Sofa retailer Sofology has teamed up with TheMusicLicence from PPL PRS to share the positive impact that introducing music has had on their business.

The retailer, which has 57 stores nationwide, first introduced licensed music at the end of 2023 to improve staff engagement and wellbeing. The move came after feedback from their teams (Sofologists) indicated they would prefer licensed music in stores.

The collaboration included interviews with Sofology’s Senior Store Experience Manager, Rochine Metcalfe, who explained how music has enhanced the store atmosphere for customers, as well as the in-store teams who also shared their thoughts on how music affects their day-to-day roles.

Torin Leivers, Sales Consultant at Sofology said, “There was a time before TheMusicLicence where it wasn’t really felt by the customers and by us, whereas now, we have familiar music, music we all love, it’s something we can share enjoyment over, we can talk about it with customers, with each other and that’s just a really positive thing.”

Previously, Sofology played royalty-free music in their stores however, after listening to employee feedback, last December the business chose to switch to licensed music with TheMusicLicence, which allows businesses to play virtually all commercially available music.

As Rochine Metcalfe explains, the licence set up process was simple and meant their customer and staff  were able to enjoy all the well-known and familiar Christmas songs in time for the festive period, as well as a wide range of other music throughout the rest of the year. 

“When we decided to sign up with PPL PRS last Christmas, it was quite a quick decision but because we’d had that feedback, we decided to do it, and the colleagues were really relieved to hear licensed Christmas music again. We had an online meeting, and then within two weeks, we were live, which was fantastic. It’s been really flexible, and it’s easy just having the one licence to cover all of our stores, our full estate. For our Sofologists it’s been a really positive move for us. They’re much happier, they love it, we absolutely plan to stick with it and keep using licensed music in stores.” 

Sofology, who were ranked within the Top 75 Best Large Companies to Work for in the UK in 2022, chose to work with TheMusicLicence to highlight the importance of employee wellbeing and encourage other businesses to understand the significant role music can play within this.

The business also understands the importance of being correctly licensed and are pleased to support the future of music by obtaining TheMusicLicence.

Rochine Metcalfe says, “We’re really passionate here at Sofology about supporting everybody we work with, not just our Sofologists in stores, but everybody across our support office group functions but also our suppliers. It really matters to us that we know the right people are being paid for us using their music, it really sits with what Sofology is all about.”

Under The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, permission is needed from the relevant copyright holders in order to use music.  TheMusicLicence gives businesses this permission, in relation to the vast majority of commercially available music, ranging from grassroots and independent artists and composers through to the biggest names in the business.