How does music affect restaurant sales? Psychology has the answers

In a simpler world, a restaurant's success would be determined by the quality of its food and nothing else. But we don't live in a simpler world, and so a whole host of other factors come into play. Some lie far beyond the restaurateur's purview – global economic conditions, the weather, what the restaurant down the street is doing. Others are more controllable – the quality of the food, yes, but also the vibe. How a place feels. How it feels will be determined by how it looks and how it sounds.

Perhaps because it's less visible and permanent than a restaurant's decor, music tends to be afforded less thorough consideration. But psychology shows us that music can have an enormous influence on how one feels – and spends – in a restaurant.

What does the science say?

Helpfully, rather a lot. Let's start with a prospective customer's decision to enter a restaurant – one BMI survey suggests that 61% of people will go into a bar or restaurant just for the music, and 53% will leave if they don't like the music. A customer making a quick decision about whether or not to enter a restaurant will, consciously or subconsciously, consider all of the information available to them – and music (or lack of it) will undoubtedly be a part of that.

The same study shows that 82% of people think music can tell you a lot about what kind of establishment you're in, 79% think more highly of an establishment if good music is playing, and 83% associate good music with good food and drinks. Music is an opportunity for a restaurant to tell a prospective customer what kind of place it is.

Of course, what qualifies as good music is different for different customers: gentle classical music might attract an older or more sophisticated crowd, but it could come across as stuffy to someone younger or less familiar with the genre. Acoustic or folk music might indicate to a bohemian crowd that this is their sort of place, while something more electronic could suggest an edgier vibe, while also potentially putting off an older crowd.

Pop music is an interesting case. This study of 1.8 million purchases across 16 branches of a global restaurant chain showed that playing random hits resulted in 4.3% fewer sales than if there was no music playing at all. Playing purely lesser-known songs tailored to the brand resulted in 1.2% more sales than if there was no music playing, and playing a blend of tailored songs and random hits resulted in sales 3.6% above that. Dessert purchases were 15.6% higher with a playlist mixing brand fits with popular hits.

What all of this tells us is that even in a global restaurant chain – somewhere you'd assume would have the broadest customer base of any kind of restaurant and therefore benefit most from music selection that just leans on whatever is already known to be popular in the most generic sense (i.e., chart-topping hits), just playing those chart-topping hits won't do it. People respond positively to an atmosphere that feels specific and considered, and their purchasing patterns reflect that.

Let's drill into the detail

So a restaurant benefits from a playlist that's congruent with the vibe it's trying to create – great. Easy. But there are more wins on the table here.

As well as influencing someone's psychology with regards to whether they might decide to enter a restaurant and how likely they are to order dessert, music can influence appetite and speed of eating. Believe it or not, this academic study showed that faster-tempo music results in a higher turnover – i.e., the speed of the music playing in a restaurant can influence the speed at which someone eats.

Depending on what kind of restaurant you run and what time of day it is, this might mean you want to nudge the tempo of the music playing up or down a little. A busy restaurant that wants customers to come in, spend their money, and make way for the next customers as quickly as possible might opt for slightly faster music, whereas a restaurant that would benefit more from keeping the same customers there longer – somewhere that's having a quiet afternoon, where diners might have plenty of time to think about whether or not they want to add sides, desserts and drinks, for example – could benefit from slowing things down.

According to psychologist Neel Burton, the way this works is that faster music can activate our fight-or-flight response, which in turn suppresses our parasympathetic nervous system – part of which is appetite. As Burton explains it, loud music can also suppress appetite – and apart from anything else, it just makes sense that if you go to a restaurant with someone else then at least part of the reason for going there is to talk to them. If you can't do that comfortably, you're going to be more inclined to take your evening elsewhere.

The after-effects

The psychological impact of music in a restaurant has a long tail, too. The BMI survey from earlier also showed that 83% of people think good music makes for a more memorable experience. So if the relationship between music and how we taste aligns with what a restaurant's customer base considers to be good, their experience at that restaurant will linger for longer in the mind – and this can only increase the chance that they'll one day come back.

How can we put this into practice?

Copyright laws mean you can't just hook your personal Spotify account up to a speaker and press play. But you can do something pretty similar (and a lot more) if you have an account with Soundtrack, a business music streaming service tailor-made for the needs of the restaurant industry. It can also make life a little easier for you to put this into practice by giving you access to thousands of curated playlists, many of which embody a particular vibe (romantic, cozy, edgy, fun, or even meal-specific moods like Sunday brunch or a jazzy dinner) – and has an explicit lyric filter for more family-oriented service times or establishments.

If you prefer crafting your own playlist, you can also import them from Spotify onto Soundtrack, and this way you don't have to worry about copyright laws or what is and isn't allowed – that's all taken care of. Give it a go with a free 14-day trial for Soundtrack and see what you think.

Every element of a customer's experience in a restaurant is a chance to tell them what that restaurant's like, and increase the chances that they'll want to spend money there and come back. Of course the food should be center stage; it's what every customer is there for. But how people experience that food, how they make decisions about it, the form it takes in their memory of their time at your restaurant – all of that is influenced by every piece of information their senses are giving them. You've taken care of the taste, the smell, the feel, the look: don't forget about the sound.