How Music Affects You Emotionally?

We all perceive one music differently, and we perceive another the same. Our emotions, associations, and mood are to blame. Let’s see how music affects our emotions.

Physically or emotionally

Music occupies an important place in our hearts, and many people do not even imagine life without it. She is able to cheer us up in difficult times and remind us of happy moments. Some people see their personal history, which immediately resonates with their souls.

The sensations that we experience when listening to music differ from each other.

If we had to answer the question of how the sound of a tuba differs from the sound of a flute, then we could say something like that: the sound of the flute is high and gentle, and the sound of the tuba is low and rough. From the point of view of musical theory, we would define these sounds as different in pitch, timbre, and loudness.

Research conducted by record companies in the 60s and 70s proved that music affects the listener in the same way from a physical point of view: for this reason, crowds of people at festivals react to the same song in the same way. However, what about emotional perception?

Musical color

Rimsky-Korsakov perceived the coloring of different tonalities in colors characteristic of various natural phenomena. About the tonality in A major, he said: “This is the tonality of youth, spring – and not early spring, with ice and puddles, but spring, when lilacs bloom, and all the meadows are strewn with flowers; this is the tonality of the morning dawn when the light is not almost dawning, the whole east is already purple and gold. “

The coloring of the key in E-flat major – “dark, gloomy, gray-bluish; tone of cities and fortresses ”. F major – “clear green, pastoral; the color of spring birches ”. A minor – “pale pink; it is like a reflection of the evening dawn on a winter, white, cold, snowy landscape. ” B major – “gloomy, dark blue, with a steel, perhaps even a grayish-lead tint, the color of ominous thunderclouds.”

G minor – “without a certain color, has an elegiac-idyllic character.” A-flat major – “grayish-violet, has a gentle, dreamy character.”

The Theory of Musical Equilibration

So how does music affect us? Bernd and Daniela Willimeck, music theorists, answer this question.

Music cannot convey any emotions, it can only evoke them if the listener has any associations with it.” This happens when watching a movie when the viewer starts to worry about the main character.

These German researchers developed the Theory of Musical Balancing (die Strebetendenz-Theorie), which provides the first viable hypothesis about the emotional effects of music, offering important contributions to psychological research. In simple terms, their theory states, for example, that a minor key does not sound sad by itself; instead, the person listening to the music identifies with a process of will which conveys the idea, “No more.” Identifying with the content of this will is what fills the minor key with a sense of sorrow.

To date, scientists have tried unsuccessfully to establish a direct connection between music and emotion. However, musical balancing theory explains the emotional impact of music as a general process in which the listener identifies himself with the content of the will encoded in the music. The theory of musical balancing creates a structure in which even complex and special processes of will can be depicted musically, based on the many variations that result from harmony, both during their reproduction and in anticipation. Other musical parameters such as tempo, timbre, and volume also play a role. The Theory explains why a minor chord played at increasing volume does not seem sad, but rather angry: it expresses the same message, “No more,” but now appears to be full of energy and aggressive. Hearing this chord at a louder volume is similar to identifying with a person loudly screaming “No more.”

To obtain statistical confirmation of the emotional impact of harmonies, the researchers conducted extensive tests with over 2,100 participants from four continents; Members of the famous Vienna Boys’ Choir and the Regensburg Cathedral Choir also took part. The tests showed an astoundingly high correlation of 86%, confirming that some harmonies are preferred over others in certain contexts, a phenomenon that is determined and explained by theory. For example, a diminished seventh movement is ultimately associated with a sense of despair, while an enhanced chord conveys a sense of surprise. In addition, Bernd and Daniela Willimeck provide many examples from the music literature that show that over the centuries composers have deliberately used these harmonies to evoke certain emotions.

In Music and Emotions – Research on the Theory of Musical Equilibration, they base their arguments on the musical repertoire itself, and their precise analytical descriptions of harmony are compelling as an accepted parameter for making music.

Anneli Haake also notes that it is important to understand the difference between how music evokes feelings and what emotions it expresses. For example, to make a person feel sad, a sad melody alone is not enough. The opposite is also true – a person will not begin to rejoice, barely listening to a cheerful melody, since he may have his own, even negative, associations with this song (for example, breaking up a relationship with a loved one).

Ethan Hein, professor of music at Montclair State University, says the perception of music depends entirely on the cultural background of the listener. There is hardly a melody that will make the same impression on everyone. As an example, Ethan recounts his story: “I really liked the Hebrew tune Der Gasn Nigun, which I thought was a funeral song. Later I found out that it was a wedding hymn. “

In Western culture, it is believed that if a song sounds in a major tonality, then it is funny, and if in minor tones, it is sad. The same goes for rhythm. A fast pace is associated with some kind of activity – running, jumping, enthusiastic dancing. A slow pace is associated with sleep, rest, or fatigue.

Also, the level of “emotionality” depends on musical intervals. Lucky intervals are the most consonant and are based on simple proportions – octaves (2:1), fifths (3:2), major thirds (5:4). However, all this, again, depends on the cultural background of the listener.

This is due to the fact that, in general, the musical tastes of different peoples of the world were formed independently of each other. “For Western listeners, Korean music sounds sad, but for Koreans themselves, it sounds festive and beautiful,” said composer Michael Sidney Timpson.

A Circumplex Model of Affect

To explain the influence of Western music on a person, the circular model of James A. Russell is well suited – this is the so-called model of emotional experience, where emotions are arranged in the following sequence: pleasure (0 °), excitement (45 °), activation (90 °), distress (135 °), displeasure (180 °), depression (225 °), drowsiness (270 °), relaxation (315 °). Check out A Circumplex Model of Affect.

Vertically – this is the scale of “emotion intensity”, horizontally – the scale of “valence”

It turns out that fast music has a high intensity, and slow music has a low intensity. As for the keys, the major key is the positive valence, and the minor keys are the negative

Music can send us on an exciting adventure and tell our own story. It can intertwine consonances and rhythmic syncopations that tell of peace and well-being, which will replace various dissonances that express a certain conflict.

Music accompanies us all our lives in sorrow and in joy. Thanks to her, people for many centuries are happy, sad, resting, or concentrating their attention on what they love.

What Does Music do to the Brain?

To the question “What is the role of music in human life?” there are many answers. Today we invite you to familiarize yourself with a number of new scientific studies that have shed light on another little-known aspect – the effect of music on the work of the brain.

Can music make us happier?

According to the American music theorist Jerrold Levinson, the musical language is a no less expressive system of communication than ordinary human language as a subject of linguistic study.

Since music carries a much more powerful emotional charge than real-life events, modern psychologists are increasingly resorting to the use of music therapy. Its positive effect on the human condition can be explained at least by the fact that the reactions of our nervous system to cheerful and sentimental musical works are completely different. For example, participants in a recent experiment, after listening to a short song, interpreted a neutral facial expression as happy or sad, depending on which melody they heard.

The emotions that arose under the influence of music can be roughly divided into two types – perceived and felt. This means that a person is able to understand the mood of a piece of music, even if he never had to experience such sensations in real life. So, with psychological disorders of a depressive nature, cheerful music only aggravates a person’s condition, while sad motives, on the contrary, return bright colors to life.

How does background noise affect creativity?

In order not to go crazy with boredom while working on some painfully familiar task – for which you, quite possibly, get a solid material reward – you put on headphones, set the desired volume, select the required playlist and press the “play” button, it is so? Be that as it may, when it comes to work that requires activation of the right hemisphere, loud music is unlikely to help.

As it turns out, the average noise level is a kind of creative catalyst. By complicating the process of processing information, background noise stimulates abstract thinking and attunes the human brain to a creative work mode. That is why public places – cafes, summer grounds, embankments, parks, etc. – so attract creative people.

With a high level of noise, the human brain is too overloaded, as it tries not only to abstract from all the distractions, but also to process information as efficiently as possible.

Is it possible to determine the character of a person, knowing his musical preferences?

The results of this study, conducted by scientists at Heriot-Watt University (HWU), proved for the first time that there is a definite relationship between a person’s preferred musical genres and his character.

In the first part of the experiment, 36,518 young people from around the world were asked to rank 104 music genres based on their personal preferences. The next stage of the study was somewhat more difficult: the participants had to pair up and try to determine the character traits of their partners, based on their list of 10 most listened to songs. Five qualities were chosen for the analysis: openness to new experience, extraversion, politeness, conscientiousness, and emotional balance.

Scientists have come to the following conclusions:

• blues fans are creative, outgoing, polite, and arrogant;
• among jazz lovers, the most common are creative, friendly people with high self-esteem;
• fans of classical music are of an introverted type of personality, but despite this, they have a high sense of dignity and outstanding creativity;
• rap fans are sociable and slightly selfish;
• opera lovers include polite, open, creative personalities;
• fans of country and western are distinguished by their hard work and ability to easily find a common language with others;
• reggae fans have high self-esteem, are creative and sociable, but hard work is definitely not about them;
• lovers of rhythmic dance music belong to the extroverted type of personality, have certain creative abilities, but do not differ in good manners;
• indie fans have low self-esteem, are not hardworking, and are often poorly educated;
• Bollywood fans (music from Indian films) are very helpful and friendly;
• very often the lovers of heavy music – heavy metal, hardcore, etc. – have low self-esteem, but they have great creative potential.

The results obtained allowed scientists to develop a unique model that reflects the relationship between musical preferences and a person’s character:

Should you listen to music while driving?

There are countless hypotheses about the amazing power of music on driving, but unfortunately, none of them provide an answer to the question of whether it is safe. The results of a recent study conducted by scientists from Ben-Gurion University (Beersheba, Israel) raised doubts about the correctness of generally accepted assumptions about the positive effect of music on driving behavior while driving a car.

Scientists have tested how drivers are influenced by their own music, the “safe” compositions proposed by the researchers, and the complete absence of any musical accompaniment. As a result, the assumptions made by the scientists before the start of the experiment were fully confirmed: the drivers made the greatest number of mistakes while driving accompanied by their chosen compositions, a little less dangerous situations arose in the absence of musical accompaniment, but the music proposed by the researchers had the most favorable effect on the drivers.

Is there a connection between music and logic?

As you know, learning to play musical instruments at an early age has a beneficial effect on the further development of the child. In 2008, Mary Forgeard, Ellen Winner, and Andrea Norton, faculty members at the University of St. Andrews, found that children who practice music for about three years outperform their peers on four indicators at once: perception of information by ear, motor skills, vocabulary, and logical thinking. Thus, the scientists came to the conclusion that long-term intensive musical practice has a positive effect not only on the interhemispheric organization of auditory and motor functions but also on the process of redistribution of mental functions between the left and right hemispheres of the brain (lateralization).

How does classical music affect stroke victims?

A small study, the results of which were published on the website of the American Association for Occupational Therapy, showed that classical music has some rehabilitative properties.

The experiment was carried out with the participation of 16 patients who had suffered a stroke in the right hemisphere of the brain. For one week, the researchers monitored how classical music, white noise, and silence affected the attentiveness and visual perception of each patient. The results were recorded by scientists using specially developed visual analog scales (VAS, usually used to determine the degree of pain intensity). As with creativity and driving, the silence did not live up to scientists ‘expectations, but classical music significantly increased patients’ attention span and improved their visual memory.

Why is eavesdropping on telephone conversations harmful?

There is a sign on the Tokyo subway warning that telephone conversations are disturbing the rest of the passengers. As it turned out, there is a scientific explanation for this.

According to a study conducted by scientists at the University of California, San Diego, if a person unwittingly witnesses such a “semi-dialogue”, then his attention is scattered more than if he heard a full-fledged conversation.

“According to the results of a social survey, 82% of people find telephone conversations downright annoying. We were curious to know what kind of mental influence passive listeners give in, because today each of us has to try on this role several times a day, ”says research leader Veronica Galvan, assistant professor of psychology.

During the experiment, 164 volunteers were asked to decipher several anagrams. During this time, the researchers themselves were actively communicating with each other or talking on the phone, while the participants did not even suspect that the inappropriate behavior of psychologists was also part of the experiment.

After finishing the assignment, those students for whom the telephone conversation served as the background admitted that this significantly reduced their speed of work and concentration of attention, while the other half of the participants with grief remembered in half what the scientists were talking about and whether they talked at all.

How can you make your workouts more productive?

Scientists have been researching the effects of music on exercise for years. For example, in 1911 the American scientist Leonard Ayres discovered that cyclists pedal much faster when listening to rhythmic music than when they ride in silence.

This is because music simply drowns out the signals of fatigue. The body, feeling physically exhausted, sends to the brain the appropriate impulses that the muscles need time to recover. Music, in turn, predetermines such signals and motivates a person to exercise longer. It should be noted that musical accompaniment is especially useful during training with low to moderate intensity since the pain that occurs during heavy exertion is almost impossible to ignore.

Musical accompaniment also helps a person manage their energy reserves in the most efficient way. A 2012 study found that cyclists listening to music while exercising consumed 7% less oxygen, even though the load remained the same.

Some psychologists have argued that humans have an innate preference for a 2-hertz rhythm, which is equivalent to 120 beats per minute (bpm is the number of quarter notes per minute that determines the speed of a song), although, for cardiovascular equipment – treadmills, ellipticals, exercise bikes, and etc. – more rhythmic music is suitable. According to the researchers, the so-called “motivational ceiling” that ensures the peak of human productivity are compositions with a frequency of 145 bpm.

How is Music Used in Advertising?

In this article, you will learn about the use of music in advertising, who uses and creates it, and how. And also where to get advertising music.

Functions of music in advertising

In advertising, “music can serve the overall promotional goals in one or more of several capacities.” David Huron proposes six primary categories, which include: entertainment, structure and continuity, memorability, lyrical language, targeting, and authority establishment. Also, music in advertising can be used to appeal to a person’s emotions and senses. The targeting of one’s emotions is done so that the audience is swayed toward what is being advertised. Using music to influence a person’s emotional state is effective, since “music has a significant influence on the consumer’s emotional state and mood, which is an important concept in the establishment of attitudes since mood states seem to bias judgments and opinions in the same direction as the mood state”. Being able to use music in advertising has made advertisements more enticing and attention-getting for the audience. Fifteen seconds is currently the standard duration of a television commercial so advertisers need to be able to successfully grab their audience’s attention, which music does.

Read more about the categories offered by David Huron here.

Audio branding: what it is and how it works

Audio branding is the creation of musical works designed to evoke associations with a particular brand in listeners. This is a fairly broad concept, which includes both the music played in commercials and, for example, the jingles of several notes that you can hear at train stations and in the subway.

When a brand is looking for music in their video, they usually turn to a music agency, label, or creative agency. If a customer turns to a creative agency, they often turn to the label or other experts themselves, and sometimes they choose the music themselves. Where to get the music, the agency decides together with the client or with a musical subcontractor – for example, one of the companies mentioned above.

Music for a brand can be written from scratch or licensed from artists – as it is or with modifications and additions. It can also be taken from libraries and stocks (about them – below), it all depends on the specific advertising campaign.

Where does advertising music come from?

Music agencies use production libraries, they all work the same way. This is a musical fund, written on the basis of some stereotyped situations, typical scenes from films. Music from libraries is somewhat similar to each other. Therefore, the tags and descriptions of the “library” indicate compositions, styles, genres, moods, tempos – attributes by which scouts from film and advertising companies can search for this music. Music usually ends up in production libraries after manual moderation.

Production libraries usually exist in every major record company. For example – Warner Chappell, Universal Production Music. Other notable companies from this industry are Megatrax, Extreme Music.

You need to read about each of these resources separately, study their instructions, understand in detail the contracts and legal forms of interaction.

Who and how orders music for advertising

Much has changed in the history of advertising and background music, both in the ways of interaction between the customer and the performer, and in the music itself, but some basic things have remained the same.

The main idea of ​​advertising music is to be in trend, that is, the sounding music should be associated with something already stereotyped and well-known. 25 years ago it was fashionable to remake pop hits or songs from movies, today each product category has its own trendy sound. There are not many such categories – maybe a couple dozen. There is, say, a corporate sound that is associated with business, offices, promotion of services; cinematic sound associated with something global, such as sports, cars, movie trailers.

Today only big brands usually have big advertising budgets that imply writing exclusive music. Small companies prefer to buy ready-made music in non-exclusive. They have a goal to do “for inexpensive” almost the same as the largest companies because much of what is already on the advertising market is very similar to each other.

What is a ‘reference track’ and how sound engineers work with it

A reference track is a music track that often represents the mood, style, set of instruments, and character of the composition, which the music creator aligns with his work to satisfy the client’s request. This is a fulcrum, not something to be copied and plagiarized.
You can create a similar but not identical sound design, change tempo, rhythm, shuffle, swing, key, instrumental composition, change vocals from female to male or vice versa, and much more. For example, you can ‘edit’ the genre.
Sometimes three or four reference tracks are taken and the new track turns out to be their twin. Then such music can be placed next to the reference, listened to in the context of similar compositions, and it will not fall out of this playlist.

To find out how to choose the most suitable mood and style for your project, advertising, business, read this article.

What an advertising composer should know and be able to do

First of all – to be able to work on the reference track. You need to understand that the customer has in his head a certain already known melody, or at least an image, a sound. The closer the composer comes to him, the faster the result will be achieved.

You also need to be able to work with a wide variety of musical styles. An ordinary composer, as a rule, writes in his own genre, delves into details, brings the work to perfection – and this is very correct. But the specificity of the advertising market is that it needs to be done exactly as the customer requires, and often in a short time, therefore, an advertising composer is such an omnivorous music producer who knows many genres and knows how to work quickly in them.

Working with a reference track is a broad question; here you can write a small book, too many nuances. Pay attention, first of all, to the mood and harmony of the music: they should be as simple, organic, transparent-understandable, recognizable, on the verge of plagiarism, but not overstep it. The second important aspect is the choice of sounds, mixing. It is recommended to listen carefully to the reference track, copy the characteristics in parts, and mix the music with the same volume and effects.

Stock music. What is it?

Stock music is sold on special sites (stocks) and is used for scoring films, YouTube videos, sites, audiobooks, and more. Collaborating with these services is another way to purchase ad music.
The largest stock site for many years has been Audiojungle, a division of Envato Corporation that also sells videos, website templates, graphics, that is, almost everything related to content production.

There are other stocks (Jamendo, Premium Beat, Pond5), but so far they are far from the stability, quality, and scale of Audiojungle.

The advantage of stocks is a fairly wide selection of music. However, such music is rather formulaic, and if you need more non-standard music, you will have to order it individually. You need to understand the essence of the compositions that are sold on audio stocks: this as background music, which is often added to the voice of the announcer, thematic video, or audio series.

There are also more and less popular composers in this market. The prices for licenses are different, and it is worth noting that the types of music licenses themselves also differ from each other.

There are quite a lot of Royal Free Music on social media networks and on YoTube. A very important nuance today is the presence of a Content ID on YouTube. Many resources offer to issue a Content ID through them for a certain percentage or, on the contrary, put forward the presence of a Content ID as a prerequisite for cooperation. This suggests that the market for YouTube monetization and social networks for artists and their music is growing. This prevents theft and illegal use of music. To understand licenses and where to get copyright-free music read this article.

How to Choose Music for Business?

It is enough to hear the music to understand which brand is in front of us. How to choose background music for your business and your brand? What kind of music to use, with or without lyrics, and what style of music would best sell?

Why background music and not popular songs?

Someone is used to being sad to famous music, so a particular song may be associated with drama and unpleasant events. Of course, with pleasant ones too. It turns out that the music that people know and often hear is colored by emotions, information messages, and the personality of the performer.

This means that a brand that uses well-known music takes over a part of the information field where the songs live, which may be superfluous for the brand.

In addition, taste preferences can harm a brand through association. For example, if listeners think the artist is stupid, awkward, or unpopular, then this will inevitably go to the brand, sometimes in a transformed form. This is dangerous when the social group of opponents grows or is simply large, from a thousand people. And if a performer is out of fashion, so is the product.

Non-repetitive brand identity

You are not the only one – the image that develops if a brand overuse famous tracks. After all, they sound in many institutions, on the radio, and on TV. It turns out that the brand becomes the same as everyone else.

On the one hand, this is useful when a company targets a different and opposite audience in many respects, which is difficult to make friends with each other. On the other hand, if a brand wants to have its own character and be different from others, it needs to show it through attributes: music, visuals, and texts.

Correctly selected playlist

Music is limited. A common scenario: users constantly play famous tracks, and then go crazy with the fact that the songs are often repeated or because there are no new products that are suitable for the brand. For example, Justin Bieber’s songs are popular tracks. But here’s the bad luck: they are suitable for a youth brand, and you have a premium brand – you have to look for Ed Sheeran.

Because of this, you will inevitably run into the fact that the music that suits you has a limit. It turns out that there are not so many new products among the popular tracks. Also, not all songs fit together. For example, Queen and Dua Lipa are famous performers who are loved by many. However, they should not be in the same business playlist, since they represent different eras, sound differently, and create opposite associations.

Clients don’t need to sing along

Music for business is a rational selection according to the given parameters. Contrary to expectations, music should help the business, not make you want to sing or dance.

In order for music to help, it is selected with a specific rhythm, in the right style, with or without vocals, even in an era that is appropriate in meaning.

Musical brand styling

To buy an expensive classic suit, you are unlikely to go to a rap store. However, you will go to the hip-hop section for sneakers or a baseball cap.
The genre of music means a lot to the brand and when the brand chooses its specific sound it creates a recognizable association and mood among the customers. It’s not about what kind of music the target group prefers, but how the sound matches the brand.

Ambient

This is a very light, sometimes airy style of electronic music, it can be a little danceable, it can be completely shapeless and immense like an ocean. Very accurately conveys the expensive atmosphere of tranquility.

• Spa salons and saunas;
• Yoga;
• Rest and relaxation areas;
• Applications;
• Massage services;
• Presentations.

Lounge

A genre for established brands that are confident in themselves. They have nowhere else to rush and do not need to control everything, because a balance has been found. Lounge brands are as different as music: some unpredictable, others tech-savvy. Some brands make calmness their highlight, while others – something provocative, like Bossanova. Lounge and jazz often overlap, which is why many brands use two styles at once.

• Gadgets;
• Fashion and Style;
• Presentations;
• Bars;
• Summer cafes;
• Yacht clubs.

Jazz

Music of creative and intellectual brands. These brands “live” in major metropolitan cities. You expect premium quality from such brands, they always look good and take care of their appearance. Communication with such brands does not imply youth memes that are published by everyone: if joking, then in their own way, subtly and cleverly.

• Elite hotel chains;
• Major airlines;
• Fashionable designer clothes;
• Expensive shops;
• Cosmetic brands;
• Foreign cars;
• Alcohol and beer are good and expensive.

Cinematic

Cinema without music would be boring. At first, the film was without words, and it was dubbed by pianists, adjusting to the mood and dynamics of the film. Over time, voice acting and color rendition appeared in the cinema. Music also kept up and progressed. And today it has grown into a large-scale section of music. Cinema music combines a lot from other styles, for example from classical music it has adopted the sound of the orchestra and epic, from industrial tension and modernity. This music can be inspiring, fearsome, romantic, intense, scary, and even annoying.

• Film industry;
• Video advertising;
• Video content;
• Entertainment;
• Creativity and Science;
• Electronics;
• Cars;
• The property;
• Presentations.

Corporate

It so happened that business and motivational music is used for business. It has grown into a separate genre and its range of applications is corporate.

• Commercial activity;
• Advertising;
• Marketing;
• Business business;
• The property;
• Presentations;
• Legal services;
• Medicine;
• Politics;
• The science;
• Training and education,
• IT and technology.

Soft rock

Music brands that go to their goal comfortably and without strain. It is not appropriate to do anything with all your strength and to the limit, but balance, rational effort, and individuality are appreciated.

• Hotels, travel agencies;
• Entertainment, bars, and cafes;
• Mobile applications;
• Cars;
• Creativity and Science;
• Bioproducts;
• Jewelry.

Electronic music

The genre unites several directions, mainly dance: house and its subspecies, dynamic lounge, dubstep, and ambient.

Electronic music for fashion brands. This happened because it was often used in fashion shows: the speed of the music is ideal for the model step. Thanks to this, an association emerged: electronic music is fashionable.

Electronic music brands are energetic, want to do a lot, and follow trends. Such brands are at the center of events and stir up interest in themselves, so you expect loud statements and a little provocation from brands. Another feature is the variety.

It is important for fashion brands to constantly improve and look for something new.

• Clothes and footwear;
• Fashion shows;
• IT and telephony;
• Cars;
• Alcohol, except wines;
• Jewelry;
• Yacht clubs;
• The property;
• Restaurants, cafes, and bars;
• Sports grounds.

Indie pop

A creative and romantic brand, not like everyone else. Indie pop brands are different, with a vibrant personality that they show without fear of being misunderstood. These brands are often used, but even if they get bored, it is still difficult to stop loving them.

A bit airy and unreal, these brands remain in the memory.

• Electronics;
• Cars;
• Women’s clothing and footwear;
• Hotels, travel agencies.

Folk

This is mostly acoustic music with live instruments. There are various subspecies and directions. You can say the elder brother of Go music. It adopts the elements of folk art, but this style has long been not limited only to folk performance but has a powerful selling ability.

• Entertainment;
• Children’s institutions and entertainment;
• Video advertising;
• Video content;
• Education;
• IT and technology;
• Advertising;
• Food and drinks;
• Household goods, personal hygiene products.

Pop

A universal brand that brings people together. Most often these are brands with a light character, agile and flexible. Such brands do not have a clear opposition between “us and them”: the brand is ready to be friends with different people and adjust their strategy to them.

• Food and drinks;
• Family entertainment;
• Mobile applications;
• Cosmetics;
• IT and telephony;
• Creativity and Science;
• Bioproducts;
• Jewelry;
• City festivals.

Rock

Quite bold and defiant style. Of course, there are many subgenres in rock, but commercial rock is more or less sustained and has taken its own niche in the market.

• Gadgets;
• Fashion and Style;
• Food and drinks;
• Entertainment;
• Electronics;
• Cars;
• Advertising;
• Marketing.

R&B

Rhythm and blues for fashion brands. These are usually new businesses, developments, even chewing gum flavors. Only the “new” is necessarily based on the old, just like R&B itself – a different approach to familiar things.

You can also tell from the music who the brand’s audience is because everything new and fashionable is usually acquired by the elite.

• Electronics;
• Beer;
• Telephony;
• Cars;
• Snacks, chewing gums, hard candy;
• Entertainment;
• Mobile applications;
• Household goods, personal hygiene products.

Hip-Hop

This direction is quite versatile. It can be trendy, aggressive, relaxing, and not suitable for every business. The history of the development of style begins in protests against inequality and injustice, but today this subculture, due to its reflexive nature, personifies style, trends, fashion, and popularity.

• Fashion boutiques;
• Video blogs;
• Travels;
• Gadgets;
• Fashion and Style;
• Food and drinks;
• Entertainment;
• Cars;
• Social networks.

How to Get Hold of Music for Your Business?

Find out how music affects your customers, how it builds your business brand, and where to get the music to sell.

Many people know theories from popular psychology: music motivates you to move faster, eat more or less, and buy impulsively things that were previously postponed. It is believed that this is why music is included. In fact, background sound covers a lot more nuanced than replicated methods of exposure. This is what researchers and background music experts say.

Let’s dwell on the theory of audio marketing in order to choose an effective way to solve business problems.

Employee productivity

The staff will not accept any music, and this is not about taste preferences, but about objective reasons.

Consider the case when the specialists of a fashionable auto center studied the musical preferences of the target group, interviewed the core of the audience, and decided that the most effective sound is the lounge. This music relaxes, under it, you want to contemplate, consider the little things, and feel how everything around reminds you of comfort, a fulfilled life, and success.

However, the playlist was changed: the employees of the auto center fell asleep and did not rush to go out to the customers. Minus – the playlist was homogeneous. After all, the lounge is calm music, which means that visitors and employees did not feel cheerful and joyful.

Such a playlist should be diluted with dynamic tracks. This will help the staff stay in high spirits and serve customers faster.

If specialists are busy with monotonous work, which is constantly repeated, they need help with music – positive and dynamic. The well-coordinated work of employees is also a criterion for evaluating audio marketing because the company’s profit depends on their work.

What to enable and for what tasks to help employees:

• classical music: mathematics, attention to detail;
• pop music: data entry, deadlines, spell check;
• electronic music, ambient: solution of equations, accuracy.

Impact on sales

When it comes to playing music in stores and restaurants, common sense dictates to play the music that the patrons listen to. However, research shows that this approach is often ineffective in increasing sales.

If the goal is to increase sales, the music should match the store’s brand or a specific product. For example, wine sales grow when classical instrumental music is played in the store. But in order to increase sales of only French wines, it is wiser to dilute the playlist with French music.

Consumer behavior

If you are researching the effectiveness of audio marketing, you probably know.

If people are annoyed by music, they leave without shopping or buy goods faster in order to get out as soon as possible. You don’t have to go through hard metal at the family store, just turn up the volume. When the task is to speed up the movement of shoppers during rush hour, then this is an effective tool. But loud music isn’t for every business. It is appropriate in bars, but the store will face another problem – negative associations with the brand.

A universal way is to control behavior with a musical tempo. The effectiveness of the method was proved by the English professor Ronald Milliman. He studied whether the behavior was related to the speed of the music. It turned out that under slow tracks, buyers crossed the control distance in 128 seconds, and under fast tracks – in 109 seconds.

Interestingly, in supermarkets and restaurants, shoppers spend more money if slow music is playing. In Russia, the influence of background music is rarely researched, so let’s remember a Scottish restaurant as an example: shoppers spent 19% more because they spent longer in the restaurant. These facts are confirmed by a study by scientists from the University of Strathclyde.

Another sense of time

When music is playing, time moves faster – this is how people evaluate it. If you ask consumers to name the minutes spent shopping with music, they are more likely to biasedly reduce the amount of time.

While listening to tracks, the human brain builds positive associations, we dream, make plans, remember pleasant moments, and even try to solve a problem that we have long wanted to close. This property of the brain and psyche helps a business when it comes to reducing the stress associated with long waiting. Most importantly, customers don’t mind waiting if the music they like is playing.

Therefore, it is effective to use the background sound where queues often gather or you have to wait until the papers are prepared or a specialist is free – a doctor, tutor, trainer, stylist, or manicure master.

How to Source Hold Music

The average consumer is estimated to spend 43 days of their life waiting, from conference calls to customer support lines, writes West Corporation. More than 80 percent of people put it off every time they contact the company, writes Cision PR Newswire. And silence is painful: if the caller is listening to dead air, they are much more likely to hang up.

Expectation – customer retention is not ideal, but often inevitable. So instead of keeping your clients a secret, you’ll want to tweak the recording to make the most of the latency.

Along with giving the caller something to listen to, hold on to music, and exchange messages, you can:

• Increase customer retention on calls;
• Create sales opportunities by promoting value-added services and offers;
• Make a good first impression and show the unique character of your business;
• Free up agents’ time by providing key information such as opening hours in the minutes.

Where to find holding music

You know you need something to hold callers when they are waiting on the phone line, but how can you hold with music? You need to pick up background music. There are many online sources today that make it easy to view, license, and download audio files. Read this article.

Licensing

When sourcing holds music, you also need to be aware of copyright laws. Purchasing a music CD or an mp3 song file for standard listening doesn’t give you the right to use it as music on hold. ASCAP is one of the regulators of these types of licenses, and more information can be found on their website here.

Brand communication

To emphasize unanimity with customers, companies add music to the playlist that emphasizes that the brand and customers are in a common information and social field. For this, regional characteristics and favorite “home” performers, fashionable music among young people, or buyers of expensive mobile phones are taken into account.

For example, Renault’s brand book records that the automotive giant uses music to create a sense of unity with customers. To make the sales department and customers feel close to each other, the background sound in stores reflects local musical trends. Therefore, the song list in Renault includes the latest hits in the local language of the country where the store is located.

Music can be used to emphasize the prestige of the establishment. Listeners do not always follow musical innovations, even in their favorite genres. If an expensive establishment constantly opens up the new good sound for customers, and songs can be found through Shazam or social networks and bragged to friends, the image of the establishment as a supplier of new and exclusive is strengthened.

Expert advice

The main criterion for successful audio marketing is considered to be profitable growth. But for objectivity, it is necessary to foresee in advance by what parameters the effectiveness of background music will be assessed. Perhaps your preferences differ with the choice of specialists. In this case, keep in mind that professionals choose music to solve business problems, and not to please an individual person.

For the audio marketer to understand you, pass them the evaluation criteria, a portrait of the consumer and tell them about the specifics of the business.

The music editor thinks in schemes, is guided by professional intuition, knowledge, and experience. This means that the more the customer talks about the brand, the more accurately it is understood. Sometimes specialists know in advance that a client will come back and ask to change the music even though he insisted on it. Therefore, talk to the editor and ask him to justify the choice. It is possible that professional advice will help you understand how to solve a specific business problem, and not just click on “play”.

Music creates a brand

No matter what you do, background music enhances brand identity, increases sales, and improves team performance. Check out the research on background music.

Through sound, customers understand what character your brand is and what to expect from it. In addition, music creates a competitive advantage and an emotional connection with consumers.

• 46% of managers and business owners agreed that music helps customers understand what a brand is and “who they are” as a business (DJS Research);
• 93% of bars and pubs believe playing the right music creates a comfortable atmosphere for customers (MusicWorks);
• 67% of people call a store fashionable if it plays good music (Vision Critical);
• 80% of clients want to listen to music in beauty salons (Vision Critical);
• 96% of gym-goers prefer to listen to original tracks rather than covers (YouGov plc);
• 88% of employees who work in stores with background music want to listen to recognizable artists (MusicWorks);
• one in five companies – and one in four retailers – say they lost business if the music was turned off (Vision Critical);
• 63% of small vulnerable customers believe that the music reproduces their long stay in the store (Vision Critical);
• sales in bars and pubs increase 44% from the average when music is playing (CGA);
• 41% of managers or business owners agreed that in-store music influences their buying decisions (DJS Research);
• one in 10 business managers and owners say they will go out of business if they have to turn off their music all the time (DJS Research);
• 90% of hairdressers agree that the right music is good for their business (Vision Critical);
• 65% of businesses say music in the workplace makes employees more productive (Vision Critical);
• 91% of managers and business owners “agree” or “strongly agree” that music makes customers and employees happier (DJS Research);
• 81% of hairdressers believe music makes employees happy (Vision Critical);
• 61% of small retailers believe staff is more productive when music is playing (Vision Critical).