RETAIL AND THE POWER OF SOUND
Why music & sound are your best allies to score more shoppers, more often and get them spending more money.
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Increased marketing ROI and more sales. Sounds good?
Music & sound not only can make your ads more noticeable, but also more memorable, likable and buzzworthy. Audio can move people around stores faster, or slower, have them spending more, and even improve their preconceptions of quality. In short, more shoppers come more often and for longer, when exposed to the right soundtrack.
For e-retailers and digital-first businesses, the same applies. Music & sound does more than enrich the online experience, it leads to direct and measurable uplifts in ROI.
For over 20 years, MassiveMusic has helped retailers, e-retailers and quick-service restaurants harness the power of music & sound. We’ve made music with A brands such as Selfridges, McDonald's, eBay, O2, Kaufland, and Nespresso. Our Global CEO even wrote a paper on this.
The right sound can increase in-store spend by 9.1%
Sound can drive your brand’s physical-to-digital transformation
Sound improves the effectiveness of your ads between 20-30%
Brands That Trust Us









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How MassiveMusic will solve your REtail challenges
Sound can increase in-store spend by 9.1%
Research, including our own, shows that strategically curated music can influence consumers directly. Be it their preferences, behaviour and/or perceptions, the right music puts visitors in the right mood to spend more money and time on-premise. In addition, music & sound can drive the attention of buyers to specific areas, products or in-store consumer activations.
Sound can drive your brand’s physical-to-digital transformation
As more shoppers shift online, retailers need to explore how to best connect with customers who can’t touch, taste or smell the products they’re buying. Music content, sonic branding and distinct UX/UI sounds present an opportunity to create multi-sensorial digital experiences, enhancing your e-commerce journey and connecting better with customers in the absence of physical interaction.
Sound improves the effectiveness of your ads between 20-30%
Sonic branding amplifies the marketing impact of all your advertising, boosting the reach, memorability and helping your brand stay top of mind in relevant buying situations. Research by WARC and the Goldsmiths University shows how adding music to an ad increases brand affinity by around 11%, and that the earned media arising from John Lewis' music-driven Christmas campaigns increases campaign impact by 75%. It's not surprising that the IPA Databank shows that TV ads featuring music prominently are 20-30% more effective than ads that don't.
Our Services
- Sonic Branding
- In-Store Music Curation
- Music for Ads & Content
- Brand Music Library
- Voice & Sound Design
- TikTok Music Strategy
Our Retail Work

From overarching musical concept research, workshop sessions and an understanding of the Nespresso brand, MassiveMusic distilled 3x concept playlists: Morning, Afternoon, Evening. These playlists are live at all global Nespresso boutiques with the purpose of successfully enhancing the brand’s identity, consumer experience and in-store dwell time.
A partner for 5+ years, we curate and update the playlists at the start of each quarter. These are live across 700 boutiques globally with recently releases music based on the brief for each.
Results
Nespresso has grown from 15,6 bn CHF in 2016 to 84,3 bn CHF in 2020 worldwide. (Nespresso boutiques accounting for +/- 30%).
Nespresso
In-Store Music Curation

Nike came to us with “We need music for our mini documentary about the Nike Air Max BW sneaker, the doc will show the lasting footprint this shoe has had on modern culture". It goes without saying: when a brand is so iconic, the music has to be iconic too.
So what did we do? We put together a team of composers and producers to capture the different sounds of music subcultures and translated the request into a one-of-a-kind yet cohesive soundtrack, tapped into nostalgic 90s tracks (made by yours truly).
The documentary can only be watched in the Nike SNKRS app. A great example on how music can elevate an e-commerce experience while building brand equity.
Nike
Music Production & Composition

For German hypermarket chain Kaufland, we were asked to create an authentic girl-power rap track to reach Gen-Z target groups with a bold and modern concept.
We needed to sell the concept of the ‘professional cheap queen’ without the music being juvenile or tongue-in-cheek. So with Hamburg-based rap collective VibeKingz, we created a killer rap anthem with elements from 90s/00s hip-hop and making it sound fresh and modern.
The result is a bangin’ music production for a sparkling campaign where the champagne flows freely and the bargains are too good to be true (yet, still true). What we wanted to convey through music is the feeling of finally being able to afford everything that fires the imagination of the customer.
Kaufland
Music Production & Composition

MassiveMusic was tasked with curating playlists for all Selfridges stores in the UK. This meant 79 different zones of music from women’s lingerie to children’s toys, each with their own unique curation playlist. Each zone's demographic was researched and analysed, to get their heads nodding and keep them browsing longer.
Playlists were refreshed every 2 months to avoid fatiguing customers (and staff), and the dozens of different playlists were all centrally curated, controlled and deployed by MassiveMusic.
Results
Growing from 810 million GBP in 2019 to 853 million GBP in 2020.
Selfridges
In-Store Music Curation

MassiveMusic was asked by O2 to transfer the O2 sonic branding into their retail stores. We made sure that the sonic identity was subtly implemented into the store playlist and guaranteed the curated playlist was brand right while stimulating the consumers buying behaviour. Transition sounds help provide a sonic thread throughout O2 stores and build further recognition of the sonic brand.
The transition sounds are played in between playlist tracks, every hour as well as during store announcements. MassiveMusic worked with Play Network and O2 to create transition sounds that work with different playlist moods, styles, energy levels, yet all feel consistent and recognisable as O2.
o2
Sonic Branding, In-Store Music

This close ongoing partnership has created a comprehensive package of audio assets building on the historic ‘Fresh Food People’ melody, that includes all brand music, seasonal specials, weekly Fresh Market Updates and in-store music.
Having a very close working relationship with M&C/Greenhouse means we are often involved well before the films go into production. This could mean adaptations of the existing brand music library, composing new bespoke music, or re-recording/arranging existing well-known songs.
Although there is a wide variety of music options used by the brand, they all feel part of the Woolworths sonic family.
Woolworths
Sonic Branding, Brand Music Library, In-Store Music

Get our Whitepaper on Sonic Branding
Want to know the all ins and outs about the marketing power of sound? Fill in this form to receive Sound Advice, MassiveMusic's latest whitepaper on all things Sonic Branding. It includes a step-by-step explanation of sonic strategies and tactics, illustrated with case studies from renowned brands such as Colgate-Palmolive, Philips and O2.
About MassiveMusic
We are MassiveMusic, the agency of record for some of the most famous brands in the world. As a trusted partner, we deliver everything a brand needs in the field of music, voice, and sound. Impactful strategies, sonic brand identities, and best-in-class compositions – we create this and much more thanks to our fervent passion for music combined with craftsmanship and scientific research.
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Perhaps it’s time to level up your business with a distinctive sonic strategy too? Let's hop on a call and kick-off your sonic branding today.