STORES Convention Daily - 2018 Big Show Day 2 - 18

2018 MONDAY

Music
Continued from page 17

both average session time and the number
of sessions per day. As for retention, that's
how frequently people come back after
the initial experience. Revenues speak for
themselves.
Feed.fm clients such as American
Eagle, Charlotte Russe and Toys "R" Us

Emotion is a driver
of loyalty - and
sound is a driver of
emotion.
have run A/B tests with music and without
in their apps and mobile offerings, "and
they have found without question that
when people listen to music in the product,
they stay on longer, they come back more
and they buy more stuff," Yasuda says.
Feed.fm starts with a "curated experience," developed by its in-house team of
music aficionados. It then moves toward
personalization by allowing users to give a
thumbs-up or thumbs-down for each song
played, with those in the negative category
not played again. For Charlotte Russe,
songs are presented in several categories.

"Some clients have a very strong point
of view on music and some do not," Yasuda says. "They'll say, 'You guys are the
experts. This is our target demographic.
Can you give us some ideas?' That's where
we leverage their audience insights -
demographics and psychographics - to
come up with a curation strategy. We then
put it into action and let the user data guide
us on optimization. We can tell right away
what people are loving and what music
they are indifferent to."
Without Feed.fm, Solanki says, Charlotte Russe could never have pulled it off:
Licensing, agreements and other legal
issues would have made the process too
complex. But Feed.fm made it "easy and
seamless," she says.
Understanding how all this data works
could eventually parlay into the bricksand-mortar environment, Yasuda says
- and have a much greater impact than a
store manager or associate at the register
simply playing what they like.

Honest authenticity

For any retailer interested in upping
its music game, there is a central question
that must be addressed: Should the tunes
played already be familiar to the shopper,
or should they be unique?
MoodMixes falls decidedly among
the latter. The company provides music in
a variety of genres - and handles rights

Man Made Music has recording studios large enough to hold 20 string players or entire
brass sections.

and permissions - for retail, restaurant and
other spaces. All of it comes directly from
independent musicians, much from selfreleased albums; 50 percent of revenues are
paid directly to the musicians themselves,
says John Buckman, founder and CEO.
"You can feel the honesty in the music," Buckman says. "It's not canned or formulaic. And because it's not what you hear
on the radio, it's often more memorable."
MoodMixes is owned and operated by
Magnatune, a company Buckman started
in 2003 to help grow the non-major-label

music culture; that company now provides
nearly 22,000 songs from 715 artists to the
MoodMixes catalog.
"There seemed to be only two kinds
of customers for music-for-retail when we
started," Buckman says. "Those that just
wanted a cheap way to have any music, and
those that had an unlimited budget to create
a terrific brand experience and typically go
to a sound consultancy. We wanted to be in
the middle, with strong music to support
the retailer's goals, but at a reasonable,
non-consultant price."

Want to improve your organization's
MOBILE OPERATIONS?

Visit NRF Booth #1783 to learn more
& receive a FREE power bank just for listening.

2018
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