Music Moves Shoppers Minds
By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
Modern club-style pop arouses young shoppers at lifestyle store Kosney, while jazzy and soft tunes soothe Starbucks goers for one more cup of Joe. With a subtle but sure correlation between music and purchase mentality, businesses are perking up to send the best euphony to consumers _ and open their wallets.
But as the revised music copyright law takes effect next month, stores will be banned from playing any illegally downloaded music, which introduces an up and coming market of background music providers.
``We're expecting to see sales rise as business owners don't want to run into any legal issues,'' said a PR official at KT Shopcast, a music provider for enterprises of all sizes.
Users can pick and choose the type of music they want to play in their units or simply select what category of business they run.
``Hair salon, coffee shop, restaurant, convenient store _ there is a wide range of choices for clients, and the detailed music compilation is up to us,'' he said, adding that apart from the musical aspect, users also like the broadcast announcement service.
``Cosmetics company Etude House was very satisfied with it because it boosted their sales far higher than expected,'' the official said, explaining that when the make-up brand's ``Mascara Fixer'' debuted, the ad was repeatedly broadcasted, in between songs, shop wide, which lured customers to purchase more.
Another music provider in the market is SK Telecom's new Biz Melon service, which kicked off this month.
The supplier will begin with 1.2 million songs to which it already has copyrights, and tunes will be categorized in detail, including romantic, sexy, classy and cute.
Music Manager is also a popular DJ among businesses, as its notable clients include Hi-Mart, GS Retail, E-Mart, Korean Air, Home Plus and McDonald's.
``More of these services will jump into the market with the revision taking effect at the end of next month,'' said an official at the Korea Music Copyright Association. ``But the regulation has already been going on, so to some sense, they're just trying to leverage their edge through the copyright law.''
There are still those who maintain their original music taste through individual compilations.
``Our shop has its own unique color, so the company executive handpicks all the songs himself,'' said Shin Hee-yeon, a Kosney PR official, adding that the albums are sold in stores and sales are good.
Enterprises see the importance of music selection as various study results prove its impact on consumer behavior.
A study done by U.S. Professor Ronald Milliman shows that customers spend less time shopping or dining under loud and fast music, and stores saw a 38 percent gross sales jump when slow music was played.
``When you want people moving in and out fast, you play fast music,'' said the KT Shopcast official.