Written for the Occupancy Marketing blog

After our last list of obscure social networks you won’t be surprised to hear that there are a few more social sites that we haven’t mentioned yet… so let us explore how music can make a big impression on the travel and retail sites.

8Tracks.com

Here at Occupancy Marketing we’re actually a fairly musical bunch – employees have varied musical histories such as being in bands that supported R.E.M, part-time DJing in local clubs, playing in ceilidh bands, and hanging out with Guns N Roses backstage at a gig – so it’s always nice to see a company with a musical side. Tablet Hotels create a playlist of tunes that sums up their mood every fortnight. Powered by 8tracks.com the playlists sit both on the Tablet site as a music player and on the 8tracks site. These playlists give users a great idea of the feeling and inspiration behind the hotels in the collection. Many of these hotels have music at their heart and this is a fantastic way to show that to customers.

Spotify

Spotify offers a lot for brands – advertising, branded playlists and customised applications. Coca-Cola and Fiat have both partnered with Spotify to create branded playlists and both utilised the user-uploaded playlists as a way of getting their fans to show what music they thought worked best for the brand. (http://www.spotify.com/dk/work-with-us/advertisers/ad-specs/branded-playlists/).

YouTube/Your Site

Jack Wills and Hollister are both famous for the fact that their in-store playlists are a way for new and young bands to get noticed, however both companies mostly rely on their staff and avid fans to collate the playlists on YouTube and Spotify, rather than releasing them publicly. Some of the Hard Rock Cafe Hotels (http://hardrockhotelsd.com/amenities/TRACKS) list their playlists on their sites giving a very different impression of the hotels than those in Tablet’s portfolio. American Apparel and Urban Outfitters both have their own radio station (http://www.viva-radio.com/) and (http://music.urbanoutfitters.com/radio.php).

Your Hotel

Entertainment packages are fairly established in hotels, and if you want to build on this, the next step is to follow the likes of Topshop (http://insideout.topshop.com/on-our-playlist)(who dress up then photograph and interview upcoming musicians) or GAP (who get musicians to play in their stores) and turn your hotel or website into a hub for music. Hotels have lots to gain from establishing an atmosphere, and think of the PR / media mentions which can arise from hosting bands and DJ’s. Music is so varied from chill-out, Lounge, folk to Sunday morning Jazz, so there’s lots of opportunity to select the vibe you want to project.

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