The ROI of Sound: When Background Music Stops Being an Expense and Becomes a Brand Asset

The argument most managers haven't heard yet

For years, music in commercial spaces was treated as a minor line item in the operating budget: something someone picked at the last minute, that no one audited and few questioned. A Spotify playlist, a generic radio station, or just silence. Today, that model is being replaced by something radically different: music managed as a brand asset with measurable returns.

The global sonic branding market reached $1.12 billion in 2024, with a projected annual growth rate of 13.9% through 2033, according to data from GrowthMarketReports cited by the agency Sixieme Son. This is not a niche trend: it is the formalization of something consumer psychology has documented for decades, and that the most sophisticated brands are already translating into concrete numbers.

What the numbers say about sound and spending

The question that matters most to a commercial director is not "what music should we play," but "what impact does it have on the bottom line." Academic and industry research from recent years is delivering increasingly precise answers.

• Dwell time: Slow-tempo music is directly associated with longer time spent in a space. In retail, that translates into more time exploring products and, consequently, a higher likelihood of purchase. In hospitality, it leads to additional consumption of drinks or desserts.
• Quality perception: A study by researcher Adrian North, widely cited in retail literature, showed that customers exposed to classical music in a wine shop chose higher-priced bottles — not because the music explicitly directed them to, but because it elevated their perception of the environment as premium and sophisticated.
• Brand congruence and recall: Brands that use music aligned with their identity are 96% more likely to be remembered by consumers, compared to brands that use mismatched music or none at all, according to data cited by the Mastercard Developers team.
• Campaign impact: Advertising campaigns that include music are 27% more likely to generate significant commercial effects than campaigns without music, according to the same source.

These are not opinion figures: they emerge from research with robust methodologies, including longitudinal field studies and neurophysiological measurements.

The jazz-in-the-cafe experiment: a 13-month study

One of the most recent and rigorous studies on background music and consumer behavior was published in the Journal of Marketing Analytics in 2026. The design combined three phases: a survey of 2,501 consumers, an electroencephalography experiment with 44 participants to measure emotional response to six instrumental genres, and a field intervention at a real hospitality venue.

The intervention involved playing jazz music between 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. for 13 consecutive months. The result was a statistically significant increase in both beverage sales and perceived atmosphere, with effects especially pronounced on weekends. The average atmosphere rating rose from 6.75 to 7.45 out of 10 during the intervention window.

What this study confirms is something that successful cafe and restaurant operators had already sensed: music is not a backdrop. It is part of the reason the customer chooses to stay longer and spend more.

Mastercard and the architecture of sound as trust

Outside of hospitality, the most well-documented case of measurable return on sonic identity comes from Mastercard. Five years ago, the company decided to create a complete sonic identity in collaboration with experts in neurology, psychology, and musicology. The result was a 30-second melody that functions as sonic DNA, with 3-second versions for advertising and a 1.6-second version for the moment of payment.

The numbers are concrete: hearing the transaction sound at the end of a payment was shown to increase consumer trust by up to four times, according to the Mastercard Newsroom. The sonic identity has expanded to more than 500 million points of interaction worldwide.

What makes this case relevant for any business — not just global brands — is the logic behind it: sound at the point of contact is not decoration. It is a signal that communicates brand values in real time, without the customer having to read or see anything. It works when visuals are unavailable. It works when the customer's eyes are occupied. It even works when the customer is not fully conscious of processing it.

The mistake of treating it as a playlist instead of a strategy

The difference between a playlist and a sonic strategy is, in the words of the agency Sixieme Son, intentionality. "A playlist fills the silence. A sonic identity uses sound to communicate who you are, consistently, in every space where the brand lives."

That shift is not philosophical: it has concrete operational consequences. A brand with no defined sonic criteria makes different decisions every time: the morning shift plays reggaeton, the midday shift turns the music off, the afternoon shift plays whatever. The returning customer finds no consistency. The brand that made a promise through its visuals contradicts it through its sound.

The 2025-2026 trend is clear on this point. According to the "State of Sonic" report by Stephen Arnold Music, personalization and authenticity are the dominant drivers of sonic branding this year. Smaller brands — local coffee chains, independent boutiques, concept stores — are entering the world of sonic branding with accessible tools: an audio style guide, a genre selection consistent with their positioning, variations by daypart. You don't need a multinational budget to make smart sonic decisions.

Music, brand, and the customer who comes back

Research on sensory branding points to a finding that should weigh heavily in any ambiance decision: sound directly influences whether the customer returns. With Mastercard's sonic identity active at checkout, consumers were shown to be 2.5 to 4 times more likely to return to the store or the merchant's app, according to data from a GFK study commissioned by the company itself.

In physical spaces, music is one of the few elements the customer experiences throughout their entire visit — from the moment they walk in to the moment they leave. There is no dead time. There is no blind spot. Sound is always present, and that constant presence is precisely its advantage over other design elements.

At Mystify Radio, we work on exactly this logic: building custom music stations for each client, with human curation and intelligent technology, so that every space sounds with brand coherence and commercial purpose — not by chance. Because the sound your customer hears today is part of the reason they come back tomorrow.

The asset you can still activate

If your space has a name, a visual identity, and a defined target customer, you already have everything you need to build a sonic identity. The question is not whether you can afford it. The question is how much it is costing you not to have done it yet.

The brands that lead in customer experience — across different verticals and different sizes — share a pattern: they treat sound with the same seriousness as lighting, interior design, or menu curation. They don't improvise it. They don't delegate it to whoever is on shift. They design it, measure it, and refine it.

The professional background music market is growing at double digits because that pattern is becoming the norm, not the exception. The laggards won't be the ones without budget: they'll be the ones who never stopped to ask what their brand sounds like.