8 Outstanding Ways to Use Playlists with Your Business
Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, Oh My!
Whether we’re talking about SoundCloud, Spotify, Pandora, or YouTube — audio or visual — playlists are my secret weapon in my business. I use them ALL the time. Here are my top methods grouped into three of my favorite main usages: Ambience, Education, and Collaboration. Maybe you’ll get a few stellar ideas from this list too!
Ambience — Create The Mood
This one is the obvious go-to usage for playlists, especially music playlists. Creating an atmosphere that promotes the experience you want your customers to have is such a powerful tool. There’s a reason malls across America use playlists filled with easily accessible music — they’re promoting a culture of easily accessible products. Think about it. Going shopping with experimental noise grunge for background music doesn’t always make you want to whip your credit card out… That is, unless you’re a regular customer of Hot Topic.
I encourage you to take a minute to think about the emotional landscape you want to usher your clients into.
- Workshops and Events — Before and after a business event is a perfect way to use playlists. By subtly or overtly promoting a desired vibe for your event, your customers will be more likely to be in a perfect frame of mind! (Be ethical about it though, come on. No one like to feel manipulated.)
- Landing Pages — Why take your customers to a plain old “Thank You” page?! Put a killer dance party in it too! Or if you’re in the business of before/afters, provide them with a little extra motivation by dropping in a playlist of YouTube videos featuring all your previous clients’ successes!
- Online Courses — Some of my favorite online courses use YouTube music videos to make hilarious (and very effective) points. If you’re a business coach teaching your clients how to create products from their customer’s requests, then your online course is begging for a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
- Extra Pizazz— Providing your clients with a surprise playlist for their personal use is a perfect way to to go above and beyond the excellence they expect from your business. For instance, Suzanne Yada of Signal Boost Collective suggests: “If your customers are athletes, a running playlist is awesome.”
“When you use other people’s property, you need to ask permission” — ASCAP
Seriously. If your business is the type to use playlists for ambience, don’t be a jerk. Ask permission before plugging in. An easy way to get a business license for playing music is via Spotify’s Business account. It’s $35/month, which is a lot cheaper than a lawsuit. If you still have questions about why this is necessary, read all about it here.
Education — Point to the Knowledge
Even if it’s just the FAQ section of your website, many businesses out there are education oriented. Playlists are a fantastic method to communicate an idea or technique with your customers!
- Gathering Experts — Let’s be honest. There’s a lot of garbage out there, which is why collecting a playlist of all “The Greats” is a wonderful way to care for your clients or students. Not only will this make things easier to reference when you’re with students, but it’ll also help them find other experts (approved by you) to learn from.
- Display Examples — I’ve been known to collect a playlist or two for my students: playlists filled with examples of what not to do, and what to definitely do. This might apply to teaching your students a specific technique, how to approach public speaking, or how to use your product. Sharing with your students (in a respectful and appropriate manner) all the potential faux pas and oops-moments can really help their learning acquisition.
- Save Your Breath — Quit sounding like a broken record. I’ve had a few students before who needed me to repeat myself all. the. time. This is fine. In fact, some (aka most) folks need repetition in order to learn something. But not every teacher or coach has the patience nor the vocal power to sound like a broken record. Create a playlist! Record yourself (video or audio) saying “the thing,” put it on YouTube or in Dropbox and email them the link! Boom.
Collaboration — Connect with the People
Every business is about people. Even if you’re in the robot biz, your business is still about people. Connecting with those people is crucial to the success of your business.
- Build Community — Spotify has this awesome new feature to build collaborative playlists. I love it and it’s a great way to encourage your entire client base to interact, support, and encourage each other.
- Understand Your Customers — Assigning your customers or clients with the task of creating their own playlist around a certain subject, emotion, or pursuit will tell you SO much about who they are and where they are in their customer journey. I’ve been known to plan an entire client’s curriculum around their first playlist they gave me at our first meeting. Doing this was the best thing I could’ve done for that client, because they got a completely unique-to-them approach and delivery.
Here are some suggestions from other business owners like you…
“I take the ideas that I want students to reinforce the most, turn them into videos, and group them into YouTube playlists that kids and parents can use at home to make the most of their practice time. Subscribers get to stay engaged with our studio throughout the week as they see what the other kids and me are all working on. Here’s one of the playlists!” (Neil Fong Gilfillan of Chili Dog Strings)
For me, since I also am a musician, I’ve included playlists for moods and situations I think my fans will enjoy, and I put my own songs on them. I also do a bit of brand alignment, so if I think people who like Tori Amos will like my music, I’ll make a playlist of artists big and small that I think will work… It solves a problem for them, I get traffic on my site, I can then retarget them through Facebook for my music. Win, win, win. Here’s an example of just that.
Biggest advice to brands who want to start using playlists in their outreach: find a problem your customer wants to solve with just the right music. If your customers are athletes, a running playlist is awesome. If you’re a B2B, perhaps a playlist that will make board meetings more epic (so basically the Game of Thrones soundtrack). Or a relaxing playlist for when your customers are the most stressed.
DO be careful that you are not making a playlist so that another business can play in the background for your customers. That music needs to be licensed properly through ASCAP or BMI if you are playing music in a public setting. You can’t just put on a Spotify playlist for your customers without the licensing, especially if you’re a place of business. (Suzanne Yada of Signal Boost Collective)
I put together a YouTube playlist of medleys during my “melody vs medley” month. [My students] loved getting to choose from my piano medley playlist (Disney, favorite pop artists, Star Wars, movie soundtracks, etc.) and hear their favorite songs played in a new way as we learned about melodies and medleys. (Dana Parker of thepianoparlor.com)
How do YOU use playlists in your business?
Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
Emily Ann Peterson is a singer-songwriter, teaching artist, marketing consultant, and creative entrepreneur. Her podcast, Bare Naked Bravery, features conversations with everyday heroes about the quiet successes and loud failures required to do the brave things for which we know and love them.
Peterson’s mission is inspire a global resonance and magnanimous community through the marriage of art and whole-person development.
She is available here: www.emilyannpeterson.com
