Ola Sars
By Ola Sars, CEO, Founder & Chairman of Soundtrack Your Brand
Consumers have been bombarded with headlines about AI, but few remind them that AI or machine learning have been quietly working behind the scenes on our favorite tasks for a while now. For example, Amazon Prime has been sorting consumer shopping habits and Netflix has prioritized genres or episodes based on learned formulas. Then, there are music streaming services that recognize our favorite beats and make suggestions for new artists. The learned feedback of our digital engagements has enhanced our experiences for years.
What’s changed is that advances in artificial intelligence now make those learned efficiencies more complex, searchable and adaptable in real time. AI now brings greater utility to businesses who want to capture and curate the same machine learning for greater customer experiences and interactions.
Business to business music streaming services like Soundtrack Your Brand have brought AI to the customer experience in ways that save businesses time and operating costs, enhance the business’ ambiance and support music rights holders.
One Place Where Businesses Can Save on Labor
Hospitality operates on slim margins, therefore finding reductions in staff tasks is a true cost savings to the business. In brick-and-mortar establishments, labor costs equate to time spent. A surefire way to save on labor costs is to ensure staff can streamline processes in back-of-house areas where they may spend more time than necessary.
Creating music playlists, for example, can be incredibly time consuming, yet playlists are essential to setting the atmosphere in an establishment. Often a background consideration in dining and hospitality, music is a necessary element of a brand’s success. For example, Soundtrack Your Brand’s average business customer streams music in their stores for 14 hours and 45 minutes a day, illustrating how crucial music is to establishing a memorable customer experience.
Aesthetic and Brand Elements are Business Features in an Owner’s Control
While fees or labor issues are important concerns to business owners, they are beyond an owner’s control. What is within a business’ control is its branding and what happens inside the store. A brand can be established and curated through multiple elements, including music and the atmosphere created by music.
Business to Business streaming services offer companies the ability to legally provide background soundtracks to a shopping, dining or service experience, but creating your own playlist can be time consuming.
To make a 12-hour playlist many factors must be considered. For example, the playlist’s variety and the impact it will have on the staff who hear it every day must be thought through. Additionally, playlists can be paired with specific times of day to see which moments or songs on the playlist will inspire customer spending. Store owners must know what music works on their clientele. However, this work may often be assigned to a server, host or junior staff member without the knowledge, data or patience to create a mix that best enhances all diners’ or customers’ experiences.
Another consideration is the legality of musical use. Streaming services abound, but not all guarantee legal use of music, or that the artists that created them will see a penny of their use. Ill-prepared lists may land a business in licensing trouble, creating fines that further deduct from slim operating margins.
However, when creating a brand, streaming a quickly pulled-together playlist simply isn’t enough. The evolution of AI helps businesses’ streaming generate lists that connect to sales, past data and current aesthetics. The overall result is a solidified brand.
The Importance of Music in a Business Brand
A study by Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) and National Research Group (NRG) confirms that music positively impacts the way consumers interact with local eating and drinking establishments. Playing music that consumers enjoy leads to higher spending habits, resulting in higher revenue for businesses. 80% of consumers claimed they would stay longer in an establishment if the restaurant played the right music.
New AI playlist generators, currently only available in one B2B streaming provider, double down on using the infinite analytical and curation capability of machine learning to curate experiences. With Large Language Model technologies, generators can be prompted to create a playlist that conveys business type, location, time of day, mood/genre/atmosphere and target audience. Example prompts could be “pop hits for a popular pizza restaurant” or “soundtrack for a sophisticated hotel bar,” which result in a personalized, ready-made playlist. Deployment of this technology is simple from a tablet, computer or hardware player. AI-generated playlists can also be integrated into a business’s existing sound system.
In a Battle for Customer Loyalty, AI is the Ultimate Weapon
Reducing back-of-house labor hours while increasing brand aesthetic is a double victory in cost savings and revenue production for hospitality businesses. The AI advancements in streaming aren’t all pointed at B2B resources yet, but they should be. Innovators in the field like Omar Marzouk, VP of Music Experience at Soundtrack Your Brand, are driving revenue results with custom platforms that use the power of AI to bring customized options to businesses in easy-to-adopt and legal ways.
AI is less about kiosk ordering or other human-replacing work. Instead, it caters to humans’ needs, tastes and behaviors in ways that can be highly profitable for service businesses. Streamlining the processes that create a brand identity creates returning customers, happy employees and frees up labor hours that can be used for human-only tasks.
Author Bio:
Ola Sars is a Stockholm based serial entrepreneur active in the music-tech space. He is the CEO, Founder & Chairman of Soundtrack Your Brand, the world’s fastest growing music platform for businesses. Ola founded Soundtrack Your Brand as a joint effort with Spotify to help businesses strengthen relationships with customers through the power of music. By combining expert curation and world-class technology, Soundtrack Your Brand provides an all-in-one solution for streaming music that’s properly licensed for restaurants, retail stores, hotels and other commercial settings.
Wanda Rich has been the Editor-in-Chief of Global Banking & Finance Review since 2011, playing a pivotal role in shaping the publication’s content and direction. Under her leadership, the magazine has expanded its global reach and established itself as a trusted source of information and analysis across various financial sectors. She is known for conducting exclusive interviews with industry leaders and oversees the Global Banking & Finance Awards, which recognize innovation and leadership in finance. In addition to Global Banking & Finance Review, Wanda also serves as editor for numerous other platforms, including Asset Digest, Biz Dispatch, Blockchain Tribune, Business Express, Brands Journal, Companies Digest, Economy Standard, Entrepreneur Tribune, Finance Digest, Fintech Herald, Global Islamic Finance Magazine, International Releases, Online World News, Luxury Adviser, Palmbay Herald, Startup Observer, Technology Dispatch, Trading Herald, and Wealth Tribune.