When you think about shopping, what sound comes to mind? It might be the carts rolling up and down the aisles, or maybe the beeps of the scanners when you’re standing in the check-out line. Music might not be the first thing that crosses our minds, but it’s almost always in the background of our shopping trips, and it can have a surprising impact. From how long we stay in the store and how much we spend while we’re there to how we feel about it afterward, sound plays a pivotal, and often unnoticed, role in our purchasing decisions that we’re still working to understand.

If you think about it, using music to change the way we think and feel about an experience isn’t all that surprising. Whether we’re soothing babies to sleep with lullabies or marching into battle with drums and horns, sound has always helped give shape and texture to our daily lives. In modern times, that’s meant music at work and out in public, such as the Music While You Work radio program that ran in the UK until 1967 or the “Muzak” that filled American department stores and elevators in the 1950s. But the science of sound has come a long way since those early days, and the commercial soundscape has become much more sophisticated. What does the latest research say about the influence of sound on our spending habits? Can sound even be used to turn us into more responsible shoppers?

During the heyday of elevator music and workplace radios, there was another famous – or, perhaps, infamous – approach to using sound as a marketing tool. That tool was subliminal advertising, and it only became possible over the last century, as vocal recordings and sound editing allowed secret messages to be layered beneath an audio track or “backmasked” into reversed snippets hidden within the melody. Those subliminal messages, the thinking went, could cause unsuspecting moviegoers to crave popcorn, or even turn ordinary teenagers into rebellious rock-and-roll fans.

The good news for free thinkers is that subliminal advertising never really worked that way. Reversed audio doesn’t create any sort of subconscious suggestion, and, while soft, layered words can leave a faint impression on listeners, it’s actually a weaker effect than just saying the words out loud in an ordinary commercial. If you’re curious about the rise and fall of subliminal audio, check out this short video from Cheddar about the fake study that started it all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-eUcXcaqk

We might not be able to use hidden messages to boost soda sales, but sound does motivate us as shoppers in ways that we hardly notice. Music can have a powerful effect on the brain, such as lowering our cortisol and stress levels when we listen to a soothing song, and a 2010 study found that music also releases dopamine in the brain. This came as something of a surprise to researchers, since it means music activates the same sense of innate pleasure as food, money, or even love.

Sound has a much deeper impact on us than we realize, and a UK study in 2022 showed that different genres of music lead to different behavior when it comes to shopping. Pop music motivates people to spend more and to make more impulse purchases: 37% more people were likely to try a new hairstyle in a salon that’s playing pop music. Other genres have their place, though, as 31% more diners ordered the most expensive menu items in a restaurant that played classical music. The only sound that didn’t have any upside for businesses is silence: according to a consumer survey conducted by Luxury Academy last year, 67% of shoppers would leave a store that isn’t playing any music.

Want to hear what shoppers think of store music? Here’s a short video by the Irish Music Rights Organization that interviews customers on the street, including a surprising number who make their shopping choices based on what they hear:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpMBIlpBgAM

The right music can inspire us to spend more, to spend impulsively, and to move through the store faster. But can it help us slow down and spend less? Can we craft a custom soundscape that makes us more frugal? This was the challenge one of my previous guests, Valentin Fleur of the sonic branding company Sixième Son, faced while composing Interac’s Sound Shopping music track. For those who aren’t aware, Interac is a debit card system here in Canada. The 12-minute medley uses a variety of sounds to keep the listener engaged, shifting back and forth between them while avoiding minor keys. As it turns out, minor keys spark a pensive mood, and studies have found that downbeat songs lead to more impulse buys as shoppers try to lift their spirits.

Interac’s customer surveys show that the track’s been a success, with Sound Shopping’s listeners reporting a threefold increase in a sense of peace and calm, and almost double the purchase satisfaction rate. As for the question of whether sound can inspire saving as well as spending, 64% of shoppers who listened to Sound Shopping reported pausing and considering their purchases.

If you’d like to learn more about the Sound Shopping audio tool, here’s a video clip that reveals more about it, and lets you hear some of the techniques it uses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb--Tds_0bQ

From boosting sales to inspiring makeovers, from elevating our mood to, as a famous Oxford study found, enhancing the flavor of fine wines, music has an astonishing variety of effects on our thoughts and behavior. Even when we aren’t paying attention to it, sound is woven into the very fabric of our lives, and we’re only beginning to understand its influence on the world around us.

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