Ola Sars, Founder, CEO & Chairman, Soundtrack Your Brand

Worldwide, more than 100 million venues regularly play music. They do it for one reason: to make the people that use that venue – whether it be a shop, a pub, a tube station or a sports stadium – have a richer, more enjoyable experience. The underlying principle is simple: music both calms and energises a space. It acts as stress relief and a way of breathing life into a venue that otherwise lacks in atmosphere or that pulsates with the wrong kind of vibe.

Billions of individuals around the globe listen to music daily, and so it follows that the venues playing tracks are serving the needs of a pre-existing audience. Businesses require the ability to play music just as much as people do, for many of them play music for people – and in this day and age, that means the ability to stream songs and albums.

Yet as things stand, the streaming market doesn’t quite recognise that – or at least it has struggled to keep pace with changes to the way we play and listen. The major music streaming giants have developed their services on a B2C basis. They may well have had incredible success, but it leaves a huge market opportunity untapped.

Enter Soundtrack Your Brand. It recognised some years back that businesses would benefit just as much as individuals from the ability to enjoy the new functions that streaming services have provided: curated playlists, songs to suit the mood and pointers to new artists and albums. It also knew that, despite all the excitement surrounding the streaming revolution, artists were not being fairly remunerated for their work. Through its research, it found that 90 per cent of these 100 million-plus venues play music from a source that does not fairly reward creators. The music industry has always been tough on creatives, but streaming has generated an even more unequal playing field.

The platform created by Soundtrack Your Brand allows businesses to curate bespoke playlists for venues. The needs of customers for music, information or otherwise are met, while artists finally get the rewards they deserve. At $35 to $50 for a monthly subscription, the budgets of most businesses won’t be dented in the slightest, while artists will take a larger cut than any streaming service currently grants them.

Not only does the Soundtrack platform enable sustainable sourcing of music, but it also allows businesses to use music streaming to grow their business. Recent Nielsen research concluded that 79 per cent of consumers notice the music when visiting a business, 41 per cent will stay longer, 39 per cent are more likely to come back more often, 36 per cent will choose a business with good music and 21 per cent claim they will buy more if the music is right.

Music streaming looks to be here to stay. At the same time, customers will continue to expect that when they go to a venue, something will be coming through speakers to soundtrack their experience. Adapting music streaming to the needs of businesses is the logical evolution of the B2C market. With the market opportunity estimated at $35 to $50 billion, it makes sense to pay close attention to that evolution.

Visit soundtrackyourbrand.com to learn more about the leading B2B music streaming service