Slow music, higher sales. Classical music, pricier wine. The headlines are familiar, but the studies behind them are smaller and more specific than most blog posts admit. Here is what they found, what they did not, and how to run your own test.
If you have read anything about background music and business, you have seen the claims: slow music makes people spend more, classical music sells expensive wine, the right playlist boosts revenue. There is real research behind those claims. There is also a lot of exaggeration built on top of it.
This article goes back to the original studies, reports what they actually measured, and is honest about their limits. Then it shows how to test music in your own venue, which is the only way to know what works for you.
Tempo: how fast people move and how long they stay
The supermarket study (Milliman, 1982)
Ronald Milliman ran a widely cited experiment on music tempo in a medium-sized American supermarket over nine weeks in early 1980 (Journal of Marketing). Each day was randomly assigned no music, slow music or fast music. In a pretest, 95 percent of people classified selections at 72 beats per minute or fewer as slow, and selections at 94 or more were classified as fast.
With slow music, shoppers moved through the store significantly more slowly. Average daily sales were about $16,740 on slow-music days and about $12,113 on fast-music days, a 38.2 percent difference. Interestingly, when shoppers were asked afterward, their awareness of the music did not differ between conditions. Milliman explicitly warned readers not to generalize the findings far beyond that store and situation.
The restaurant study (Milliman, 1986)
Milliman then repeated the idea in a medium-sized restaurant in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, on Friday and Saturday evenings over eight weekends. Diners perceived slow music as 72 beats per minute or fewer and fast music as 92 or more.
With slow music, groups stayed at their tables for 56 minutes on average instead of 45. Bar purchases per group rose from $21.62 to $30.47, and the estimated gross margin per bill was higher. Food purchases did not change significantly: $55.81 versus $55.12. The cost was a longer wait for tables, 47 minutes instead of 34, most likely because tables turned more slowly.
Style and fit: what music signals
Classical music in a wine cellar (Areni and Kim, 1993)
In a wine cellar attached to a downtown restaurant, Charles Areni and David Kim alternated classical and Top-40 music on Friday and Saturday evenings between May and July 1990. With classical music, customers spent more money, but not because they bought more bottles. They chose more expensive wine. The number of bottles examined, handled and bought, and the time spent in the cellar, did not change. The authors acknowledged important limits: there was no no-music condition, a single observer recorded behavior, and the cellar averaged about eleven customers per evening.
French and German wine (North, Hargreaves and McKendrick, 1997 and 1999)
Adrian North and colleagues played stereotypically French or German music on alternate days beside a supermarket display of French and German wines for two weeks. The results appeared as a short letter in Nature in 1997 and in full in the Journal of Applied Psychology in 1999. French wine outsold German wine on French-music days, and German wine outsold French on German-music days. A questionnaire suggested customers were unaware that the music had influenced their choices. The authors also discussed the ethical implications of using in-store music this way.
Classical music in a restaurant (North, Shilcock and Hargreaves, 2003)
In a study published in Environment and Behavior, Adrian North, Amber Shilcock and David Hargreaves compared classical music, pop music and no music over 18 evenings in a British restaurant. Classical music led to higher overall spending per head than both pop and silence.
Volume: arousal and pace
In a 1966 study summarized by Milliman, Smith and Curnow varied music volume in two supermarkets. Shoppers spent significantly less time in the stores during loud sessions, while their rate of spending was higher.
A 2008 field experiment by Nicolas Guéguen and colleagues, published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, observed 40 male beer drinkers in bars. Patrons exposed to a higher music level drank more and finished each glass faster. It is a small study, and it is a reminder that turning up the volume to increase consumption raises obvious responsibility questions for anyone serving alcohol.
Beyond retail: music and exercise
Sport science offers a much larger evidence base than retail. A 2020 meta-analysis in Psychological Bulletin by Terry, Karageorghis and colleagues (abstract on PubMed) pooled 139 studies with 3,599 participants. Music during exercise was associated with more positive feelings, better physical performance and lower perceived exertion, with larger performance effects for fast-tempo music.
What the research does not show
- There is no universal best playlist. Each retail and restaurant study took place in one venue, with its own customers, music and moment in time.
- Most classic studies are old and small. Prices from 1980 and a few dozen evenings of data are useful signals, not forecasts for your business.
- Comparisons matter. "Classical sold more" means more than Top-40 in that cellar. Without a no-music condition, you cannot tell whether one style helped or the other hurt.
- Effects vary. A tempo that lengthens stays in a half-empty restaurant can create a line in a full one.
- Nothing is guaranteed. Anyone promising a fixed percentage uplift from a playlist is selling, not reporting.
What the research does support is modest and useful: tempo can influence pace, music that fits your concept can shape what people choose and how they perceive price, and volume changes behavior. Those are levers worth testing, carefully.
How to test music in your own venue
- Pick one question. For example: does calmer music in the afternoon raise the average check?
- Choose one metric. Average check, items per transaction, dwell time, table turns or dessert and drink attach rate.
- Change only one thing. Compare two conditions that differ in one dimension, such as slower versus faster tempo, or classical versus pop, at the same volume. Areni and Kim held volume constant for exactly this reason.
- Alternate and randomize. Assign conditions to days in a random order over at least four weeks, so each weekday gets both conditions. Milliman ran his supermarket test for nine weeks.
- Log everything else. Weather, local events, promotions and staffing all move sales.
- Compare like with like. Tuesday against Tuesday, lunch against lunch.
- Ask your team. Staff notice changes in pace and mood that numbers miss.
A calm option could come from our calm mood collection and an energetic one from the upbeat mood collection; the genre and mood index makes it easy to build two clearly different conditions.
Use music to improve the room, not to trick people
The best reason to care about this research is not manipulation. It is that music changes how a space feels, and that is worth getting right for guests and staff alike. If you want a licensed catalog to run your own experiments with, you can try WeavyAudio free and set up two conditions in an afternoon.
FAQ
Does slow music increase sales?
In Milliman's 1982 supermarket study, daily sales were 38.2 percent higher on slow-music days than on fast-music days. In his 1986 restaurant study, slow music increased bar spending but not food spending. Both were single venues, so test before assuming.
Does classical music make people spend more?
In a 1993 wine cellar study and a 2003 restaurant study, classical music was linked to higher spending than pop. In the wine study, people bought more expensive bottles rather than more bottles.
Do customers notice background music?
Often not consciously. In the French and German wine study, a questionnaire suggested customers were unaware of the music's influence, and in Milliman's supermarket study awareness of the music did not differ between conditions.
How long should I test a new playlist?
At least four weeks, alternating conditions across the same weekdays, with everything else held as steady as possible.