Euan McMorrow, Managing Director, AVC Music
6th March 2024

What do high street stores sound like? It’s a question I’m obsessed with and I spend hours each week finding out the answer.

Occasionally, I’m inspired, often I’m underwhelmed. What I noticed in a well-known UK store this week shocked me.

I thought they had no music playing at first. Then I realised they did, it was just very, very quiet. So quiet, you could only make it out when you were standing close to one of the ceiling mounted speakers. I estimated the music was audible in only 20% of the floor space.

Issues

Music played at low volumes in stores frequently means that the staff don’t like it. Whether it’s repetitive or poorly chosen, it drives the store staff mad. They take matters into their own hands and turn down the volume so that they don’t have to listen to it for hours on end.

I didn’t hear much music, but I heard numerous other sounds the store would probably rather I didn’t. A card being declined at a self-checkout, a personal medical conversation at the pharmacy counter and someone wearing a lanyard from a major cosmetics company telling a colleague that sales were being negatively affected by product placement.

The customers in the store weren’t hearing music that set the tone for the brand, made the store feel like somewhere they belong, or somewhere they’d want to come back to (especially if any of them needed to have a personal conversation with the pharmacist).

There might have been promotional messages playing in between the songs, but these wouldn’t be audile either.

Zero return

What was the point of the store “kind of” playing music? It beats me. They might as well have had no music playing because what they did have playing achieved nothing.

I’ve noticed this “low to no” volume of music in every one of this brand’s stores I’ve been to this year. Given the number of stores they have in the UK, they are paying around a quarter of a million pounds annually for music and getting zero return for that investment.

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  If they ran a marketing campaign and 80% of the spend was unseen, they’d be asking questions.
• 
  If they realised staff were only productive 20% of the time, they’d make changes fast.
• 
  If their website was only online 20% of the week, they soon be changing their web provider.

And yet they’re wasting £250,000 on music that can’t be heard.

Solution

I did want to buy something in the store. I found it and realised I could get it cheaper elsewhere. My in-store experience had done nothing to make me feel luxurious, positive or even want to stand in a queue for any time, so I put it down and walked off.

It’s not a terminal situation, it could be turned around in a matter of weeks. With the right plan in place, the music could be playing loud and proud and delighting customers and staff. Most importantly, in times like these, with the right help, it would provide a return on investment.

Want to know more? Get in touch on audio@avcmusic.com to have a chat.