A ton of small businesses like chiropractors, doctors, espresso stands, taverns and retail need music to create the atmosphere for the customers and keep the employees pumped up. To get the right music into your establishment you basically have six options:
1) You plug a tuner into your sound system and listen to the radio.
Pros: Free, options from various type of stations, variety of music
Cons: Commercials, no control over what is played right now, poor reception, limited selection, can’t add your own music to the program unless you have a CD/tape player as well.
2) You bring in CDs and play them on a CD player through the sound system.
Pros: CDs are all about your music, make and listen to mixes, easy for people to bring in their own tunes to play.
Cons: Limited selection to music you have already paid for, takes time to make mix CDs, CDs get old after listening to them 5 times, CDs take up space/get broken/get scratched and cost $10 – $20 for 12 – 20 songs.
3) You bring in an iPod or Sansa or some other MP3 device and plug into the sound system.
Pros: A small device holds a ton of music, same pros as a CD in terms of selection and ownership.
Cons: MP3 players cost between $100 – $300, selection limited to CDs/Music you own or have “borrowed”, finding tunes can be cumbersome, playlists are limited to your own creativity.
4) You buy a service like Muzak.
Pros: Lots of channels to choose from, new music delivered on a regular basis, good sound quality.
Cons: Limited control over what you hear, can’t go to an artists or album or specific song, costs $60 per month for minimum service, requires special hardware, can’t add your own music to the program.
5) You buy a Satellite radio service like Sirius or XM.
Pros: Great reception anywhere including way out in the woods, wide variety of stations, good selection of hardware to play the stations.
Cons: Expensive hardware, high monthly fee depending on how many receivers you have, can’t choose specific artists, albums or songs to play, can’t add your own music to the program, not a great way to discover new music, no music videos.
6) You buy a music subscription service like Rhapsody
Pros: Great selection of music (4 million plus songs), listen to an unlimited amount of full songs whenever you want, add your own music to the program, create your own playlists, listen to the 100′s of music channels programmed by Rhapsody, listen to live radio, low monthly fee (only $12.99 per month for Rhapsody Unlimited), runs on hardware you probably already have (a PC, Mac or Linux box), access to new music daily, includes music videos and easy music discovery.
Cons: Inexpensive, but not free ($12.99 per month), requires an internet connection (broadband/DSL/cable preferred) and a good sound card.

Better yet, you can try Rhapsody for free for 14 days and see how it works for you. Click here go give it a spin for free.