Back when music-for-business services started, the internet wasn’t really an option. Today, web services power everything from cash registers to thermostats to security cameras. Yet, some businesses are still hesitant to entrust their in-store music to internet delivery. We wonder why. Because not only is a streaming music service for business going to be as reliable as it gets, using a web-connected music player opens up nearly unlimited possibilities for customizing, managing, and maintaining your business music.
1: Data Use Isn’t Really an Issue Anymore
First, let’s quickly dispense with an old reason not to use a streaming music service for business. Continuously downloading music uses too much data. That’s not the case today. In the past, there were certainly times where the bandwidth required for quality music streaming was not ubiquitous (not to mention a time when the internet itself wasn’t). Today’s internet is robust and capable of quality music streaming.
For reference, you could play 40 Custom Channels music streams in the bandwidth needed for one typical YouTube video. And without compromising audio quality. Most businesses these days have access to broadband internet. So, the requirements for a streaming music service for business—usually below 100Kbps—are negligible today.
2: Streaming Music Can Be Continuously Updated and Easily Changed
Some people remember the horror days of music for business. Back then, store employees would be forced to listen to the same cassette of music on repeat, day after day for months at a time. You’d be hard-pressed to find a current music for business service with offerings that bad. Still, there are still some solutions that rely on local music storage; one way or another, local storage means more repetition.
A web-based music service like Custom Channels means the music library can be continuously curated by expert music programmers. It’s easy to make quick changes to your channel that go live in seconds. No more repetition to unnerve your employees. And no more outdated playlists to turn off your customers.
3: Web-Connected Devices Are Controllable From Anywhere, By Anyone (You Want)
One of the benefits of delivering your music through a robust streaming platform is that it also opens up your music player to an unlimited number of remote control options. Custom Channels music players can be controlled through your online dashboard from any computer at any time. That means you and your staff never have to worry about needing to be hands-on with the music player if changes need to be made. Playback volume, on/off scheduling, and more can be controlled from any web browser.
What’s more, web control means that your music player doesn’t have to have physical controls if you don’t want it to. Many of our clients use their dashboard’s password-protected login. That prevents unwanted fiddling with their carefully-crafted music settings from the player itself. No matter how you want to set it up, internet accessibility only offers more options for how to manage your music player.
4: Music Players Don’t Need Big Footprints To Have Big Functionality
Let’s say you do decide to go with a music-for-business service that stores your music locally at your shop. Let’s also say that you want a few different choices of music that you can switch between at any time. Unfortunately, whether it’s with CDs or hard drive space, more storage means a bigger footprint. Bigger in terms of physical size, usually in terms of power, and always in terms of bigger cost.
That’s not true with a streaming music player. All of the magic is done through a robust web platform whether you want one channel or 50 channels. Then you can pick whichever of our small players best fits your space and leave the heavy lifting to us.
5: Player Visibility Enables Robust Monitoring and Troubleshooting Tools
Our web-based platform is realiable. Yet no hardware or software system is immune to problems. The reflex might be to stick with a local-storage solution because it seems like there’s fewer moving parts. However, the unfortunate reality is that local issues need to be fixed locally. When something goes wrong with your local-storage music player, you’ll either need to pay a technician to come take a look or pay for a replacement device. That costs your business money and valuable time during which you won’t have music.
By using our streaming music player you also have Custom Channels robust suite of web-based monitoring tools and support team available. Our systems are so reliable that the majority of our clients never need to call us. But when a client does reach out for assistance, we jump into action. We can remotely perform a high-precision examination of the player’s behavior, immediately providing a diagnosis and suggesting next steps. Often the problem is fixed right then and there on the phone.
In fact, our support calls usually take about ten minutes. In that time more than 80% of issues are already diagnosed and often solved. Even when the underlying issue is out of our hands (like an amplifier problem, a local network conflict, an ISP outage), we can help by drawing on our broad base of support knowledge. Our ability to monitor and examine our streaming music players’ behavior means that when our clients call us with questions, we’ll have answers.
Your Next Move: Power Up Your Business with Music Streaming
Custom Channels has a wide variety of solutions as a streaming music service. Businesses of any size, industry, and customer base can trust our robust music delivery platform. They can trust us to provide music that’s professionally curated, easily customizable, and always reliable. You can always start a free trial. There’s no payment required to hear it for yourself. Join the thousands of businesses that trust Custom Channels to provide the best music for business.