Fact-Checked
Black Friday music in your store needs the same commercial license you use the rest of the year. Personal Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube accounts are not licensed for store playback on any day. Black Friday is one of the busiest times of the retail shopping season, and the right music plan changes between the doorbuster opening and the last hour.
This is the Black Friday part of the seasonal music for business guide, which covers each holiday from Halloween through St. Patrick's Day.
What Tempo Should Your Store Music be on Black Friday?
Tempo is the speed of a song, counted in beats per minute (BPM), and it changes how fast people move through your aisles. In a 1982 supermarket study published in the Journal of Marketing, Ronald Milliman found that slower background music slowed in-store traffic and produced higher sales volume than faster music (Milliman, 1982). Black Friday needs both speeds. Your opening hour needs movement, and your afternoon needs browsing.
A daypart is a block of the day you schedule music for. A Black Friday plan for a small or mid-size store:
- Opening and doorbusters (doors open to about 10 a.m.): Upbeat, familiar songs with a steady beat. You want people moving at the entrance and the registers, and faster music matches that pace.
- Midday peak (about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.): Medium tempo. Milliman’s slower-music effect matters most here, because you want the shopper who grabbed the doorbuster to keep looking.
- Evening (about 4 p.m. to close): Slower and warmer. Treat late shoppers as browsers and give them a reason to stay.
For specific music ideas by store type, see music for retail stores.
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How Loud Should Your Music be During Black Friday Crowds?
Loud music shortens visits. In a study of 1,100 shoppers in two supermarkets, Patricia Smith and Ross Curnow found that customers spent significantly less time in the store during loud-music sessions, with no significant difference in total sales (Journal of Applied Psychology, 1966).
Set your volume with the store full. A level that sounds right with ten people in the store at 7 a.m. disappears under the noon crowd, and the noon level is too loud once the crowd thins after dinner.
A cashier and a customer should be able to talk across the counter at a normal speaking voice, and if either one has to raise it, turn the music down.
When Should You Switch from Regular Music to Holiday Music?
Black Friday is the switch day for most retailers. The Christmas and winter holiday window runs from the day after Thanksgiving through December 26.
Match the music to the rest of the store. In a 2005 mock-store experiment published in the Journal of Business Research, Eric Spangenberg, Bianca Grohmann, and David Sprott found that a Christmas scent raised shoppers’ ratings of the store and its merchandise when Christmas music played, and lowered those ratings when non-Christmas music played (Spangenberg et al., 2005). For you, that means make sure your sound fits your decor and displays. If the trees go up Thanksgiving night, the holiday music should start Black Friday morning.
Don’t flip to an all-holiday playlist at opening. Start Black Friday with your regular catalog plus some upbeat holiday pop, then raise the holiday share through the afternoon and over the weekend.
Contemporary covers and instrumental carols keep the mix from sounding like the same ten standards. If your customers celebrate different holidays, add non-denominational winter music, meaning songs about snow and the season with no religious theme. Read more with our Christmas Music for Business guide.
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How Do You Keep Holiday Tracks from Wearing Out Your Staff?
Your floor team hears the playlist far more often than any shopper does. A 25-song holiday list at about 3.5 minutes per track runs about 88 minutes, so a 12-hour Black Friday shift hears every song more than eight times.
Clinical psychologist Linda Blair told Sky News in 2017 that shop workers have to tune out Christmas music to stay focused, adding, “You’re simply spending all of your energy trying not to hear what you’re hearing” (IBTimes UK, November 2017). That same season, the UK grocer Asda said it would replace Christmas music with other playlists for one hour a day from December 15 and invite staff to pick the songs.
To cut the repetition:
- Use a holiday station or playlist with several hundred tracks so songs don’t repeat inside one shift.
- Ask staff which songs they can’t stand and block them. Licensed business music services let you block specific songs or artists.
- Give the floor a non-holiday hour each day, as Asda did.
How Do You Keep Black Friday Music Consistent Across Store Locations?
Every location should run one schedule that you set centrally. When each manager picks the music, one store plays holiday pop at 6 a.m. while another streams a phone playlist through a Bluetooth speaker, which is off-brand and unlicensed.
Build the schedule in each store’s local time. A retailer with stores in Seattle and Denver opens doorbusters an hour apart, and a schedule built on one time zone starts the evening mix an hour off in the other store. A central dashboard, one login that controls playlists, schedules, and volume for every store, makes this a one-time setup. More on running music for multiple business locations.
Plan for the network, too. A full store puts a heavy load on in-store Wi-Fi. A dedicated music player that stores songs ahead of time keeps playing if the connection drops.
Can You Play Holiday Music from Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube in Your Store?
No. Each service limits its license to personal listening only.
Holiday music needs the same commercial license as the rest of your year. A public performance is any playback that customers or staff can hear, and every popular holiday song belongs to at least one PRO, a performing rights organization that collects fees when songs play in public.
The U.S. has four major PROs: ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR. A licensed background music service pays those fees for songs played through its own player.
Public domain Christmas carols still need a license in practice. The melody and words of an old carol may be free to use, but the recording you play belongs to a label, artist, or arranger.
Copyright law sets statutory damages of $750 to $30,000 per work infringed, and up to $150,000 per work when a court finds the infringement willful (17 U.S.C. § 504(c)). See the fines businesses face for unlicensed music for real cases. To see which licenses your store needs, including a Black Friday DJ, use the Business Music Licensing Checker.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Do I need a separate license to play music on Black Friday?
A: No. Black Friday uses the same license as every other day. The commercial license that covers your store music in June covers it in November, through either a licensed background music service or direct PRO licenses.
Q: Can I play a personal Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube holiday playlist in my store?
A: No. All three limit their terms to personal, noncommercial listening in every season. Playing them for customers or staff is an unlicensed public performance. There is no Spotify for Business, Apple Music for Business or YouTube for Business.
Q: Should my store start holiday music on Black Friday?
A: Yes, for most retailers. Black Friday opens the Christmas and winter holiday window, which runs through December 26. Start with a blend of holiday and regular tracks and raise the holiday share through the weekend.
Q: Is fast music better for Black Friday crowds?
A: Maybe. Faster music suits the doorbuster opening, when you want people moving. Milliman’s supermarket research tied slower music to higher sales, so shift to medium and slower tempos once the opening rush passes.
Q: Does my background music service cover a DJ at my doorbuster event?
A: No. Background music plans cover playback through the provider’s player. A DJ or live act needs public performance licenses from the PROs.
Q: Can each store manager choose their own Black Friday music?
A: Maybe. Managers can make small changes inside a licensed service you approve, such as skipping a track or lowering the volume. A manager who plugs in a personal phone app puts the store outside its license.
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By John Boyle
John is a music for business expert and the founder of MusicforBusinessFinder.com which has been featured on BigIdeasforSmallBusiness.com, Noobpreneur and YFS Magazine. He focuses on helping small business owners navigate the confusing world of commercial music licensing, improve sales, and protect their businesses. By providing clear, independent analysis of top audio platforms, he ensures owners can make informed choices with confidence. He also loves rooting for the Mariners and his daughter’s soccer team.