According to Ellis Rich, chairman of PRS for Music, music might have a role to play when it comes to things like staff motivation and customer retention.

He stated: “Music is a key element – it creates a positive atmosphere, enhances the mood and influences spending behaviour.”

Firms could see their profits positively impacted through the use of music, Mr Rich went on to say, with a “pleasurable environment” being created by it.

The commentator was speaking after the publication of new figures from Entertainment Media Research and published by Music Works, relating to the benefits of music among businesses.

As many as 82 per cent of respondents to a business survey noted that their company benefits from the use of music, Music Works revealed.

Source: http://www.managers.org.uk/news/music-can-create-positive-atmosphere-workplace

According to PRS for Music, a carefully considered shopping soundtrack can help businesses retain their customers.

Ellis Rich, chairman of PRS for Music, said: “In these tough economic times, it has become more important and challenging than ever to attract and retain customers, while at the same time keeping staff motivated.

“Music is a key element – it creates a positive atmosphere, enhances the mood and influences spending behaviour. Music really helps businesses provide a pleasurable environment, providing a real boost both to staff, customers and profits.”

The comments follow the publication of a report by Entertainment Media Research, which showed that 82 per cent of businesses believe that playing music is beneficial to their organisation.

Amongst retailers and hairdressers this rises to 90 per cent, with business-owners citing increased customer spend, improved atmosphere and happier staff as benefits.

Posted by Jacob Williams

Source: http://www.taxassist.co.uk/News/General-business/Businesses-can-retain-customers-with-considered-soundtrack-11923.html

Background Music

The research was conducted by Entertainment Media Research and involved interviews with the key decision-makers responsible for music in over 400 offices, factories, small retail groups and hairdressing salons. The interviews were conducted by telephone during August 2010.

This survey compliments the research into the attitudes and behaviour of 1,000 consumers which was conducted in 2009 (which can be found on this website under the relevant sector) and provides a different perspective by focussing on the opinions of business decision-makers.

Retails

Hairdressing Salons

Workplace

The findings demonstrate the perceived value of music to all businesses across multiple sectors. The results are compelling in that 82% of all the 400 businesses surveyed stated that playing music is beneficial to their organisation. Amongst retailers and hairdressers this rises to 90%. The list of benefits includes increased customer spend, better atmosphere and happier staff. Over three quarters of businesses (77%) recommend similar businesses play music and amongst hairdressing salons this rises to 84%. One of the likely reasons for this high level of endorsement is that 69% of all businesses say that by playing music they can positively influence the behaviour of customers or staff; amongst retailers this rises to 3 in 4 (76%).

In a tough economic climate with many businesses competing for the same custom, standing out from other offerings is absolutely essential. The research strongly suggests that music can play a valuable role in helping achieve this. Over half (55%) of retailers and 4 in 10 (43%) of hairdressing salons stated that they deliberately use music to differentiate their business from their competitors.

It is also very clear that music delivers a valuable set of benefits in the workplace. For example, 9 out of 10 (87%) organisations that play music in the workplace agree that playing music improves workplace morale and 86% agree that music puts their employees in a happier mood.

MusicWorksForYou.Com

Independent Music Research

Here is what one listener said: “I almost feel ill listening to this, like I have been buried alive and maggots are crawling through me. I just can’t hear this again.”

The second most frightening music was Cursed Realms of Winterdemons by Sunn O))). The band is an American experimental outfit from Seattle renowned for its synthesis of genres including drone, ambient, noise, doom and black metal. The sound is very slow and heavy with prominent electric guitars in low tunings such as drop A, combined with feedback to create dark soundscapes. There is little drumming and the music therefore has no discernible beat. When performing live the band often wear ‘grim robes’, fill the air with fog, and play extremely loud.

The soundtrack to the movie Jaws came third; 1 in 6 of all people find it terrifying and 1 in 4 under the age of 35. According to Steven Spielberg, the film’s director, John William’s score was “clearly responsible for at least half the success of the movie”.

What in particular distinguishes the score is the simple “thump thump” theme which cleverly matches the primitive horror of the shark while the ingenious contrast in volume and timbre is used to match the heart rate of the shark conditioning the viewer to its impending arrival. The theme increases in pace and volume as the shark’s excitement rises and then inflicts an unforgettable and disorientating shock when the shark appears out of silence. Clearly what is remarkable about the music 30 years after its release is the visceral effect it still has upon listeners even though the associated mental image is situation-specific and the model evidently fake!.

Music is highly effective in inducing fear and has long been used to amplify the feeling of suspense which explains the large number of film-related tracks in the top 10.

Brian Kelly from music branding agency Soundlounge explains: “Music that is designed to scare us has predominantly stemmed from horror film soundtracks. They temporarily subvert our emotions, by creating a sense of fear and discomfort”.

“You cannot separate a horror film from its soundtrack. If you do, you are often left with images that do little to frighten the viewer. However if you remove the music from a horror film and listen to it in isolation, it can conjure-up new visual images and trigger memories of the film”.

If that is true then how come there are a number of tracks in the top 10 that do not owe their familiarity to a movie? Composers and film directors have trained us well – pieces of music that have no association with a film, but still elicit a frightening emotional response, follow closely a horror soundtrack template of: noise, sudden changes in frequency, synthesized voices, cold environments and general sonic discomfort.

There are of course those in the industry that continue to pursue the big markets. These guys are often associated with the old school. Truth be told, they are the ones who will probably drive the music industry forwards into a more profitable world. In theory everyone is going after the same markets but there are some who seek to unify segments into major markets while others search vainly for success in the long tail.  .

Greatest success in the industry has almost always come from those artists who were able to unify the masses and that simply hasn’t changed and probably never will. PopScores shows exactly that, month by month. Only very few people are remotely interested in the millions of tracks that are available through subscription services like Napster or Spotify. It can’t work. Let’s learn from YouTube. The reason YouTube works so well is because they got the model right of how people want to view videos. YouTube runs “playlists” with a few featured videos and then there are the “most viewed”, which is a “cosmic audience conscious” or at least a chart that measures what the majority of people is “into” right now.

It’s not the billion daily views that essentially generates the hype. Surely it doesn’t hurt to have practically everything available, however, much has changed since the early days of YouTube, and there are many clips that are not available on YouTube anymore and yet the traffic stats are not in decline. When one studies PopScores, one can see that there is a “group consciousness” in the UK that shows unified audiences for some artists and it is the job of the Music Industry to continue to find those artists and songs that speak the language of the masses.

The newer artists within the cosmic consciousness of music are strongly embedded in the British public’s heart. The Kings Of Leon, Snow Patrol, Kaiser Chiefs, Pink and The Killers are currently achieve scores that are usually only within the realm of  long established artists. However, these are not new artists. It takes more than just one platinum plus selling album to establish this level of emotional connection.  

The big movements this week come from artists on their way to the top of the British consciousness. The Black Eyed Peas have another striking record on the radio and their PopScore rose by a strong 2 points with the strongest advance in the 30+ female market which bodes well for album sales. The Peas have been around long enough to get the level of connection that we understand as credibility and trust. To be fair they are not too far away, currently ranking as the 12^th most popular artist in the UK.

The highest climb this month was achieved by Michael Jackson, as the news of his death sank in deeper. During the month his PopScore rose by 5 points, the largest climb in a single month we have ever seen for any artist. He now ranks as the 11^th most popular artist in the UK. The increase of affection comes from across the board of demos.

Remarkably, Michael Jackson is now the 4^th most popular artist with teenagers; a considerable achievement given that he is surrounded by artists like Kings Of Leon, Black Eyed Peas, Pink, The Killers and Beyonce Knowles, all of whom are much younger than him. Michael makes it near the top spot with 20-29 year olds, claiming number 2 position, just behind the Kings Of Leon. The most difficult segments for Michael Jackson are ironically the 30-39 year olds who rank him at nr 20 and the 40-49 year olds who rank him at 28 and his own age group, the 50-59 year olds who rank him 36^th.

To get an idea of how this compares to last year, in November 08, Michael Jackson ranked position 54th overall!

Last but not least Beyonce’s visibility has also made a positive change. She advanced another 2 points, most of the additional affection coming from females 20-39. She’s had a good run of hit records in recent months which is naturally paying off now.

Recent data released from Hitwise shows that in the US, Facebook has increased it’s market share to 59% an increase of 194% from September last year, while MySpace has decreased to 30% a 55% decrease from last year.

I can’t say these figures come as a surprise. In July this year we released our Digital Entertainment Survey and some people raised a few eyebrows when we said MySpace was in decline. While the data recently released from Hitwise is US centric, it’s a trend that we believe has already happened in the UK.

Our figures show that 54% of UK consumers have a profile on Facebook, while for MySpace it is currently on 21%, but in 2008 it was 39% – a sharp decline, which is now being validated by site traffic. We didn’t have any data on Twitter in 2008, but in 2009 11% of UK consumers say they have a profile on Twitter and although that’s a fairly rapid rise, other recent Hitwise traffic data has also shown that Twitter has started to plateau.

Table showing % of UK consumers 15-54 with profile on each social network:

While the above figures are for all 15-54 year olds in the UK, the results do differ significantly by demographics. MySpace is much more popular among younger respondents, but key to the success of Facebook is that it is popular across all demographics.

Our data also revealed a decrease in incidence for most of the other social network sites, however there are several social network sites with smaller market share that did show increases. Last.fm increased from 6% in 2008 to 8% in 2009, while Digg increased from 2% to 4%, LinkedIn from 5% to 6% and StumbleUpon from 4% to 5%. Perhaps these sites will be the next sites to really boom, with the recent recession and increase in unemployment my money is on LinkedIn, however I don’t think it will ever get to the same heights of Facebook.

It’s clear that the first challenge is to get consumers using your site, one that Facebook, Myspace and Twitter have all achieved. The second challenge is to keep them there and while the jury is still out for Myspace and Twitter, it seems Facebook is doing the best job of that at the moment.

It’s clear from the Hitwise data that if that downward trend continues then MySpace could be in real trouble, so will they be able to arrest this decline? Only time will tell. We will be able to provide some answers in the 2010 Digital Entertainment Survey.

In the period leading up to Michael Jackson’s death, the UK felt largely indifferent towards him and this barely changed even after the announcement of his 100 UK gigs. His death however has had a transformational impact upon consumers’ emotional connection towards him and we are still only at the beginning of the curve.

His PopScore has jumped to an all time high of 30, an increase of 50% from last year and his Purchase Propensity has spiked from 10% to 13%, taking him well above the industry average.

Those who are seemingly most affected by Michael’s death over the last month are 13-19 year old females whose love for him has increased by 9 points to 25% and 20-29 year old females whose love has risen by 7 points to 23%. These scores compare very favourably with averages for artists within these demographics of 9% and 7% respectively.

Amongst the most loved artists with female teens, the only male solo artists in the Top 15 are Michael Jackson (12th) and Justin Timberlake (11th). With females aged 20-29 Michael ranks 8th and Justin 11th.

Not only has the love for Michael increased but the dislike has dropped markedly. The table below shows the negative scores by demographic and the percentage point decline since his death. The most notable reductions are with females 30-39 (20% decline) and females 16-19 (24%).

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Michael Jackson is climbing the list of artists with the greatest consumer propensity to purchase their music. His PopScore rank this month is 36 but he is 10^th in the purchase propensity table, level with U2 and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

His purchase propensity is driven by females aged 13-29 with an average of 20% which is approximately three times the average for this segment. The implication is that if there is more unreleased material, Michael Jackson is likely to dominate the sales charts again for some time, reminiscent of artists like Tupac who released chart-topping hits from the grave.  

With Michael Jackson turning fifty, news reports about impending bankruptcy and then the announcement of the O2 gigs in London early this year, the British public started to feel the passion again for the artist. His Negative scores declined markedly (to 27%), his Purchase Propensity climbed from 6 to 10% which put him in the same company as Leona Lewis, Robbie Williams and Girls Aloud and his Love score rose by 40% to 14%. In other words, he transformed into an artist with serious sales potential in the UK.

In terms of familiarity, Michael Jackson belongs to the exclusive 99% club; only a very few artists manage to score an informed awareness of that level. It means that effectively the entire UK population of 13-59 year olds has an opinion of Michael Jackson. Only Robbie Williams, Madonna, Spice Girls and Kylie Minogue have recently achieved scores like this

Even more interesting is the company he is in when looking at artists with the most informed awareness amongst teenagers. Michael Jackson is certainly the only 50 year old artist who is still very well known by Teens. The somewhat older Beatles score 86% informed awareness and Bruce Springsteen only 59%.

Top 10 Most Familiar Artists Amongst Teens

What is particularly amazing is where the passion for Michael Jackson comes from. It’s not 40 year old females as one might expect given the heritage factor; no it comes from females 13-29 (16% love) and males 20-29 (19%). Indeed, amongst the latter demographic he is the 6th most popular artist by Purchase Propensity and is only beaten by Oasis, Kings of Leon, The Killers, RHCP and Coldplay.

Michael Jackson was undoubtedly on his way to reclaim his throne as the King of Pop in the UK. Next month we will find out the extent to which his death influences the emotional connection of the nation with him.

Now, what PopScores reveals is an exceptionally strong purchase propensity for some artists and these are typically artists who sell well in the adult segments despite that market’s relatively low inclination to buy music. Take That for example have a purchase propensity which is x 5 the average in the oldest segment (and amongst women). It’s no surprise therefore that they continue to sell music at a prodigious rate.

Listed below are the twenty acts with the highest purchase propensity. Obviously being in this position is no guarantee of success if the album is poorly received but what it does provide is the lifeline to come back with something that delivers what consumers want.

Popscores Purchase Intention

Let’s focus upon Kings Of Leon. Here is an act whose Informed Awareness is only 75% which places them in 90th position. However, their purchase propensity score is an overall 16% across all demographics and that puts them in 3rd position. What is remarkable is that although Kinds Of Leon are an act with its primary market in the 13-29 year old segments they manage to score x4 the average purchase propensity with the 30-49 year old demographics and over twice the average in the 50+ year old segment.

Not only do Kings Of Leon currently command more purchase intention than the vast majority of more familiar artists, it’s highly likely that with increasing familiarity they will become one of the biggest selling artists in the UK. Only The Killers are in their company with a 79% informed awareness and a 15% purchase propensity.

Radio has not been much help recently to labels in terms of supporting their new acts and yet radio remains a very significant force. Without radio airplay it is nigh on impossible to achieve commercial success, but radio continues to go back to classic tunes, the ones with the greatest familiarity which make the hairs on your neck stand up. And why? Because much of the new music doesn’t sound like its produced for the ears but for the eyes and although the eyes can eat they can’t listen to the radio.

Many of the recent successes on the radio are not necessarily the ones you would instantly recognize on the street. The Kings Of Leon are a good example. So its no surprise that when youplay Guitar Hero or Rock Band you find that the most popular tracks are the classics with 12 year old boys battling online to songs like Hotel California. Kids worry much less about how old a track is than how buff it is and the more they get involved the less they care about the visuals.

With Beatles music due for digital release sometime this year via Rock Band kids will have the opportunity to learn about the band for the first time. It shouldn’t be a surprise then if we see something of a Beatles revival.

There are some commentators who say that today’s audiences have changed in that they are much more segmented than they were 10 years ago. They therefore argue that superstarswith mass audiences are no longer possible.Those people should start playing Guitar Hero or Rock Band and watch kids unifying over some classic Bon Jovi or Lynyrd Skynyrd. We shouldn’t always blame change; some things just don’t change.