Hospitality Consultancy
Music consultancy for
hotels & hospitality groups.
A full-service hotel is six to eight acoustic situations, and most run one playlist across all of them. I design what each zone sounds like, hour by hour, and write it down as rules your properties can follow without calling me back. Delivered remotely, worldwide.
Kono Vidovic behind the decks and advising venues
konovidovic.com
Acoustic zones in a typical full-service property, each briefed separately
Kono Vidovic practice
Milliman's restaurant study in the Journal of Consumer Research found tempo changed how long patrons stayed
J. Consumer Research 13:286-289
Consultancy, guidelines and music all delivered without a site visit
Worldwide
One playlist cannot run a hotel.
A guest walks from the lobby into the bar, through the restaurant and past the spa in under two minutes. If those four rooms share one feed at one volume, three of them are wrong, and the one that is right is right by accident.
For a group the problem compounds. Each property ends up with a soundtrack chosen by whoever was on duty when someone complained, which means the brand sounds like twelve different businesses. The fix is not a single playlist pushed to every site. It is a written standard with enough latitude that a beach property and a city property can both work inside it.
I have been programming commercial spaces for 34 years. What I deliver is not a playlist. It is the document behind one.
Every zone is a different room
Each of these needs its own brief. Not always its own playlist, but always its own thinking.
Lobby
First impression, and the only zone every guest passes through
Runs all day, so it needs the widest dynamic range and the most restraint
Bar
Holds guests in the room and lifts across the evening
The one zone with a real energy arc from early doors to last orders
Restaurant
Sits under conversation and service
Changes between breakfast, lunch and dinner. Most properties use one feed for all three
Spa
Slows heart rate and signals privacy
The zone where the wrong track is noticed fastest
Gym
Supports effort without dictating it
Needs its own tempo logic entirely, often on a separate system
Corridors and lifts
Continuity between the zones that matter
Usually forgotten, and the gap is audible when you walk it
Managing music across multiple properties
The question I am asked most often by groups is how to stay recognisable without making every lobby identical. The answer is a standard with fixed rules and local latitude, rather than a single feed pushed everywhere.
Fixed at group level: the genre palette, the tempo bands per zone, volume by daypart, the refresh cadence, and who may change anything. Left to the property: which tracks inside that palette suit their city, their season and their actual guests.
What a group standard fixes
- ✓Genre palette, with named exclusions
- ✓Tempo band per zone, per daypart
- ✓Volume as a number, not a feeling
- ✓Approved sources, with consumer accounts locked out
- ✓Refresh cadence and who signs off
- ✓A named owner per property
How we work together
Five steps, ending in a document rather than a playlist. A playlist without rules decays the moment the person who made it moves on.
Positioning and audit
I read the brand standards, then listen to the property at the hours it actually trades. The gap between the two is the brief.
Zone map
Which zones carry sound, which are deliberately quiet, and where one feed is currently doing the work of four.
Sonic territory
Genre palette, tempo bands and production texture, written as rules a third party can follow without calling me.
Build and test
The music itself, played in the space at real volume at opening, peak and close before anything is signed off.
Guidelines and rollout
The document: approved sources, banned genres, volume by daypart, refresh cadence, sign-off. For a group, the standard every property works inside.
What it costs
Consultancy is quoted per project, because a boutique property and a twelve-property group are different work. The productised part is published rather than hidden behind a form.
| Deliverable | Price | Unit | Qualifier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom mix, 60 minutes | EUR 249 | Per mix | Delivered in 7 days from an approved brief |
| Custom mix, 90 minutes | EUR 349 | Per mix | Excludes VAT where applicable |
| Custom mix, 120 minutes | EUR 449 | Per mix | Excludes VAT where applicable |
| Single-property consultancy | Request a quote | Per project | Scope depends on zone count |
| Multi-property group standard | Request a quote | Per project | Scope depends on property count and rollout |
| Public performance licence | Set by your collecting society | Per premises, per year | Not sold by me, arranged by you |
Your licence stays yours
A consultancy designs what you play and supplies the music. It is a music source, not a licence, and I state that plainly because suppliers in this field routinely blur it.
Every property still needs its own public performance licence, in every country it operates in. In the Netherlands that is a combined Buma/Stemra and Sena licence via mijnlicentie.nl. In the UK it is TheMusicLicence from PPL PRS. In Germany you need both GEMA and GVL. In the United States there is no joint venture, so ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR are separate.
For a group operating across borders this is a per-country obligation rather than a single contract, and it belongs in the rollout plan from the start rather than at the end.
Common questions
What is hotel music consultancy?
Hotel music consultancy is the design of what a property sounds like, zone by zone and hour by hour, documented as written rules rather than delivered as a playlist. It covers the lobby, bar, restaurant, spa, gym and corridors separately, because each is a different room doing a different job, and it ends in a guidelines document the property can follow without calling the consultant back.
How do you manage music across multiple hotel properties?
With one written standard and local latitude inside it. The group fixes the genre palette, tempo bands per zone, volume by daypart and who may change anything. Each property then works within those rules rather than inventing its own soundtrack. That is what keeps a group recognisable without making every lobby identical, and it is the difference between a brand standard and a single playlist pushed to every site.
How many music zones does a hotel need?
Most full-service properties have six to eight acoustic situations: lobby, bar, restaurant, spa, gym, corridors, meeting floors and often a terrace. They need separate briefs rather than separate playlists in every case, but one feed at one volume across all of them serves none of them well.
Can you work with a hotel group remotely?
Yes. The consultancy, the guidelines document and the music itself are all delivered remotely, which is how most international work runs. A site visit sharpens the result and is worth it for a flagship or a launch, but it is not a requirement, and for a multi-property rollout it is usually one or two properties rather than all of them.
Does a music consultancy include our music licence?
No. A consultancy designs what you play and supplies the music. Your property still needs its own public performance licence from the collecting societies in each country it operates in: Buma/Stemra and Sena in the Netherlands, TheMusicLicence in the UK, GEMA and GVL in Germany, and separate ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and GMR licences in the United States. Any supplier suggesting their service covers your compliance is telling you something untrue.
What does hotel music consultancy cost?
Consultancy is quoted per project, because a single boutique property and a twelve-property group are different pieces of work. The productised part is published: a custom mix is EUR 249 for 60 minutes, EUR 349 for 90 and EUR 449 for 120, delivered in 7 days from an approved brief.
Related reading
If you want the thinking rather than the service, my guide to music in hotels covers what to play zone by zone, sonic branding explains the discipline behind it, and music strategy consulting is the same work for brands outside hospitality.
What does your lobby sound like at 07:00?
That is where I start. Tell me about the property, or the group, and I will tell you honestly what it needs.
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