Licensed to thrill: Not just a jukebox

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New music broadcast technology can help licensees find the perfect mix of sound and vision for their establishment. Phil Mellows investigates.Music...

New music broadcast technology can help licensees find the perfect mix of sound and vision for their establishment. Phil Mellows investigates.

Music is key to defining the kind of pub or bar you want to run. It sets the tone, defines the audience and creates and changes the atmosphere of a venue throughout the day. A recent seminar for bar managers organised by training company Watershed focused on music as one of the three main elements, along with the architecture and the people, that contribute to the elusive "mood" of a place.

Music is, in fact, likely to be one of the more conscious factors in how people think of your pub. As Jim Fleeman of The Jazz Partnership told delegates: "People have very strong opinions about music. But they won't go into a bar and complain about the upholstery.

"When it comes to music, credibility is the bottom line. Whether or not the customer likes it, the important thing is it's been thought about, it's not just the top 20 hits played over and over again."

Your choice of music - or style of music - helps shape the kind of venue you want to be, the people you want to attract. An eclectic mix, for instance, should help to make customers comfortable across the generations while a diet of hardcore techno will narrow your audience.

You can also use music to shape customers' behaviour. It produces real physical responses in people. Up-tempo lively music in a major key can generate excitement and you can bring the tempo down at the end of the evening when you want your customers to leave quietly.

It's probably true to say that the pub and bar industry has not given this enough thought in the past. But that's beginning to change thanks to new technologies that are making the job a little bit easier.

No longer do you need to hire a DJ full-time to manage the music mix - now it's all done by computer. You can download a programme that not only suits your pub but also changes the mood through the day, automatically.

Then you can add pictures to the sounds to make an even stronger impact.

Earlier this year Avanti Screenmedia responded to demand for this sort of service by launching a new music channel for pubs called Music Video Network (MVN).

Avanti chief executive David Williams believes there is a big market waiting to be tapped. "Our clients in the pub market were asking us for a generic music video channel so we have delivered it for them, with a range of additional features such as advertising, private branding and local messaging," he said.

MVN has four channels, each targeted at a different customer base:

Fresh - hit singles from the current chart plus pop and dance releases from the previous 12 months
NRG - upbeat pop, dance anthems and dance hits
Style - adult pop from recent years for a modern yet sophisticated feel
Rewind - biggest hits of the last 30 years from all genres for a wide appeal.

Content is regularly updated and the play schedule for each channel is tailored to meet the needs of different parts of the day.

Although the videos can be screened with or without ads, Avanti provides licensees with templates to display their own promotional messages between the tracks.

How about your own TV music channel?

OTV is among those companies offering pubs the chance to play Michael Grade.

According to OTV managing director Tod Yeadon there are at least five ways your own channel can benefit licensees:

Use the system to post special offers, increasing impluse sales and influencing customers' decisions
at the bar
Gain direct revenue from local, national and supplier promotions
Increase customer traffic and duration of stay by offering a better experience
Build a stronger relationship between the customer and the pub
Improve staff morale by using the system for internal communications and training.

Licensees subscribe to OTV's music video replay package which allows them to insert promotional and marketing messages into material playing on screens.

The scheme, launched at the end of last year and distributed by Sony, has already been taken up by Northampton-based McManus Pub Company. The package delivers 18 hours a day of the latest music videos via a satellite broadcasting system.

Subscribers have access to internet-based scheduling packages which enable them to make commercial breaks for individual outlets or through a group.

It is themed for different times of day and includes a mix of current chart material and modern classics. OTV already has over 1,000 music videos in its library.

Meanwhile, Bute Video has launched The Video Station. This comes loaded with 350 of the latest music videos and 10 new tracks are added each month to keep the music bang up to date. Or you can have 700 music tracks with 20 updates a month.

You can also stage a karaoke evening on the system with hundreds of tracks and lyrics on screen.

Additional features include the ability to run your own promotions via scrolling text messages on the bottom of the screen and you can boost sales behind the bar with your choice of commercials between the videos.

When you are busy The Video Station will run automatically but when you have time you can choose your own playlist locating tracks by artist or title.

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