What Music Is Best For Airports
Running a successful airport requires doing everything right. This means having the right resources, running with the proper schedule, and playing the right music.
Music is a crucial part of many establishments, and airports are not left out. However, it is not enough to play just any kind of music. For an airport to make the most out of its playlist, it is vital to play only suitable songs.
Don't know what music suits an airport? Below, we have highlighted the best music for airports!
Music For Businesses: What's The Essence?
Sometimes, at the airports, we get so engrossed in finding our boarding gates and ensuring that our documents are so that we fail to appreciate or pay any mind to the music we hear.
We might not know it, but music in airports contributes to the overall experiences we have in airports, whether they are positive or negative. Music is an essential part of businesses in modern society. It is the cherry on top- so to say- of an efficient business with satisfied customers. But why is this so?
Music is an innate part of every society. It creates a sense of social cohesion and has even been proven to elicit several behavioral and psychological responses. Most importantly, people enjoy listening to music which is why many people play music at home, in their cars, or on their headphones as they walk.
Businesses have long since discovered the importance of music and have exploited it for their business growth and to increase consumer satisfaction. The airport is one of the many businesses that use music as an operational tool. There are many reasons why businesses use music in their operation.
One primary reason is that music sets the ambiance of any place. It affects the mood and even encourages the listeners to feel or react a certain way, enabling them to enjoy a more cohesive experience.
Music has also been proven to alter or affect customer purchasing decisions. It affects how they show, what they buy, and their shopping speed. Because music is a feel-good factor, businesses use music to encourage their clients to spend more money.
Businesses today use music for customer loyalty and retention. With music, companies help their clients feel more appreciated and connected to the brand. It enhances the consumer experience and makes them want to return for more positive transactions.
Music is also a great way to increase employee engagement. Everyone enjoys good music, and employees are not left out. Music creates a better working environment that encourages employees to be more productive. This is probably due to its motivation and stress relief advantages.
Music has proven to be a valuable tool for many businesses, from restaurants and bars to airports. Although this is great, it is essential to note that the music that can be played in business settings differs with the type of settings. This is why bar music will stand out like a sore thumb in airports.
When it comes to airports, picking the right music can be more complicated than in many other establishments. This is essential to maintain the right ambiance and scale up positive consumer experience.
Airport Music
Imagine an airport without music. Imagine if you are waiting for your flight in an airport terminal or sitting in the lounge, and all you can hear is people’s conversations, flight information announcements, and other disorientating sounds that are normal in airports.
That sounds uncomfortable, right?
Music is an essential part of airports, even if passengers often overlook it. It doesn’t matter if it is in the lounge, terminal, or playing while you board the flight, music is essential.
Like many transportation sectors, airports are highly stressful places. With this mammoth-sized establishment split into other sections working towards a holistic goal of taking people to their different destinations, airports can be understandably overwhelming for the staff, crew, and passengers.
It is not uncommon to come across flustered passengers looking for directions to boarding gates, nor is it strange to find a fuming passenger concerned about their delayed or rescheduled flight.
Essentially, airports are not known to be stress-free environments and are commonly known to be breeding grounds for terrible service, uncomfortably long lines, and confusing instructions that leave customers frustrated and with a bad experience.
Now, imagine adding lousy music to the mix.
Airport music does not necessarily have to be a toe-tapping number that leaves passengers bobbing their heads and singing along. In fact, realistically, it is far from that.
Music is woven into the fabric of society, so much so that good music is widely appreciated. Good music positively affects the dynamics of an airport by creating a positive environment.
Music in airports is used to create a positive ambiance in an environment that is heavy with tension, anxiety, and frustration, it is used to create a more comfortable ambiance that will increase the average customer experience. After all, positive customer experience fuels any business’s success.
Although music is excellent, it is often overlooked by many people. This can leave anyone wondering why airport music is underrated and why it is crucial.
Airport Music: Is Anyone Really Listening?
Let’s face it, no one is really standing and paying attention to music in an airport, except if it’s coming from their headphones. At the airport, people are constantly on edge.
It is common to find people double-checking their baggage, walking around in confusion as they try to trace their assigned gates, or simply looking out for further updates for their flights.
People are so lost in their various activities while simultaneously keeping their ears pricked for flight information and frequent flight reminders that they often miss the song being played. They unconsciously tune out the songs they hear in favor of more pressing engagements.
In restaurants, the customers enjoy the music coming from the speakers. Music is as important to their experience as the food is. At the bar, music is the experience. No one wants to hang out in a bar without music.
However, in airports, the case is a bit different, as travelers are not reviewing the music being played. Yet, they subconsciously appreciate the music even when they are not actively paying attention. Airport music, to travelers, is ignorable yet essential.
This is because airport music takes on a more structural use that makes it ignorable and listenable at once. Think of it as elevator music on a more vital scale. Would you rather be stuck in a dead-quiet elevator with lots of people, or would you prefer to hear the soothing and familiar sound that blankets tension?
No one might be actively listening to airport music, but it undoubtedly affects how travelers perceive the business’s experience. Airport music is played everywhere. From hotel restaurants to lounge music to terminal music and even boarding music, the right airport music plays a massive role in the success of any airport.
But why is airport music so important?
Importance of Airport Music
Airport music, like music played anywhere else, plays a huge role in customer satisfaction. It serves multiple functions for both the establishment and the travelers. Some of the advantages of airport music includes
1. Soothes Travelers
Travers is constantly in a state of anxiety. From the anxiety that comes from concentrating so hard not to miss any flight update to the confusion that comes with looking for the right gates and even boarding anxiety, anxiety is a destroyer of comfort and satisfaction, and can leave passengers with bad experiences.
To help, airports use music to soothe harried travelers and encourage them to slow down. Soothing airport music is like a balm to the soul for stressed travelers.
Although it is an indirect source of comfort to travelers who don’t even know they are listening until they stop and do, it is even more enjoyed by travelers in lounges or restaurants. It gives them something else to focus on as they wait for any updates concerning their flights.
2. Branding
Airport music can also be used for some aural branding. With great music, airports can set themselves apart from their competition. Branding is essential in business, and airports are not left out. The type of music an airport chooses to play can set it apart from other airports.
Music elicits specific emotional responses associated with that music and the setting in which the music is used. If an airport’s music can make a passenger feel happy, they will always associate that airport with a feeling of happiness that is known solely to that airport. This indirectly plays a role in helping the airport stand out from other airports.
3. Better Customer Experience
Airport music undoubtedly plays a significant role in the consumer experience. It can comfort travelers, keep them engaged, and essentially create a better environment. However, airport music can also be used to make the boarding aspect of traveling more enjoyable.
Today, airports match their music to the theme of the airport or flight. During Christmas and the days leading up to Christmas, some airports use their music to resonate with the spirit of the season. Even at boarding entrances, airports use music to excite passengers by matching flights to the destinations.
Are you flying to Belize? Enjoy this Caribbean music! Although this is a tiny detail in the many other details that goes into airport logistics, it plays a significant role in setting the mood for the rest of the flight.
4. Sense of Place
Although many people consider airports to be places, they are, in reality, classified as a ‘non-place’. This is because airports are seen as a cross-road of human relations or a space of transience where people pass through anonymously. This causes most airports to be stripped of identity.
To help airports regain a sense of identity, airports use different music. Music says a lot about the music it occupies, which is why it is not surprising that it infuses airports with a more substantial emotion, saving travellers from what will otherwise be a bland and dreary environment.
Best Music For Airports
Unlike other places like restaurants and hotels, there are not a lot of genres that can fit into airports. There are lots of music genres. From pop, to rock and jazz, each genre fits in a specific setting and complements the atmosphere in that setting. Sometimes, more than one genre fits in a setting without any problem.
However, airports are not one of those settings.
In reality, the music genres fit for airports are so few that many people agree the most acceptable genre is Ambient music. Ambient music is a type of music that evils an atmospheric quality. This makes sense, especially since airports are classic examples of non-places.
Ambient music is one of the few music genres that can help people focus on the here-and-now of their surroundings. Ambient music encourages a sense of calm contemplation. It encourages passive and active listening so that listeners focus on the music and surroundings at once.
Although any kind of music will fit in airports, one popular choice is Brian Eno’s 1978 ‘Ambient 1: Music for Airports’ album. This album is quite fitting, especially because Brian Eno began to plan this project while waiting at an airport, and all he heard was awful music.
As a result, he composed the album while envisioning an airport that he will be happy to wait in. The album ‘Music for airports’ features warm, rich tones accompanied by the gentle strums of resonance. It is comforting, just as anyone will want airports to be.
Create Your Airport Playlist With Loop TV
Finding the perfect songs to create an excellent airport ambiance can be difficult, especially if you do not know where to look. To help, Loop TV has curated an extensive library of different music genres that you can explore to create the ultimate airport playlist.
Loop TV is a free business entertainment and digital signage TV. It offers unlimited entertainment and digital signage solutions to businesses looking for high-quality digital signage content.
Loop TV features more than 200 fully licensed music and non-music channels for a wide range of audiences. The music channels contains a diverse range of genres, as well as seasonally themed playlists, all waiting to be discovered by your business.
Loop TV is fully licensed, totally free. Get started and discover great music for airports for free. Sign up for a free media player on the official Loop TV website.