Most business owners obsess over products, service and interiors. Tim Hull, Head of Growth at Audalize, explains why atmosphere may be the most overlooked commercial tool of all – and why Sheffield's businesses deserve better than a hastily compiled Spotify playlist and a Bluetooth speaker.
For readers who may not have come across Audalize before, what does the business do?
We’re an all-in-one venue atmosphere platform: music, digital signage, audio-visual ads, digital jukebox, at-table ordering – everything that shapes how a space feels, managed in one place. The belief at the heart of it is simple: sound and visuals are not background noise, they are the feeling your guests and customers carry home with them. Most businesses leave that entirely to chance. We give operators the tools to make it deliberate.
We started in Australia in 2019, built the model across 1000+ venues, and we are now properly establishing ourselves in the UK. Sheffield is our base and we are growing out from here, working with hospitality groups, hotels, retailers, fitness and wellness operators, and corporate spaces – anyone who understands that how a space feels is as important as how it looks.
Why should atmosphere serve as a business priority rather than being an afterthought?
Because people feel it before they have consciously registered anything else. You can invest heavily in a fit-out, a product range, or a brand identity, and completely undermine it within 30 seconds of someone walking through the door. Wrong music, wrong energy, wrong feeling – and that investment starts working against you.
What I find fascinating, and slightly maddening, is that most operators already know this intuitively. Ask any experienced business owner whether atmosphere matters and they will tell you of course it does. But then ask them what their music strategy is and you will get a pause. Because for a long time there simply was not a practical way to do it properly. You either handed it to whoever happened to be around, or you left Spotify running and hoped for the best. Neither of those is a strategy.
The data is clear on what is at stake. Dwell time, spend per head, return visits, customer conversion – all of it moves when the atmosphere is right. It is not a soft metric. It is a commercial one.
You mentioned Spotify. How widespread is the issue of businesses using consumer platforms without the right licensing?
It is the norm rather than the exception. The vast majority of venues and businesses I speak to are running a personal Spotify or Apple Music subscription through a tablet or a Bluetooth speaker and have no idea that sits outside their licensing. I want to be clear: it is not deliberate. These are brilliant consumer products and people use what they know.
The point we care about is this: the royalties that should be reaching the artists and rights holders behind the music simply never arrive when it is played this way. We work with labels including Universal Music, Warner, Sony and Virgin, and that relationship only exists because we take compliance seriously. It matters to us that the people creating the music that shapes your space are properly paid for it. That is not a technicality. It is just the right thing to do.
What are the most common mistakes you see businesses making around atmosphere?
Three things, consistently. The first is treating it as a day-one decision that never gets revisited. The music gets set up when the business opens, the person who chose it moves on 18 months later, and nobody quite knows what is playing or why.
The second is handing control to whoever happens to be nearby. I walked into a venue recently on a Tuesday lunchtime, families in for lunch, and I Predict a Riot was playing at full volume. Great song. Genuinely wrong moment. No experienced DJ would ever make that call, but nobody was thinking about it.
The third is assuming consistency when actually every site in a group has quietly drifted in its own direction. Brand identity erodes one playlist at a time and most operators do not notice until the damage is done. These are not catastrophic failures. They are quiet ones. But across a business, the compound effect is very real.
Who benefits most from Audalize?
The businesses that feel the value most immediately are those where consistency matters across multiple locations – hospitality groups, hotel brands, retail chains, gym operators, corporate office estates. Anyone where a head office is trying to hold brand standards without micromanaging every site. Ten venues or spaces each doing their own thing on music is 10 quiet inconsistencies happening at once.
But the common thread is not the sector or the scale. It is whether the operator believes atmosphere is part of their product or just something that happens in the background. A boutique hotel, an independent gym, a coffee shop on the high street, a corporate reception – all of them create a feeling the moment someone walks in. The ones who want to control that feeling are the ones we work with.
What trends are you seeing across different sectors at the moment?
Operators across the board are getting more intentional about the total experience. The conversation has genuinely shifted. A few years ago, you would be explaining why atmosphere mattered. Now the question is how to get it right.
In hospitality and retail, people are investing in experience as seriously as they invest in product and service, because they have to. In fitness and wellness, the right soundtrack is part of the offering itself. In corporate and hotel environments, atmosphere is increasingly understood as part of brand. What links all of it is a move from reactive to intentional. The businesses doing it well are treating atmosphere as a system, something designed and held in place, rather than something left to personality and habit.
What is the one thing you would want a local business owner to take away?
That atmosphere is already doing something in your space right now. The only question is whether it is doing what you want.
Sound and visuals are not background. They are the feeling people carry home, the reason they come back, the thing that makes a space feel worth being in. Great businesses do not leave that to chance. And the good news is that getting it right does not have to be complicated. It just has to be deliberate. That is exactly what we are built to help with.
For more information about how Audalize can help create the right soundtrack for your venue, contact Tim Hull at tim.hull@audalize.com to discuss your requirements and arrange a consultation.
"We’ve loved working with Audalize this year to shape the atmosphere at Builder's Brew LEGO Cafe. Their dynamic playlists shift based on the time of day, so the music always fits the vibe. Audalize’s technology gives us the peace of mind that our music identity will stay consistent across both spaces."
James & Laura, owners of Builder's Brew Cafe
WHY GO WITH AUDALIZE?
REAL HUMANS. NOT ALGORITHMS.
Every soundtrack is curated by expert DJs and music curators who understand your brand, your audience, and the difference between a quiet Tuesday lunch and a Friday night.
WHAT DO YOU WANT YOUR CUSTOMERS TO FEEL?
Not the decor. Not the menu. The feeling. That invisible thing that makes a guest stay another round or leave early. Audalize engineers that.
WE BRIEF BEFORE A SINGLE TRACK PLAYS.
Every partnership starts with understanding your brand, your dayparting and your audience. The schedules we build reflect your venue, not a generic playlist.
COMMERCIALLY LICENSED. NO GREY AREAS.
Fully licensed for commercial use across labels including Warner, Sony, Virgin and Universal. Artists get paid. You have nothing to worry about.
IT'S GROWING.
Currently working in 1000+ venues in Australia, Audalize is now also based in Sheffield and growing across the UK.
