Background music for restaurants.

Set the perfect soundtrack to every dining experience with Startle.

White wavy lines background patternRestaurants kitchen

Tailored music for restaurants.

Ever entered a restaurant and been wowed by the atmosphere? Even if you didn’t notice the background music… well, that’s probably by design!

Restaurant music is the songs, sounds and playlists used to enhance the dining experience. It’s a key part of the atmosphere that contributes to ambience and mood, brand identity and customer experience – with the power to genuinely influence consumer behaviour and increase spending.

But it’s about more than streaming your diners’ favourite songs. It’s about creating the perfect setting to accompany their evening. Not too loud, or too quiet. Matching the mood of the restaurant at every time of day. Just right.

It’s music for a sushi restaurant – and much more. And it’s effortless with Startle.

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Music that moves people.

Our background music for restaurants services give you everything you need to build and maintain the perfect atmosphere. And it’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Enjoy professionally curated playlists – designed for a variety of restaurant environments – an intuitive drag-and-drop scheduler that can be tailored to your opening hours, and flexible permissions that allow you to determine who can control what. And multisite reporting keeps you on top of what’s happening at every location, at any time.

But why not just plug in your iPhone? It’s too easy (and risky) to leave song choices up to staff preferences. Our playlists are backed by behavioural science, with real intent to encourage your customers – and staff – to move or feel a certain way.

Tailored background music is proven to make people:

Stay longer

Time flies when you’re having fun.

Remember their experience

Boosting brand identity and making them tell their friends!

Spend more

Studies show music can influence buying habits.

Whatever your requirements, we give you the tools needed to design and scale your perfect atmosphere with our background music for restaurants.

Behavioural Science in action.

Don’t just take our word for it… it’s science!

Anyone can stream music through restaurant speakers – and they’d probably pick some pretty good tunes. But there are no medals for nice music. That’s what sets us apart.

Here’s what our combination of music + science + tech looks like in action:

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Influence behaviour

Startle’s responsive atmospherics tools allow you to react to the real-time restaurant vibe. Enjoy greater throughput control to encourage quicker turnover during busy periods and increase dwell time during slower sittings.

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Increase consumer spend

Curating the perfect atmosphere for any given time or sitting gives you cover control – influencing diners’ moods and perceptions of the restaurant. A positive and sophisticated environment is proven to drive spending.

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Strengthen brand identity

A positive restaurant experience is a memorable one. Make yours distinctly you, increasing brand distinctiveness with a tailored playlist. Our Studio platform is perfect for multisite operators, boosting brand consistency across estates, so customers know they’re in one of your restaurants as soon as they arrive.

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Keep ’em coming back

Staying top of mind is key in driving repeat custom. Restaurants can make a lasting emotional impression on customers – hosting family celebrations, friendly catch-ups and even romantic meals. So, serve up more than just delicious dishes, with a memorable atmosphere that keeps people coming back for seconds.

Startle is a leading business music service that leans on the principles of behavioural science – and bakes them into our intuitive platform – to give you the confidence that your playlist is more than just background noise.

For example, Expectancy Theory tells us that our expectations of a product or service directly impact how we ultimately enjoy it. So, dishes actually taste better when diners step into an atmosphere they love and that puts them in the mood for a great time.

Restaurant music services.

Multi-million-track music library

More music than you can shake a fork at. Our music library contains every style and genre you could imagine – giving you endless originality within your chosen vibe, or the ability to switch up the atmosphere whenever you need.

Ready to get started? Discover which music could give you the greatest likelihood of success, based on your objectives.

Get jammin’
Maggot Brain coverBreathe cover'64-'95 CoverAn Evening with Silk Sonic CoverGeography CoverThe Reminder Cover
Sneeze coverHard Groove coverCarboot Soul coverRandom Access Memories coverNever Too Much coverCorinne Bailey Rae cover
Demon Days CoverCollage 1 coverMGMT CoverDoo-wops and Hooligans CoverWolfgang Amadeus Phoenix CoverIn Your Honor Cover
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Atmosphere monitoring

Startle's unique atmosphere monitoring tool gives you invaluable insights into how the environment of your restaurant changes over time – and how this impacts sales, footfall and more.

More about atmosphere monitoring

Professional playlists

Enjoy over 100 mood, genre and behaviour-based playlists ready to use in your restaurants. Perfect for an automatically up-to-date, low-maintenance approach. And you even have the flexibility to schedule playlists for your desired days and times, all from your laptop, tablet or our intelligent mobile app.

More about background music
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TV showing restaurant menu

Music sounds great with…

Dynamic digital signage.

Digital signage provides an impactful way to communicate with diners and showcase what’s on offer. Capture attention when your customers are ready to spend, and integrate with background music to create a slick audio-visual experience – tailoring your displays to work perfectly for every time and day of the week.

More about digital signage

That's us in the corner…

Thanks to our best-in-class restaurant music platforms, we work with some of the biggest and best brands in the world – from high-street chains to high-end hideouts and eclectic independents. 

Whether you’re looking to influence dwell time, increase customer spend or boost employee productivity, our team has the expertise to drive your objectives and make your restaurant environments sing.

Restaurants that sound better with Startle

Restaurants sound better with Startle.

Imagine a busy restaurant where the atmosphere is monitored automatically – measuring noise levels and magically adjusting music, displays and lighting responsively, freeing up your team to keep doing what they do best.

We call it music+.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do restaurants decide which music to play?
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What is the role of music in restaurants?
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Do you need a license to play music in a restaurant?
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How loud should music be in a restaurant?
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The support and reactivity they gave throughout the curation process was incredible

From my first interaction with Startle I have been very impressed with the understanding they have of what we're looking for. Creating a 'vibe' or environment within a space is something quite hard to explain but the support and reactivity they gave throughout the curation process was incredible.

Joe Gilbert

Senior Business Development & Operations Project Manager

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Senior Business Development & Operations Project Manager

Startle certainly is the best

Startle is the perfect partner for the design and installation of my audio systems. Their expert engineering teams provide site-specific recommendations that always deliver the most amazing sound quality. They also provide me with a number of bespoke playlists that are constantly refreshed with new and exciting music, which means the service is loved by both my staff and customers. I cannot recommend their services highly enough. Having tried the rest, Startle certainly is the best.

Mike Racz

Owner / Franchisee at Domino's Pizza

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Owner / Franchisee at Domino's Pizza

Proved to be the perfect partner

Startle has proved to be the perfect partner for Pizza Pilgrims, embracing all of our ideas for using music and technology to enhance our pizzerias. Our playlist management has improved massively, but the custom integrations we've been able to build in are the most exciting part. On top of this, the support we receive is super responsive and I know we can rely on the Startle team for quick, 1-to-1 help whenever we need it.

Thom Elliot

Co-founder

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Co-founder
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Heard enough?

Get in touch to start playing your restaurant customers the kind of background music that creates hair-tingling moments.

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