The right music keeps your guests for one more round
The sound that makes the night last. An ambiance that rises with the room, from a quiet early drink to the Saturday night rush, without staff ever leaving the counter.
The average check goes up
A bar where people feel good is one more round before they leave. The right tempo at the right time keeps guests around as the room fills up.
The ambiance changes on its own
A quiet early evening, the build-up as the night goes on, the weekend rush: scheduling by time slot shifts the sound at the right moment. Staff stay behind the bar.
Zero hassle across multiple sites
Two, five, or twenty bars? You set the ambiance for each zone (counter, terrace, back room) from a single screen, each with its own style.
Compliant, for real
A catalogue licensed for commercial use, not a personal Spotify account that's off-limits in a public venue. Playback is covered from day one.
A bar with no music is an awkward silence where you can hear the beer fridge humming. A bar with the wrong music, too loud during happy hour, too flat at midnight, the same playlist for three years running, is worse: guests finish their drink and leave. Between the two is the sound that makes people stay. The one that turns “one more before I go” into one more round. Here’s how to set it, hour by hour.
The ambiance follows the arc of the night
Most bars just let one playlist run from morning to night. That’s a mistake. A night at a bar is a rise in energy, and the sound needs to follow it.
- Happy hour / early evening (5pm, 8pm): low tempo, quiet volume. Funk, soul, indie, an easy groove. People are arriving, chatting, settling in. The music sets the scene without stealing the conversation.
- Evening (8pm, 10:30pm): the room fills up, the noise level rises, and volume and tempo follow. Pop, rock, more upfront tracks. The energy climbs with the room.
- Rush / weekend (10:30pm and later): this is the peak. An energetic selection, well-known choruses, whatever gets the counter singing. Nobody wants lounge music at this hour.
The real trap is thinking someone will change the playlist by hand four times a night, in the middle of the rush. Nobody actually does that. Scheduling by time slot shifts the ambiance on its own, at the right moment, and your staff keep their hands on the glasses.
Volume: one notch above the conversation
A bar that stays at the same volume all night always sounds off: too loud at 6pm, too flat at 1am.
The rule of thumb is simple. Music should stay just above conversation level: present, without forcing anyone to shout. Too quiet, and the silence turns awkward. Too loud, and guests tire out and cut their evening short. As the room fills up, the volume should rise with it, otherwise the sound gets swallowed and the venue feels dead even when it’s packed.
One ambiance per zone (and per bar)
A counter, a terrace, and a back room don’t have the same needs. The terrace wants sunshine in the ears during happy hour; the back room wants something more muted. Managing each zone separately avoids the one-size-fits-all sound that fits no corner of the bar.
And if you run several venues, manually setting the music for five bars quickly becomes unmanageable. Remote-controlled playback lets you schedule everything from a single screen, with each venue keeping its own style.
Playing music legally, from day one
In a venue open to the public, music comes with a cost: public performance royalties owed to authors and composers, and to artists and producers. The manager’s Spotify account plugged into the speakers doesn’t settle any of that: consumer subscriptions ban commercial use and don’t cover either set of royalties. Better to start from a source built for bars in the first place.
That’s what Horra does: playlists designed for bars and pubs, a catalogue licensed for commercial use, scheduling by time slot and by zone, and the option to slot in a message announcing happy hour or Saturday’s live show. Set it once, and it runs right, from the first round to the last.
Frequently asked questions
What music should you play in a bar or pub?
It depends on the time. Early in the evening, stay on a low tempo (funk, soul, indie, understated classics) so people can talk at the counter. As the evening goes on, tempo and volume rise with the room: pop, rock, a stronger groove. At the weekend peak, an energetic selection gets the room singing along. The rule: an ambiance that follows the arc of the night, not one playlist on loop.
Can you use Spotify or Deezer in a bar?
No, not the consumer accounts. Their terms explicitly ban commercial use, and they don't cover the public performance royalties owed to authors, composers, artists, or producers. A bar playing music in public needs a B2B solution with a catalogue licensed for professional venues.
What volume should a bar be set to?
Fairly low early in the evening so people can talk without raising their voices, then rising gradually as the room fills up and the noise level climbs. A bar that stays at the same volume all night always sounds off: too loud at 6pm, too flat at 1am. Volume should sit one notch above conversation level, never loud enough to drown it out.
How do you manage music across several bars at once?
With a remotely controlled playback solution, you schedule each venue, and each zone inside it, from a single interface. Every bar keeps its own sound identity, hours, and volume, with nobody touching a speaker on site. Ideal for a group or a chain that wants a consistent sound everywhere.
Ready to bring sound to your bars & pubs?
Horra handles the music, the messages and compliance, in minutes.
Try it today