Music for hotels: best practices

Managing a hotel, a business comprised of several different services, is not an easy task. Everything must be in order: the catering, the room service, the check-in, the cleanliness of different areas, plus the unexpected issues that can rise at any moment. Between all of them, background music may not be the most present worry on a manager’s mind, but it is definitely one of the most important ones.

Background music helps to create ambiences and make clients feel at home, something especially meaningful in the hotel business. Taking into account how much first impressions count, there is nothing less welcoming than a hotel lobby in total silence.

Choosing the best music for hotels

In common spaces the manager’s favorite stations are usually jazz, classical or lobby music, a genre of its own at this point. This music that we associate with hotels instantly prepares the customers’ mind to forget about their worries and let them be taken care of. Other shared amenities of the hotel have different needs: setting some more upbeat tunes in the gym is always a good idea, as well as sticking to something more relaxed and tropical in the pool area. Studies show that clients spend 35% more time in spaces where music is playing, which in hotel terms translates to some extra cocktails in the pool and an assured dessert in the restaurant area. 

At the same time, considering the needs of the workers –and their mental health-, it’s important to maintain musical variety and a selection of songs wide enough to avoid having them lose their minds listening to the same tunes over and over again. Furthermore, you also don’t want the waiting times in the lobby of your hotel to be associated with the same three rotating songs. The ideal scenario in this case is good background music coming from long and varied stations, easy to alternate but still maintaining the coherence with a unified projection of brand.

The cost of music service for hotels

Music for hotels requires a different set of rights than the music that you play in the intimacy of your home. SoundMachine takes care of all of this, with a monthly subscription plan that covers the thousands of dollars per year that you would otherwise have to pay to ASCAP, BMI, GMR and SESAC for listening to music in communal spaces, for as little as $26.95/month. With hundreds of stations that you can set in different areas of your business and manage from a central account, the music stops being a problem. And if you already have a favorite playlist in Spotify that you like to play in your lobby, or you like leaving the task of selecting the music to someone you trust, you can import your own playlists from music services like Apple Music or Spotify for free and listen to them in your business with all the rights covered.