require minimal onboarding and training. The hardware should be simple to use, and it should be easy to navigate and control volume and playback.
Reliable music streaming for restaurants means reliable playback, and an offline mode can help with this. Wi-Fi connections can be patchy or get overloaded, and your music should keep running even if the internet drops out. This prevents your customers from sitting in awkward silence, and that music doesn't become another task for your staff to handle.
A streaming music service for restaurant chains needs multi-location control and scheduling. This is essential for brand consistency and saves your staff work, as it only needs setting up once. Even more importantly, it ensures compliance across all your locations.
Music needs by restaurant type
The type of venue you run affects what kind of music streaming service you should use – read on to find out the main features useful for each kind of restaurant.
Fast casual restaurants
Fast food means speedy service and a quick turnover. The background music for fast casual restaurants should reflect that: create an approachable atmosphere with familiar tracks and build a high-energy playlist that supports a shorter dwell time, keeping customers moving through the business.
Music for quick service restaurants requires suitable features to play it, and business music platforms offer plenty. For example, a restaurant music app with AI stations and quick-start playlists lets staff simply press a button at the start of their shift for appropriate music designed for the venue, meaning they can focus on quick service.
Fast casual restaurant music also benefits from pre-scheduling for different dayparts. They see huge numbers of customers, and different meal rushes require different music. Warm, mid-tempo music works for pre-caffeine customers and setup. Lunch and early evening should have higher tempos to support a faster flow. Scheduling means that the right music is set up in advance – meaning you don't need to change the restaurant playlist for dinner.
Fast food restaurants often have many staff, which means that controls need to be easy to use, but they should also be limited to volume and skipping tracks. This keeps your background music within brand guidelines.
Casual dining restaurants
Casual dining music should be inviting so guests feel welcome to stay a while. But make sure it's upbeat enough to keep energy up. Curated playlists are a great feature for casual dining restaurants – no matter who's on shift, they can select a suitable, on-brand restaurant playlist.
These types of venues also benefit from scheduling features, which create a smooth transition from afternoon to dinner service. Staff can focus on prepping for the evening rush rather than worrying about switching playlists. Many restaurant music streaming services allow scheduling for a gradual transition into the evening mood rather than a sudden switch.
Music for casual dining restaurants needs to be appropriate for the setting. If you run a family-friendly Italian restaurant, this means not playing tracks with explicit lyrics or inappropriate subject matter. Most music services have filters that automatically exclude explicit content from playlists, which saves you having to go through your tracks one by one to make sure there are no nasty surprises.
Fine dining restaurants
In a fine dining restaurant, quality is the name of the game, and that includes your music. The whole experience is important, and while food is the main focus, music for fine dining restaurants involves equally careful curation and top-quality audio.
Fine dining music should be low-tempo and refined to complement a high level of service. If your restaurant prides itself on taste and class, that's exactly the music you should play. As people tend to spend all evening in a high-class restaurant, your music should be easy on the ears and unintrusive.
That said, the music you play doesn't (and shouldn't) have to be boring. Whether you run an intimate Japanese restaurant or a cutting-edge Scandinavian concept, focus on curated restaurant playlists that are intentional and match your desired brand experience. The best luxury restaurant music service allows for flexibility: your playlists should be as unique as your food.
Although scheduling saves time, the best restaurant music solutions for fine dining should have accessible controls within the venue. The atmosphere can vary evening to evening, so a staff member should be able to adjust the volume to keep the music audible but not overpowering and change tracks if the atmosphere calls for it.
Bars and gastropubs
Music for bars and pubs also requires careful planning; make sure your playlists reflect the time and energy level. If you're used to guests coming in for an after-work drink or chilled out meal, create bar playlists with familiar, relaxed music. Later at night, you can up the volume and tempo for a party atmosphere. Smart scheduling ensures that your playlists suit the time of day.
That said, a good bar music service lets staff override the music where necessary. On-demand playback means that if the scheduled music doesn't fit the mood in the venue, staff can respond and choose something more appropriate.
Many bars and gastropubs have separate zones for eating, drinking and dancing. Restaurant and bar music systems for these venues require multi-zone setups with different playlists and controls. That means that the music won't be too loud in an area where people are eating or chatting, and it won't be too laid back in an area where you expect a lot of mingling or dancing.
Cafés and coffee shops
A café or coffee shop that's open during the day should, as a rule, play warm, inviting music for the morning and midday traffic. It's best to avoid playing anything too heavy before your guests have their coffee.
Like other venues, background music for cafés should change pace as the day progresses – you can introduce more upbeat tracks into your playlists later in the afternoon. If you are open long hours, make sure your café music includes enough variety throughout the day. A music service for cafés may provide scheduling to make this straightforward.
Running an independent café or small chain? Tailor your coffee shop playlist to make it unique, fitting the vibe you want to create. There are several ways to do this – a music streaming service with a large streaming catalog is sure to have something you like or find one that allows you to import Spotify playlists for that personal touch that regular customers appreciate.
Key features restaurants benefit from
Curated playlists and AI-powered stations
Curated playlists and AI-powered stations are great features for restaurants, as they take the guesswork out of choosing music. Many music services for restaurants have playlists available that are tailored to specific types of venues and have been put together by a professional curator. Curated restaurant playlists let you avoid disruptive tracks – there won't be any nasty surprises or emergency skipping.
Soundtrack is one of the best restaurant music services, with 2,500 playlists designed for hospitality settings. Not only does Soundtrack provide music suitable for the type of venue you're running, but you have plenty of choice. Within that selection, you're sure to find a restaurant playlist to suit you.
Choosing specific playlists and tracks can be time-consuming. So why not use AI to find music for your restaurant? If you're looking for something tailored to your needs, try out Soundtrack's Soundtrack's AI playlist creator. Simply type in the sort of mood you're looking to create and receive a tracklist.
Staff-friendly controls
Front-of-house teams are busy: they don't want to waste time messing with music controls when they could be serving customers. That's why it's essential that your restaurant has a staff-friendly music system. All it should require is setting up at the start of a shift and the occasional adjustment when necessary.
Restaurant music control shouldn't require an IT degree: it should only take a few minutes of onboarding, and should be easy to navigate when staff need to make an adjustment. This is particularly important in hospitality settings with higher staff turnover than other industries.
To keep your music on brand, look for a music app for restaurants with different levels of user access. This means that the sound stays consistent, no matter who's on shift. While floor staff should have basic access to controls (i.e., skipping and volume), restaurant sound system management and curation should only be handled by more senior staff with admin permissions and who understand the brand. Skipping should also happen in moderation: if a staff member is skipping tracks looking for their favorite song, the playlist may lose its logic.
Multi-location management
If you run a franchise, you can't be everywhere at once. A restaurant chain music system with a central dashboard gives you oversight of what's playing and where, and allows you to schedule playlists and make changes without having to travel. It also means one person can handle the controls, rather than replicating workflows or having to train multiple staff.
Multi-location restaurant music with a centralized control system also provides consistency across venues. Once you set up your music, you know that no matter which playlist is playing in a location, it'll be on brand. You can also keep track of what's playing and detect issues immediately.
Franchise music management also reduces staff workload, especially if it includes automatic restaurant music scheduling. It allows front-of-house to focus on what they do best: serving your customers.
Offline mode and reliability
The last thing your staff want to do during a busy dinner service is waste time fixing playback that keeps dropping out. A reliable restaurant music service with an offline mode solves this issue: it provides no-interruption music streaming if the Wi-Fi drops out.
Considering the length of restaurant hours, there's always a risk that your restaurant music streaming service might struggle at some point. Offline music for restaurants is a failsafe, caching music locally so that if your connection drops out, playback continues.
Hardware and integration flexibility
If you already have AV hardware installed, choosing a music streaming service that fits with your current restaurant audio setup means saving time, energy and money. You won't need to rip out your current setup and start again, it's just a case of downloading an app and connecting it.
Many streaming services are compatible with common hardware setups like Sonos, a simple, wireless, high-quality setup which is highly suitable for commercial settings like restaurants.
Larger enterprises can check out API options so that they can integrate their systems directly with their chosen streaming service. This allows you to truly make a music streaming service your own – it matches your displays, controls, monitoring and branding. When you integrate Soundtrack, you can build your own automations, like tailoring volume to footfall, for example.
Building the perfect restaurant playlist
Matching music to brand identity
Brand consistency affects every aspect of your business, and music is essential to restaurant identity. Getting it right means your customers know what to expect.
It starts with your venue's desired atmosphere; as well as design and decor, your restaurant brand music is part of how a visitor feels when they arrive. A family-friendly restaurant might play upbeat music for a warm welcome, while a high-end restaurant can exude elegance with smooth jazz. Consider your brand's core values when creating restaurant playlists.
Service style also ties into your music choices. In general, the faster the service and the quicker the table turnover, the faster the music tempo should be.
Daypart music scheduling
Scheduling different playlists for different dayparts means matching your customers' energy. For example, play something unintrusive in the morning – it eases your staff and guests into the day.
When your venue is at its busiest, such as mealtimes when you're fully booked, high tempo music keeps up the energy, but it shouldn't feel too frantic. A playlist with just enough energy keeps staff moving and encourages a smooth table turnover.
Evening is the most variable time of day: some venues, like gastropubs, need the same musical energy as lunch, while others may opt for a chilled-out vibe, especially if they expect customers to stick around for a while.
Timed playlists for restaurants and automated scheduling tools are invaluable for venues with long opening hours. When shifts are changing over, the scheduled restaurant music does all the hard work by organizing transitions in advance, so your staff have one less thing to think about.
Volume and pacing
Volume and tempo are essential – although it might seem tempting to 'set and forget,' your restaurant music volume should adapt to peak and off-peak times. A loud, empty room feels jarring and unwelcoming, but if your music is too quiet during busy times, no one can hear it and it won't have the desired effect.
Pacing restaurant music correctly means considering how long you expect customers to stay. In general, a faster tempo fits a faster pace of dining. It also has a compounding effect: as you increase the tempo, you'll likely see more customer movement over a long shift.
No matter your brand's favorite genres, following background music best practices means reflecting not only the general ambiance of your venue, but the capacity and movement in it.
How to get started with a restaurant music service
There's a lot to think about when getting started with a streaming music service for restaurants, but it boils down to the following. Start by thinking about how you want a customer to feel when they walk in and how your restaurant's sound system can make that happen. Then, think about music that fits your brand identity. Next, find a service that provides commercial music for restaurants with licensing options and features to fit your space.
Ask yourself:
Does the music provider have a wide enough range of music to meet your brand's needs, and does it cover any of the licensing?
Does the music service provide useful features for restaurants, like scheduling and multi-zone/location controls?
Does it fit with your venue and current hardware?
You can compare the best restaurant music services by reading more in our article on streaming platforms for businesses.
Most restaurant music services offer trial periods to check out as many features as possible. Sign up for Soundtrack and try it out for free for 14 days.
