Your Playlist Is Costing You Customers (Or Keeping Them)
40% of Australian shoppers have walked out of a store because of the music. Half have stayed longer when it felt right.
That's not atmosphere. That's revenue. And most retailers are leaving it to chance.
When OneMusic released this research, I wasn't surprised. But seeing the numbers laid out so clearly? Hard to ignore.
| 40% walked out because of bad music | 50% stayed longer when music felt right |
Volume Is the Real Villain
I talked about this with Karen Holmes, Director at OneMusic Australia, on a recent episode of Q'd Up. Her take: most business owners don't realise what's at stake with what's playing in their stores.
The data agrees. 38% of Australians say volume is the very first thing they notice walking into a store. Before the song. Before the genre. Volume. And over 16% of all negative feedback cited volume as the reason the experience was poor.
The right song, played too loud, is just noise. And noise sends people out the door.
This is exactly why QSIC built AVA, our patented Autonomous Volume Adjustment feature. AVA reads ambient sound and foot traffic and adjusts accordingly. No manual dial. No gut feeling. Just intelligent response to what's actually happening in the room.
Genre Is a Contract with Your Customer
Shoppers walk in with expectations. Match them and the music disappears into a great experience. Miss them and something feels off, even if they can't name it.
| 44% say mismatched music makes a brand feel "disconnected" | 25% quietly downgrade their opinion of your professionalism |
At QSIC, our entire curation approach is built around this. Music matched to the moment, the demographic, and the day-part. Updated monthly. Day-parts set by our team using real customer peak time data. Deliberate, every time.
Silence Isn't Safe Either
Silent spaces read as unfinished. Shoppers across Australia and New Zealand describe them as "odd" or "flat."
Not playing music to avoid getting it wrong? The data says you're still getting it wrong.
Licensing Is a Trust Signal
The research reframes this completely. Displaying a "Licensed to Play" sticker is viewed positively or neutrally by 94% to 95% of AU and NZ consumers. Nearly 30% see it as proof you're doing the right thing.
Karen shared a real example on the episode: a gym operator in Sydney and Victoria who ignored repeated warnings from APRA AMCOS and ended up facing a court-ordered payout of over $235,000 in damages, before legal costs. A music licence isn't admin. It's how you tell your customers you respect the artists whose work makes your store worth being in.
Listen to the Full Episode with Karen Holmes
How OneMusic was formed, what AI-generated music means for copyright, why your personal Spotify subscription doesn't cover you commercially, and Karen's liquor licence analogy that's genuinely one of the best explanations I've heard.
The Bottom Line
In-store audio is a business tool. It moves dwell time, spend, brand perception, and loyalty. Getting it right takes intentional decisions around volume, genre, and curation quality.
QSIC helps retailers make those calls at scale, with data and AI doing the heavy lifting and measurement closing the loop.
Your store is already playing music. Is it working for you?
Sound that works as hard as you do.
See how QSIC helps retailers turn in-store audio into a strategic advantage.
Learn how QSIC does itSource: Inside Retail x OneMusic survey, December 2025, n=1,250 consumers across Australia and New Zealand.
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