It sounds simple but it’s highly effective. Playing music in your restaurant or bar is likely to get your patrons to stick around longer and, more importantly, spend more money in your establishment, as confirmed by a new survey conducted by BMI and NRG (National Research Group). As a business owner, by providing a compelling soundtrack to your customers’ dining or drinking experience, you stand a better chance of increasing your revenue. This is because, put simply, people genuinely enjoy hearing their favorite music. If you play it, they’ll stay longer, fondly remember the experience, and most likely come back for repeated visits. It’s that easy.
Eat to The Beat: Music in Restaurants
And this isn’t limited to simply having music playing while your customers are dining. The very fact that your business features music can be a major factor in patrons choosing your place over another. Beyond the benefits of creating ambiance, playing music in your restaurant or bar can be profitable for you while enhancing your customers’ experience.
Let the facts speak for themselves. According to BMI and NRG’s quantitative online survey among 1,000 nationally representative people ages 21+ who regularly visit eating and drinking establishments (at least three times per month), atmosphere and music play a major role in what keeps them returning to their favorite establishments. The survey also reveals, for Millennials especially, that music is the second most important factor when it comes to selecting a restaurant or bar. But the numbers of the study drive the point home. Before your customers have even been seated, music can benefit your business. Of those surveyed, 81% suggested that good music can convince them to wait for a table – as long as 20 minutes. Ideally, they would wait at the bar where they can start spending money.
80% of those surveyed say they would stay longer at a bar or restaurant if good music was playing, while 60% say that they’d spend more money on food and drinks to continue enjoying the music. For Millennials, that percentage was even higher – 70%.
Taking this a step further, why stop with just playing music? By hosting live music, bars and restaurants create other revenue opportunities. Providing live music in your establishment, differentiates you from your competitors and selecting a specific type of music can help solidify your brand. Additional survey results found, that 82% said the experience at a bar or restaurant that features live music is more enjoyable, and Millennials admitted they’re likely to visit an establishment’s website to see if they feature live music before deciding where they want to go. And they’ll happily pay for a two-drink minimum to hear live music.
To add some context to the findings, in addition to speaking with consumers, NRG also spoke with restaurant and bar owners, operators and managers, and each supported the survey results. An owner with breweries in Colorado and Utah confirmed that customers stay longer and spend more money when a band or DJ performs, commenting, “check averages tend to go up 5-10% … and revenues have jumped almost 25% on the nights that we have live music.” Another restaurant owner from Atlanta said, “Going out to dinner is an event, it’s an experience. With live music… there were more liquor sales, and that’s a 75% margin.” That’s music to our ears.
For the complete survey, click here, and for more information on obtaining a BMI music license visit www.bmi.com/ede.
Read Also: Maximizing Leftover Food: Insights from Food & Beverage
* A quantitative online survey among 1,000 nationally representative people age 21+ who regularly visit EDEs (at least 3x per month). To represent the B2B perspective, NRG conducted six in-depth-interviews with owners, operators and managers of bars and restaurants.
