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A curated background music service for fine dining, bistros, casual restaurants, wine bars and hotel restaurants. Built for operators who know that the music in the room is not background decoration but an operational tool that shapes dwell time, pace of service and average ticket across every shift.
From £12.99$16.99€14.99 per month.
Billed in GBP.Billed in USD.Billed in EUR. Seven-day free trial. No credit card required.
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A restaurant is one of the most studied commercial environments in music marketing research, and the results of that research are consistent across decades. Tempo, genre and volume of background music measurably affect how long customers stay, how much they order, and how they remember the experience afterwards.
The foundational work in this field is Milliman 1986 study on restaurant music, which demonstrated that slow-tempo background music lengthened the average meal by about 11 minutes and increased bar revenue per table, while fast-tempo music shortened meals and increased table turnover. In the forty years since, a substantial body of follow-up research has expanded those findings to cover genre effects on perceived service quality, volume effects on food palatability ratings, and the interaction between music and wine pairing in fine dining contexts. The research is unambiguous on one point: the music in a restaurant is not a neutral backdrop, it is an active variable in the operation of the room.
Most restaurants treat it like a backdrop anyway. At lunch, silence or a generic commercial radio station with advertising between tracks. At dinner service, a playlist the head of the floor staff compiled from a personal streaming account three years ago, looping the same sequence regardless of whether it is a Tuesday or a Saturday, 7pm or 10pm. At late service, no adaptation. The room that has been designed down to the thread count of the napkins sounds like an afterthought. A well-designed sonic environment does the opposite: it modulates through the service, it supports the pace of the kitchen, and it gives the dining room a coherent identity that guests remember.
From the moment the first guest crosses the threshold to the moment the last table leaves, a restaurant service has five distinct sonic touchpoints. Each has its own role, its own mood, its own operational logic.
The first 30 seconds. The guest has stepped out of the street, possibly from a walk, possibly from a drive, and entered the room. The music here carries the first impression of the restaurant identity: fine dining or casual, Italian or global, contemporary or classic. A silence at this moment feels cold; a jarring genre mismatch shapes the rest of the evening unconsciously.
Role: welcome, signal positioning.The guest is at the table, opening the menu, making decisions. The music here needs to support focus without dominating conversation. Volume and tempo matter more than genre: too loud and the table becomes tense, too fast and the decision is rushed. This is often the moment most underestimated in restaurant audio design.
Role: support conversation and menu decision.The longest and most critical touchpoint. Depending on restaurant category, it lasts 45 minutes at a brasserie, 90 minutes at a bistrot, 2-3 hours at fine dining. The music here needs to hold the room at a steady mood without becoming wallpaper. Tempo and style adapt to the operational goal of the service: slower for dinner to extend dwell time and increase ancillary spend, faster for lunch to move covers.
Role: sustain dining rhythm, align with service style.Aperitif, after-dinner drinks, late-night wine service. The mood shifts: the dining room was about the meal, the bar is about the moment. The music here can step forward more assertively, becoming part of the atmosphere rather than backdrop. For restaurants with an active late bar, this touchpoint is where ancillary revenue is made, and the music is directly part of that equation.
Role: extend dwell time, drive ancillary spend.The final impression. The guest is paying the bill, saying goodbye to the staff, walking toward the door. The last 90 seconds of a restaurant visit are disproportionately strong drivers of the guest willingness to return and to recommend the venue. A warm, coherent sonic close leaves a lasting impression that matches the quality of the meal.
Role: positive closure, return-visit intention.There is a useful parallel between a restaurant service and a radio programme. Both unfold over time with a clear beginning, middle and end. Both modulate energy through the experience. Both succeed or fail on the quality of the editorial craft behind them.
The five curated stations are editorially supervised by Emanuele Carocci, a radio broadcaster with over 20 years of professional on-air experience. He works as a host on national commercial radio and leads the music curation team at My Corporate Radio.
His perspective on restaurant audio comes from the discipline of building radio programmes with a narrative arc: opening, development, peak moments, closing. A restaurant service has exactly the same structure. The welcome is the opening. The main service is the development. The bar and late service are the peak. The departure is the closing. The craft of pacing a two-hour radio programme and the craft of pacing a two-hour dinner service are, in their essentials, the same craft.
The difference compared to algorithmic playlists from consumer services like Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube Music is substantial: every track is selected to work as commercial background in a dining context, with coherent dynamics, curated transitions and a consistent mood that supports rather than distracts from the meal.
A comparison of the two main models available for restaurants that want legal background music: consumer streaming used improperly versus a directly licensed commercial catalogue.
| Feature | Consumer streaming (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube) | My Corporate Radio |
|---|---|---|
| Legal for commercial use | No. Terms of service forbid commercial use. | Yes. Direct license included. |
| PRO fees on catalogue | Separate ASCAP / BMI / PRS / SIAE / SACEM fees required. | None on the MCR catalogue. |
| Curation | Algorithmic playlists. | Curated by a 20-year radio professional. |
| Advertising | Ads between tracks on free plans. | Zero ads, ever. |
| License certificate | Not provided. | Issued in the restaurant name. |
| True annual cost | Spotify £132/yr + PRS+PPL £300-600/yr = £432-732/yrSpotify $155/yr + ASCAP+BMI+SESAC $350-800/yr = $505-955/yrSpotify €143/yr + SIAE/GEMA/SACEM €250-700/yr = €393-843/yr | £156/yr$204/yr€180/yr — all included |
My Corporate Radio operates as a direct licensor of original AI-crafted music under EU Directive 2014/26/EU and in transparency with EU Regulation 2024/1689. Comparison is intended to illustrate the differences between consumer streaming (not legally usable in commercial venues) and a directly licensed catalogue. Performing rights organisations such as ASCAP, BMI, PRS for Music, PPL, GEMA, SACEM, SIAE and SCF remain the reference for their own repertoires, which are outside the scope of this catalogue.
A restaurant is one of the most studied commercial environments in music marketing research. Since the foundational work of Milliman in 1986, studies have consistently shown that tempo, genre and volume of background music measurably affect dwell time at the table, pace of eating, average spend per head on food and drink, and perceived quality of the dining experience.
Yes. The catalogue is proprietary and licensed directly by My Corporate Radio under EU Directive 2014/26/EU. No PRS, PPL, GEMA, SACEM, ASCAP, BMI, SESAC or SoundExchange fee applies to this specific catalogue, because My Corporate Radio is the rightsholder and the licensor. Every customer receives a written direct license certificate in the restaurant name.
£12.99 per month, billed in GBP. Customers in the US pay $16.99, customers in the EU pay €14.99.$16.99 per month, billed in USD. Customers in the UK pay £12.99, customers in the EU pay €14.99.€14.99 per month, billed in EUR. Customers in the UK pay £12.99, customers in the US pay $16.99. Seven-day free trial, no credit card required. Cancel anytime.
No. The terms of service of Spotify Free, Spotify Premium, Spotify Family, Apple Music, YouTube Premium and Amazon Music explicitly restrict usage to personal and domestic use and prohibit public or commercial broadcasting. A restaurant dining room, bar and terrace are all commercial environments open to the public.
Yes, and this is one of the best-documented effects in retail music research. Milliman 1986 study showed that slow-tempo music lengthened the average meal by about 11 minutes and increased bar revenue per table, while fast-tempo music shortened meals and increased table turnover. A restaurant can use these effects strategically depending on the service type.
Yes. Each zone has its own mood and operational rhythm. A single subscription supports multi-zone management for restaurant, bar, terrace, private dining room and any other space. The atmosphere adapts to the moment.
The five stations are curated by Emanuele Carocci, a radio broadcaster with over 20 years of professional on-air experience on national commercial radio. He leads the music curation team at My Corporate Radio.
Yes. No contract, no commitment. Cancel with one click from the link in the confirmation email.
Related guides from the My Corporate Radio editorial catalogue on commercial audio branding across different venue categories.
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