This morning I was lucky enough to listen to Alexandra Burns from PPL PRS Ltd speak at the Leicester Mercury Business Connections breakfast seminar about how and why you need a licence from them to play music in public. Alexandra explained how it was one of the ways that songwriters, musicians and artists are fairly paid and how the collection and distribution of royalties is a necessary service. After operating costs, all remuneration goes to the artists.

Interestingly, what became apparent is how your choice of music can represent your brand, motivate your staff and win you loyal customers. Pablo Ettinger from Caffé Nero takes music very seriously as part of the Caffé Nero customer experience. The full case study is here, showing Pablo talking about how he oversees a playlist that changes throughout the day to reflect his customers’ mood from classical in the morning to soul in the evening. He also supports unsigned artists through the playlist, another way of giving back to musicians.

It would be good to know more about how music affects mood and the working environment. PRS PPL are looking into funding research about how music helps concentration so it will be interesting to see this when it is available.

Most of us love music and find it essential to our lives. I often compile my Desert Island Discs playlist of 8 tracks – the agony of only 8 tracks – but am still waiting for my call from Kirsty Young to put my theory into practice. Today made it clear that where your business is playing music in public, it will benefit you to take it seriously. It may be another way to improve your customer experience and improve staff engagement.