Music for my café

[Jakeneversvile]

Hey everyone,
New here and to the café business.

I own a café and I am having trouble finding the right music consistently. I use the Spotify radio function but I just get the same songs over and over.

Has anyone dealt with the same issue in the past, or has ideas on how to find music easier?

thanks in advance,
Jake

 

[Admin]

You can try Pandora, I think it is a better service if you want to set it on a genre and forget about it. Other than that, putting together your own mix is a good way as well.

 

[Jakeneversvile]

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You can try Pandora, I think it is a better service if you want to set it on a genre and forget about it. Other than that, putting together your own mix is a good way as well.

thank you! I will check that out

 

[John P]

Hey everyone,
New here and to the café business.

I own a café and I am having trouble finding the right music consistently. I use the Spotify radio function but I just get the same songs over and over.

Has anyone dealt with the same issue in the past, or has ideas on how to find music easier?

thanks in advance,
Jake

Note: You can play radio or you can pay for a commercially licensed service. I've used Mood Media formerly Muzak) for 20 years. I pay about $40 per month. I can stream app anywhere + use in store. I have 5 separate 'channels' streaming each at different percentages (not all at 20%). Works great.

You can't use free music services or your own CD's or MP3 files.

ASCAP and BMI don't f*** around. So you can't pretend you are unaware of music rights. It's theft. Fines are heavy and retroactive.

I'm sure you're aware, so this is a PSA for others who read the thread.

 

[Lavarock]

I assume that your issue with the music is from your employees hearing the same songs in the same order. I doubt that the customers are the ones complaining.

There are a couple of ways to address this.

You can use streaming services to randomly play music (such as Amazon and so on). You will probably be limited in selections unless you pay.

There are some streams on Youtube which last many hours at a time, but they will be in a specific order every time you play them. Stream them directly from Youtube or download them with a browser addon like Easy Youtube Downloader.

There are devices (laptop, desktop, Raspberry Pi, etc) which will allow you to have MPs's or similar either on a disk or on an memory stick and will play the songs in a random order.

I played with a windows software program called MIXX which is free DJ software. You can tell it to play songs at random AND in your case, schedule promos or 'commercials' which will play inbetween the music. It would sound like a radio station, but with your branding. Those promos could be specials or perhaps just announce the WIFI password periodically. The devices mentioned above and this isde woudl take a bit of technology and perhaps a tech guy to refine it, but offer a number of solutions.

If you have individual songs and want them in a particular oredr the free Audacity will let you record audio or join audio files together.

 

[Musicphan]

John is 100% correct... you need to use a licenses music service... its not fun to find out later when BMI sends you a letter... they aren't nice.

 

[John P]

I assume that your issue with the music is from your employees hearing the same songs in the same order. I doubt that the customers are the ones complaining.

There are a couple of ways to address this.

You can use streaming services to randomly play music (such as Amazon and so on). You will probably be limited in selections unless you pay.

There are some streams on Youtube which last many hours at a time, but they will be in a specific order every time you play them. Stream them directly from Youtube or download them with a browser addon like Easy Youtube Downloader.

There are devices (laptop, desktop, Raspberry Pi, etc) which will allow you to have MPs's or similar either on a disk or on an memory stick and will play the songs in a random order.

I played with a windows software program called MIXX which is free DJ software. You can tell it to play songs at random AND in your case, schedule promos or 'commercials' which will play inbetween the music. It would sound like a radio station, but with your branding. Those promos could be specials or perhaps just announce the WIFI password periodically. The devices mentioned above and this isde woudl take a bit of technology and perhaps a tech guy to refine it, but offer a number of solutions.

If you have individual songs and want them in a particular oredr the free Audacity will let you record audio or join audio files together.

Streaming from Amazon or Youtube in a commercial environment is no different than bringing in your own CD's or having 5,000 mp3 you've downloaded and are playing.

Both are illegal. (and unethical)

Hopefully you are not doing what you suggest. It's theft, weird that you'd suggest it, and it's not credible that you are so uninformed that you really didn't know (really??).

And yes, if someone was doing that, they would be liable for all months they illegally played music without paying for commercial rights to do so.

It would be a good idea for such a person to stop doing that ( if they are).

Happy Brewing!

John