How Music Affects Customer Spending: What the Research Actually Says

There's a number I think about a lot: $2,700.

That's the approximate difference in monthly revenue between my cafe on months when I pay attention to the music and months when I don't. It's not a controlled study. It's a cafe, with seasonal traffic, weather-dependent foot traffic, and a hundred variables I can't isolate. But the pattern is consistent enough over three years that I've stopped calling it a coincidence.

What made me pay attention in the first place was a stack of academic papers that most business owners will never read. Research studies published in marketing journals and consumer behavior quarterlies — the kind of dense, footnote-heavy work that never makes it to a business blog. But the findings are remarkable: background music doesn't just set the mood. It changes behavior. It changes how long people stay, what they order, how much they're willing to pay, and whether they come back.

Here's what the research actually says.

The tempo studies: Milliman (1982, 1986)

The most cited research in this space comes from Ronald Milliman, a marketing professor who published two landmark studies in the 1980s that the restaurant industry has been mostly ignoring ever since.

The restaurant study (1982)

Milliman played background music at different tempos in a mid-sized restaurant and measured everything — time at the table, food spending, bar spending, and how many customers left before being seated.

When the music was slow, people lingered. They finished their entrees and decided yes, they would have another drink. They stayed through dessert. The per-table bar spending was significantly higher in the slow-music condition — not because people were drinking more per hour, but because they were simply there longer.

When the music was fast, the opposite happened. People ate at a faster pace, spent less time at the table, and moved through the experience more quickly. Fewer additional drinks. Fewer desserts. Faster turnover.

Here's the critical nuance: neither result is automatically better. A packed Saturday night might need faster turnover — the revenue comes from volume, and longer stays mean lost tables. A quiet Tuesday evening benefits from slower tempo — keep people seated, encourage additional ordering, increase the per-table check.

The supermarket study (1986)

Milliman repeated the methodology in a supermarket and found the same pattern in a completely different context.

When slow music played, shoppers moved through the aisles more slowly. They spent more time browsing. The average basket size was 38% larger compared to fast-music conditions. Shoppers weren't consciously slowing down — when asked, they couldn't accurately estimate how long they'd been in the store. The tempo was operating below the level of awareness.

Fast music made people move through the store more quickly, spend less time browsing, and buy less.

The takeaway is not "always play slow music." The takeaway is that tempo is a lever, and most businesses never touch it.

The genre study: North, Hargreaves, and McKendrick (1999)

This is the study that changed how I think about music in commercial spaces. Adrian North and his colleagues at the University of Leicester ran an experiment in a wine shop that sounds almost too elegant to be real.

They set up a display with French wines on one shelf and German wines on the other. Over the course of two weeks, they alternated the background music between French accordion music and German Bierkeller music.

When French music played, French wine outsold German wine five to one.

When German music played, German wine outsold French.

The mechanism isn't direct persuasion. Nobody thought, "I hear accordion music, therefore I should buy Bordeaux." The music created a context — a set of subconscious associations — that made certain products feel more natural, more congruent with the moment. People reached for what "felt right," and what felt right was shaped by what they heard.

This has direct implications for any business that sells products. The genre playing in your store is creating associations whether you intend it or not. Classical music in a wine shop makes the premium shelf feel natural. Jazz in a boutique signals curation and taste. Pop in a chain store signals accessibility and value. The music is telling a story, and customers are buying the story.

The price perception study: Areni and Kim (1993)

In the same vein as North's work, Charles Areni and David Kim tested the relationship between music and price sensitivity in a wine store. They alternated between classical music and Top 40 pop.

When classical music played, customers selected significantly more expensive bottles. The average purchase price per bottle went up. When pop played, they bought cheaper bottles. Same wines. Same prices. Same store. Same staff.

The music was functioning as a quality cue. Classical music signaled an upscale environment, and in that environment, reaching for the $40 bottle felt appropriate. Pop music signaled something more casual, and the $12 bottle felt like the right choice.

For any business where customers make purchasing decisions in-store — retail, restaurants with wine lists, boutiques, specialty food shops — this finding is worth real money. The genre you play affects what price point feels comfortable to your customers.

The dwell time studies: Leicester replication (1999)

North and his team also revisited Milliman's tempo work in a restaurant setting with more precise measurements. The replication confirmed the original findings and added granularity.

In the slow-music condition:

• Diners stayed an average of 13.5 minutes longer per table
• Drink spending increased by 29% per table
• Food spending showed no significant difference
• Customers reported higher satisfaction with the overall experience

The drink spending finding is particularly important. Diners didn't eat more food — the slow music didn't make them hungrier. But it made them comfortable staying at the table, which created opportunities for additional beverage orders. A second glass of wine. An after-dinner cocktail. A coffee they wouldn't have ordered if they'd been in a hurry.

13.5 minutes is the number I keep coming back to. In a restaurant, that's one more drink. In a cafe, that's a pastry. In a retail store, that's one more lap past the merchandise. The dollar value of those minutes varies by business, but it's rarely zero.

The volume studies

The research on volume is less dramatic than tempo and genre, but equally actionable.

A study published in the Journal of Business Research found that moderate ambient sound — approximately 70 decibels, roughly the level of a moderately busy coffee shop — improves creative thinking compared to both silence and loud environments. This is the finding behind the entire "coffee shop noise" app category.

Separate studies have found:

• Below 60 dB: Rooms feel uncomfortably quiet. Conversations become self-conscious. People are more aware of environmental sounds (HVAC, kitchen noise, traffic). Visit duration decreases.
• 60-75 dB: The comfort zone. Background music provides cover for conversation without competing with it. People relax, stay longer.
• Above 80 dB: Music competes with conversation. People raise their voices, raising the overall noise level. Stress indicators increase. Visit duration decreases.

Most businesses I walk into are either too quiet (music barely audible over the empty room) or too loud (music competing with a packed room because nobody adjusted the volume since opening).

The silence studies

One of the most interesting findings in the literature is about the absence of music entirely.

Research has consistently shown that silence in a commercial space is not neutral — it's actively negative. Businesses with no background music see:

• Shorter visit duration compared to businesses with appropriate background music
• Lower comfort ratings from customers
• Higher awareness of unpleasant ambient sounds (kitchen, HVAC, traffic)
• Reduced willingness to return

Silence creates self-consciousness. In a quiet restaurant, you can hear the conversation two tables over. You become aware of your own chewing. The room feels exposed and transitional — like a place you're passing through, not a place you're meant to stay.

Music, even mediocre music, provides a layer of acoustic privacy that makes commercial spaces function. It gives conversations cover. It smooths awkward moments. It turns a room from a container into an environment.

What this means in dollars

Let me run the math on my own business. my cafe seats about thirty people at capacity. On a good day, I see a hundred customers. Average ticket is around $7.50.

If optimized background music keeps customers 10-15 minutes longer — consistent with the research — and that extra time converts to even one additional item for 30% of customers, the daily impact is roughly:

• 100 customers x 30% conversion x $3.50 average add-on = $105/day
• Over a month: ~$3,150/month
• Over a four-month peak season: ~$12,600

Those numbers are rougher than the academic studies, because my cafe has variables no study can control — weather, ferry schedules, whether a cruise ship docked in town. But the directional math is consistent with what Milliman, North, and the Leicester team found. The effect is real and the magnitude is significant.

Compare that to the cost of good background music. A solid business music service runs $15-$50/month. Even at the high end, that's a 50:1 return on the conservative estimate.

The practical applications

Here's how I translate the research into practice at my own cafe and what I'd recommend for any business:

Use tempo as a tool. Slow down the music when you want people to stay (quiet mornings, weekday evenings, low-traffic periods). Speed it up when you need turnover (packed weekends, lunch rush with a waitlist). Don't play the same tempo all day.

Match genre to your brand. The music should tell the same story as your space, your menu, your decor. If you're premium, play music that signals premium. If you're casual, play casual. Incongruence is expensive.

Manage volume actively. Three to four adjustments per day. Louder when empty, softer when full, adjust with the crowd. This takes thirty seconds total and is probably the highest-ROI change you can make.

Never play silence. Even if you're between playlists or your system crashed, put something on. Silence is worse than mediocre music. Have a backup plan for dead air.

Track the results. Pay attention to your register on days when you're intentional about the music versus days when you're not. The data will convince you faster than any study.

Why most businesses don't do this

If the research is this clear — and it is — why do most businesses still treat background music as an afterthought?

Three reasons. First, the research lives in academic journals that business owners don't read. Second, the effects are invisible — you can't see the customers who would have stayed longer or spent more. The absence of revenue doesn't show up on a line item. Third, music feels trivial compared to the hundred other things a business owner worries about every day. It's hard to prioritize something you can't see.

But the researchers have been measuring what you can't see for forty years. And what they've found is that the sound in your room is shaping your business every minute of every day — in ways that are consistent, measurable, and actionable.

You don't need to become a music scientist. You just need to pay attention to three things: tempo, genre, and volume. Adjust them with intention. Track the results. The research says you'll see the difference. My register tape says the same thing.

Jesse Meria is the founder of Puana. The research cited in this article represents published, peer-reviewed studies. The cafe numbers are from his own register, not a controlled experiment — but the pattern holds.