Your music playlists provide a continuous soundtrack for your customers to listen to. Every song you play comes with an array of information, and when combined into a selection, it creates a dialogue that helps your customers build up a rounded impression of your brand.

The businesses we work with at Open Ear understand this important concept and rely on our team of music curators to help them maintain this conversation, something we do by keeping the playlists up to date and matching the day of the week/season of the year, as well as trading patterns. As customers slowly turn into active listeners, the need to keep the playlists relevant becomes more crucial.

That being said, we also recognise that providing a selection of on-brand and updated tracks is often not enough; topical playlists can also play a pivotal role.

Using music to celebrate awareness dates, bank holidays and special events, commemorative days, or even tributes to their favourite artists, can be a fun and effective way for your business to convey your core values and also support your marketing initiatives. The playlists being played in your commercial space are able to nuancedly communicate a message by tapping into customers' emotions while also being charged with cultural meaning.

Music carries an authentic hence meaningful message, one that is picked up by anyone interacting with your brand - from your staff to your customers. Through music, people can feel included - no matter their background, ethnicity, gender, or age. Music is an incredibly powerful tool and we're all about exploring the multitude of possibilities it offers for brands.

The Open Ear music team regularly curates topical playlists that are offered to clients as part of their subscription with us; from Valentine's Day, Halloween, and Notting Hill Carnival to the World Cup and the Anniversary of Woodstock. In the last couple of years, we also started to collaborate with external curators, such as DJ and journalist Marcus Barnes for Black History Month, and Primal Scream's bassist Simone Marie, jazz artist Ego Ella May, and soul singer Lady Wray (for International Women's Day).

We also work on bespoke selections to cover any needs a client may have. For example, we did this for the Green Room cocktail bar, situated in The Curtain in East London. The owners (originally from the US) requested a playlist of American music to help celebrate Independence Day on the 4th of July. Our team picked a fun mix of new and old American classics from Beyonce to Bon Jovi, Madonna to the Mamas & the Papas.

Our work was appreciated by customers and staff alike, and duly noted by Time Out Magazine recommended the 'playful playlist' as a reason to go the bar. They went on to say that ‘a big part of the atmosphere is the sound system and playlist’.

Elsewhere, we curated a playlist to compliment a Cuban-themed week at Fitz’s Bar. Our mix of old and new Cuban classics - thoroughly designed to drive rum sales - was also featured in Time Out.

Find out more about our work here.