There are
many areas in QVM, certainly in the Upper Market, where you can hear strains
of music throughout the day. In some places there is a real competition going
on between traders and we thought it might be interesting to examine some
recent studies about music and its impact on the workplace. Some of this will
be relevant to a selling place like QVM.
Our source
is an article on Business Insider and it refers to a number of music influences
including a study that showed that the sounds of nature can be very relaxing
and help focus on the task at hand. That may be more suitable for channelling through
your headphones while working through the mind numbing process of stall set ups
rather than attracting customers to your stall although if you are selling
relaxation therapies then who knows?
Another
study done in Taiwan suggested that music you don’t really care about is
probably best. Music you really like or intensely dislike may distract you.
Just a word of warning here – if you are playing music out loud you never
really know if your next potential customer really likes or intensely dislikes
what you are playing.
One study
suggested that songs with words were too distracting because you are trying to
figure out what is being said and what it means. There are some genres of music that
certainly do that.
Some
Canadian researchers found that participants in an IQ test performed better
with up-tempo music. Some years ago there was research that suggested that
supermarkets benefited by playing slower music that encouraged shoppers to
dwell in aisles (and presumably buy more).
Finally, an
interesting study at a number of US and Canadian universities found that
moderate noise levels are good for creative thinking while high noise levels
decrease the brain’s ability to process information.
So, advice for traders might be that music through your headphones can be productive during various tasks although if playing music to the public remember loud music might distract the buying process. Obviously it is important that you can communicate with your customers easily and that your neighbouring traders are not unduly impacted. Happy playing.
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