Building a playlist for your business: a ten-minute routine for mornings, evenings and weekends

The venues that sound best on Nova Business are rarely the ones with the most elaborate lists. They are the ones with two or three lists that fit the room, switched at the right moments. This guide is the routine behind that: ten minutes to set up, a few seconds a day to run. It assumes you have a venue set up already; if not, start with setting up Nova Business.

Step one: decide what the room needs

Before opening a single list, answer three questions in order. Which instruments? Acoustic guitar and piano sit under conversation; brass, drums and vocals sit on top of it. Which mood? Tender for calm, happy for mornings and terraces, energetic for a busy floor, dark only late and only in a bar. Which genre? This comes last because it matters least; a café that has chosen acoustic guitar and tender will be fine with jazz, bossa nova or folk. Our guide to genres, moods and instruments explains the tags.

Step two: start from a business playlist

The Business section offers playlists curated by Nova for venues, and the public playlists on the site, Elegant Coffee, Coffee Shop Lo-Fi - R&B, Chill, are built with volume and tempo in mind. Play one for a day. Like the tracks that fit the room and skip the ones that do not; by the end of the day you have the seed of your own list and a clear sense of what the room rejects.

Step three: build two or three lists

Most venues need a daytime list and an evening list; many need a weekend list; a few need a late one. Create each in the app and name it after the time, not the style, so that whoever opens or closes knows which to press. Fill each from three sources:

1. The likes from step two.
2. Whole albums that fit. Albums on Nova are themed, so one album is often a ready chapter: Morning Coffee for opening, Bossa Atmosphere for lunch, Elegant Strings for the afternoon, Jazzy Nights for the evening.
3. The tag pages. Open the instrument and mood you chose in step one and add from there.

Aim for at least three hours per list so that a shift does not hear a repeat. The playlists guide covers the mechanics of adding tracks and albums.

Step four: switch by hand

Nova Business does not schedule music by time of day, and it is better to know that than to expect it. The working method is a short routine: whoever opens presses play on the daytime list; whoever starts the evening switches to the evening list; whoever closes stops it. All devices at the venue follow the switch in sync. Write the three list names on a card by the till and the routine runs itself. For a room that changes less, a radio station is the alternative that needs no switching at all; how Nova radio stations work explains when a station is the better choice.

Step five: check the statistics once a week

The Business section shows the last 30 days of listening per venue: total time and the most played songs. Two things to look for. If the total time is lower than your opening hours, the music is being left off, usually at opening or after a shift change. If the same ten songs dominate the most-played list, a list is too short and needs another album.

Volume, briefly

Stand in the middle of the room and talk to someone opposite at a normal level. If you have to lean in, the music is too loud. Brass and vocals need a notch less than guitar and piano at the same setting. Two speakers at a lower level beat one speaker at a higher one, and Nova Business plays them in sync.

By venue type

• Café: acoustic guitar, tender, folk and bossa nova. Daytime: Morning Coffee into Bossa Atmosphere. Evening: Elegant Coffee. See the café page.
• Restaurant: piano and saxophone, tender shading to sad, jazz. Daytime: Patio Sessions. Evening: Jazzy Nights, Jazz for an Empty Pier. See jazz and bossa nova for restaurants.
• Shop: mid-tempo, happy, light. Elegant Coffee or Summer Vibes by day, Prime FM when you want a voice. See music for retail stores.
• Spa: ambient with no beat. Aurelion, Yumae, Doran Tan. See music for spas and wellness.
• Gym: energetic, electronic. Core Frequency, the house and techno pages. See gym music and tempo.
• Bar: rock and dark late, jazz early. Rock FM, The Rock Spectrum, Depressive Rock after eleven.

Frequently asked questions

Can Nova Business change the music automatically by time of day? No. Keep two or three playlists and switch by hand; all devices at the venue follow the switch in sync.

How long should a venue playlist be? At least three hours, so a shift does not hear a repeat. Adding whole albums is the quickest way to reach that.

Where do I start if I have no list at all? With a business playlist curated by Nova, played for a day while you like what fits the room.

How do I know if the music is actually on during opening hours? The 30-day statistics in the Business section show listening time per venue; compare it with your opening hours.