Mood Media Alternatives: 7 Top Music Services Compared

What Is Mood Media?

Based in Austin, Texas, Mood Media (alternatively known as “Mood:Media”) is a legacy player in the field of background music for businesses. Founded as “Fluid Music” in 2004, it has since acquired many other companies, including Muzak and DMX.

Additionally, Mood Media provides services like digital signage software solutions and scent marketing.

With an estimated annual revenue of $590.8 million, Mood Media can be a popular option for in-store solutions. However, it has drawbacks that may lead some businesses to search for a Mood Media alternative.

Pros and Cons of Mood Media

At first glance, Mood Media seems like an ideal option for companies looking for background music. The music platform is a reseller of Pandora for Business, and it acquired Play Network in 2021.

Mood Media offers a catalog of 1 million licensed tracks and over 250 ready-made playlists legal for business use.

However, comparing Mood Media to competing services reveals some unexpected restrictions. For example, it doesn’t allow you to play songs on demand or import existing playlists from Spotify. And while a music catalog containing a million licensed songs may seem substantial, other Mood Media alternatives could give you access to a much larger selection of tracks and playlists.

7 Mood Media Alternatives

Here are seven Mood Media competitors to consider before committing to a background music service for business. We’ll look at what these alternatives offer, as well as any service limitations that may affect your business model.

1. Soundtrack Your Brand

Soundtrack Your Brand provides businesses access to more than 1,200 playlists and +100 million licensed songs to play on demand. It offers various pricing tiers and is the only commercial business music streaming service with on-demand playback functionality via the Unlimited tier.

This is also the only music service that provides an AI Music Playlist Generator that creates tailored playlists in seconds. The made for business music player also provides the ability to create and edit custom playlists by selecting tags that fit your business’s brand.

The platform makes life easier for you and your staff with features like playlist scheduling, an explicit lyrics filter, and central control capabilities. It’s available in 74 countries and includes licenses for songs covered by performing rights organizations (PROs) BMI, ASCAP, and GMR.

2. Pandora For Business/CloudCover

Pandora CloudCover is a business music streaming solution owned by online radio service Pandora. Despite its strong brand name, this service does not offer on-demand streaming, Spotify playlist import capabilities, explicit lyrics filtering, or song blocking.

In addition to private Pandora accounts, the service also offers Pandora For Business—which is effectively Pandora Mood Media, as the service is “powered by” this company. Both Mood Media and Cloud Cover are powered by Pandora.

3. Rockbot

Rockbot was one of the early entrants to the background music for businesses, and it’s still a well-known option today. Rockbot’s catalog of over 18 million songs is more extensive than Mood Media’s song selection, but it also doesn’t offer on-demand music functionality, its playlists aren’t intuitively organized, and it’s only available in the United States.

4. Soundsuit

Soundsuit.fm is a German-based SaaS music service with a stated 102 million songs and 500 playlists in its library. However, as another service provider limited to pre-made playlists and lacking a traditional search feature, Soundsuit will not let you play what you want, when you want.

5. SoundMachine

SoundMachine has a catalog of over 61 million licensed tracks. Unfortunately, you might have a tough time playing only the songs you want—along with its lack of on-demand music, SoundMachine playlists are limited in terms of being able to see what’s in the playlist until it’s playing and does not provide search or selection by business type.

SoundMachine does provide import access from consumer services. However, it leads users to a separate third-party app that can be challenging to use. The Soundiiz third party app requires imported playlists to include at least 100 songs and 20 different artists.

6. Jukeboxy

Jukeboxy offers a catalog of more than 45 million songs, curated playlists, and weekly scheduling capabilities. That said, these are spread across three different apps that you’ll have to get familiar with while using this service—one for streaming music (not on demand), one for scheduling playlists, and one for in-store messaging.

7. SiriusXM for Business

In addition to a selection of 200 playlists, SiriusXM for Business gives companies access to hundreds of satellite radio stations. However, this streaming solution also doesn’t offer on-demand music. SiriusXM for Business is only available in the U.S.

Choosing the Right Mood Media Alternative for Your Business

Now that you’ve had a chance to learn about popular music streaming services for businesses, it’s time to choose the best music alternative for your company. Here are the things to look for when making your decision:

Music Selection

Playing a specific song in your business should be as easy as playing it on a consumer streaming service. To do that, you’ll need a service offering both on-demand playback and a catalog of licensed songs that’s extensive enough for you to truly play what you want, when you want.

AI Music Playlist Generator

You and your staff have plenty of tasks that need your attention, so you probably don’t have hours to spend hand-crafting playlists and constantly monitoring the music that’s playing in your business—especially if it has multiple locations.

An AI Playlist Generator allows you to create tailored playlists for your business. If your streaming service offers this feature, simply type a brief description of the scenario and within seconds the generator will create a playlist that matches your input and business needs.

Curated Playlists and Stations

If you don’t have the time or desire for hours of playlist curation from individual songs, you need a music streaming platform that can do this for you. The best music streaming services not only offer over 1,000 playlists that fit all kinds of business types and desired brand experiences, but they also let business owners create custom stations on the fly.

In addition to an AI Playlist Generator, access to ready-made playlists that give you the freedom to change the song order and delete and add any tracks you want from the music library will give you full control over your business’s soundscape without the time investment.

Playlist Importing from Spotify

If you have a Spotify playlist that you want to play legally or expand to meet your business needs, you can choose a platform with Spotify import capabilities. With this feature, simply drag any Spotify playlist into the app. From there, you have the freedom to add songs to your favorite playlists and create “similar music” stations—covered by all the necessary licenses.

Licensing

To legally play music in a restaurant or any other commercial establishment, you need multiple licenses from multiple PROs. If your streaming service doesn’t take care of licensing requirements on your behalf, you’ll have to go through the hassle and expense of getting these licenses yourself.

Additional Features

Finally, you’ll want to ensure your business’s music streaming platform includes important made for business features you might need. Look out for playlist scheduling, explicit lyrics filters, central and remote controls, among other capabilities.