The 4 Best Music Services for Business in Comparison
Which background music streaming service for business to choose?
We know how busy you are as a business owner, so to make your life easier, we have put together some of the most respected players on the international market and we have highlighted some important advantages and drawbacks that you have collected on the company’s official websites as well as on comparison sites (e.g. G2, Trustpilot, etc.), blogs and magazines (e.g. Medium, T3n, etc.). Hope it will help you take the right decision.
Rockbot
Benefits
- Compatible with SONOS
- Ability to import Spotify playlists
- Price from $24.95 to $49 /month
- ASCAP and BMI license fees in the USA already in the subscription price
Disadvantages
- A lot of licensed songs in the catalog, which also means a lot of effort to find and organize the few tracks you really want to play.
- 500 predefined playlists. Naming used for playlists and mood is unclear or misleading. The way they are organised is also random. So looking for the exact playlist or mood you need may take a lot of time and effort.
- Manual scheduling: Possibility to schedule different playlists during the day/week. But this is your manual work that you have to invest!
- Streaming box not mandatory, but recommended, and priced at 149 dollars.
- Advertising/messaging feature available, but there will be an additional 10 dollars per month.
- Service available only in the U.S. Businesses outside USA unfortunately cannot use Rockbot.
Who is Rockbot best for?
For U.S. owners who can afford to spend a lot of time, knowledge and attention on which songs play in the background of their business every day. Knowing which artists, genres, songs or moods best match their customer and brand/store positioning.
SiriusXM for Business
Benefits
- 100+ preset playlists
- Compatible with SONOS
- Advertising/messaging feature available
- Starting at 24.95 USD / month
- ASCAP and BMI fees included in the Us.
- Free 30-day trial, no commitment
Disadvantages
- Not possible to search for songs and create your own playlist
- It is not possible to import your existing Spotify playlists
- Planning function to plan different playlists at different times of the day/week. 21 slots per week to fill manually and update each week to create your weekly schedule. This means a lot of time and musical competence for an entrepreneur or his employees.
- Proprietary media player mandatory to play music in your store. This piece of hardware costs 149 US dollars.
- Service available only in the U.S. International entrepreneurs cannot use it.
Who is most interested in SiriusXM for Business?
For U.S. business owners who want a radio-like in-store music service. That means little control over the music that plays in their store, but fair pricing.
SoundtrackYourBrand
Benefits
- 34 million licensed songs in the catalog
- 300+ ready-made soundtracks
- Possibility to create playlists based on imported playlists from Spotify.
- Scheduling feature available: 21 calendar slots available to create your weekly music plan.
- 40 minute setup (average) before the first weekly schedule to have finished and could play music in your store.
- Compatible with SONOS.
- Price: 34.99 USD / month for standard subscription; €49.99 / month incl. Import private Spotify playlists.
- No proprietary hardware mandatory, but recommended. Streaming box costs 299 €.
- Web and mobile apps.
- ASCAP and BMI fees in the Us.
- In the rest of the world, incl. Germany, Switzerland and Austria you have to pay GEMA/SUISA/AKM fees.
- Service available in over 70 countries.
- 30 days free trial,no obligation.
Disadvantages
- A lot of licensed songs in the catalog, which also means a huge effort to find and organize the few tracks you really want to play.
- 300+ predefined playlists. But naming and hierarchization aren’t helpful if you need to search for the playlistyou.
- Audio advertising & messaging feature not available
- Planning function to plan different playlists at different times of the day/week. 21 slots per week to fill manually and update each week to create your weekly schedule. This means a lot of time and musical competence for an entrepreneur or his employees.
- Very different prices for their proprietary hardware between the territories: 149 USD in the USA and 299 € in Europe.
Who exactly is SoundtrackYourBrand best for?
For business owners who want to import their private Spotify playlists to create new legal playlists in the SoundtrackYourBrand. You should also be willing to have these imported playlists extended by SoundtrackYourBrand’s algorithms to count at least 300 tracks per playlist. In addition, the playlists are also updated with new tracks every week, slowly diluting and disappearing the first imported playlists, replaced by new mood/genre/artist-like tracks.
Soundsuit
Benefits
- 30 million licensed songs in the catalog.
- No pre-made and generic playlists that every other store can play too. Your playlist is created – fully custom (i.e. personalized and unique) – for your business profile. Thanks the Soundsuit Smart Assistant App.
- The scheduling function is automated. Your custom playlist adapts to quiet mornings, busy lunches, up-beat happy hour, romantic dinners, etc. All this effortlessly for you!
- Compatible with SONOS
- Price: $24.95/month
- No proprietary hardware mandatory. Soundsuit is compatible with all streaming devices and hardware.
- Audio advertising & messaging feature available via partner streaming boxes
- Web and mobile apps
- ASCAP + BMI fees included in the US, and SOCAN + RE:SOUND fees included in Canada
- Service available in more than 40 countries, including USA (BMI-ASCAP, etc), Canada (SOCAN, etc), UK (PRS-PPL), Germany (GEMA), Austria (AKM), Switzerland (SUISA), Netherlands (BUMA, Sweden (STIM), France (SACEM), and all of Europe.
- 30 days free trial, no commitment
Disadvantages
- Playlists cannot be created based on imported playlists from Spotify
Who exactly is Soundsuit best for?
- For business owners who recognize the fact that they can use their time and know-how better for their core business than for music.
- Managers who also care about the customer experience in their business and understand the importance of music to engage and inspire their customers.
- Owners who then need a real digital assistant like Soundsuit that automatically creates custom playlist for their store/brand while making sure these playlists are perfectly aligned with their customers (gender, age, style, etc.).
- Business owners who believe that running a business is hard enough and that managing in-store music – in the digital age – should be fun and effortless while being professional and intelligent.
- Business owners who want to raise the level of customer music experience
- Business owners who want to benefit from the music curation performed by Soundsuit for top tier brands such as BoConcept, Accor Hotels, Izipizi, Nestlé, Design Hotels, Porsche, Best Western, Puma, LVMH, etc.
Conclusion
To help you decide which streaming music provider suits you best, we recommend that you clearly define the key decision criteria for your business, including your team, the time you have available, your music literacy, the control you want on the music.
Important things to consider in general – based on our experience as consultants and providers serving thousands of customers on 3 continents – are:
- the fact that your music provider is licensed for commercial use (more on this in this article: Legally Playing Music in your Business)
- the need – or not – for a dedicated hardware player
- the need for one very personalized playlist, custom to your business/brand, or your preference for many ready-made playlists, so called “mood playlists” (which are in fact available to other stores, and then played by other companies and brands simultaneously, like any common commercial radio)
- the instant control via the web or mobile app to change the mood of the playlist with just one click
- the remote access and remote control to the player when you are not in the store, i.e. the trust you have in your employees
- the price and your budget
- the time and effort you want to invest in managing the music itself, e..B search for tracks, organization per mood/style/beats-per-minute/period, these tracks in certain playlists, planning these playlists in a calendar, updating the playlists every week, etc.
If you would like to assess even more music services for businesses that we did in this article, you can refer to this detailed comparison, features by features, benefit by benefit, of the 10 most renown services on global scale, i.e. including both Europe and North America: The 10 Best Music Services for your Business.
Have good research in choosing the right provider for you, and take advantage of the free trial most of them offer. Good luck and improve the customer experience in your business through the right music!
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