+44 (0)203 397 7676
Amplify your pub brand with strategic music and digital signage experiences.
Startle is the fully managed background music and digital signage provider for pubs and pub groups, expert curation, centralised control across every site, and a team that takes responsibility for delivering it properly.
Whether you run a community local or a large managed estate, Startle gives your head office complete control over the atmosphere: consistent, on-brand sound in every venue, with scheduling by area and time of day, and Relentless Support™ available 24/7/365.
Music affects our mood, perceptions and behaviours. Getting your pub or sports bar soundtrack spot on not only impacts the choices of your customers, it can also influence how they perceive your brand long after. It can also inspire happy and productive employees.
Adapt to the mood - choose from over 100 carefully crafted playlists to enhance the buzz of daytime conversation, spin slower songs to encourage longer dwell times during dinner and get the party started with upbeat evening tracks.
Sounds with substance - your perfectly branded playlists are curated using a robust, academic model that was specifically designed to help brand professionals understand the types of music that align with their values and operational goals.
Startle's cloud-based digital signage reacts to, and enhances, the atmosphere in your pub - whether it's promoting food and drinks deals, broadcasting upcoming events or combining with your music to build anticipation and excitement around upcoming tunes.
Tailored to your business - our branded TV solution allows you to build a channel, choosing from a perfect mix of news, weather, sports, branded promotions, social content and entertainment to transform the way your customers engage with your brand.
It's science - just like music, engaging visual displays are proven to influence customer experiences - reducing frustration and perceived wait times and improving brand recall.
Intuitive, granular, and adaptable - easily replicate a perfectly curated branded atmosphere across an entire pub estate, all from a single platform with Startle Studio.
Our simple drag-and-drop scheduling tool makes it easy to tailor music to different times of day and trading patterns.
Set your pub's opening and closing hours, schedule your volume and EQ levels (great for late night volume control), and manage granular permission levels.
Our atmosphere monitoring tool can also provide you with all the insights you need on your venues, such as busyness, energy, temperature, weather and more.
Startle is your partner for building a branded pub atmosphere that keeps customers coming back for more.
Enjoy personalised playlists and impactful visuals that work together to create and enhance an unrivalled pub experience.
Our all-in-one approach to atmosphere building not only creates harmony between your audio visual experience, but saves on the hassle and cost of manually adjusting media throughout the day, and across sites.
It's everything you need to make your venues unforgettable.
It's your brand, amplified.
Working with Startle has been a very positive experience for Mitchells & Butlers. They understand the important role that music and atmosphere play in shaping the overall guest journey and helping our venues feel welcoming, engaging and on brand. Their solutions support us in delivering a consistent, high-quality experience across our estate, while still allowing our teams to focus on what matters most – great hospitality.
Head of Electronic Leisure
Our pubs range from community pubs to hybrid high street venues in town centres, so each of them has a unique identity and needs entertainment and offers relevant to its local environment. It is vital that our suppliers can offer each pub a bespoke package to help them drive sales and become a go to destination. Startle helps each pub to deliver their message, their way. We are delighted to use them for our music, digital signage and sports promotion.
Operations Director
Startle has been great for our pub. The biggest difference is with Ultimate DJ. It has been an invaluable tool in shaping our later night offerings. Customers believed we had an actual DJ! We have seen an increase in revenue on Saturdays too since introducing cabaret and Ultimate DJ. It has been nothing short of amazing and I'm very happy to have it on site.
Manager, City Of Quebec
I have been waiting for a music and signage service like this for years. Current music but in-keeping with the Lloyds brand, I feel like it is driving repeat business as the customers are actually enjoying the music. Signage is fabulous and takes all the pain away.
General Manager
We have been enjoying the Startle background music system across our estate for many years now. We find the system technically robust, the content great and the user interface works really well for our managers.
Managing Director
Book your free brand sound discovery call to see how Startle can transform your music and signage across all locations.
On this call we’ll:
Just need a quote? Request pricing here.
Frequently asked questions.
Startle's Studio platform gives head office central control over music and digital signage across every pub in your estate. You set the playlist, the schedule and the volume rules, and individual pub staff cannot override your brand sound.
Yes. Multi-zone audio lets you run distinct playlists simultaneously in the main bar, beer garden, function room and dining area, all managed from the same platform and scheduled automatically by time of day.
Yes. Startle's digital signage runs from the same Studio platform as the music, so your team can schedule promotions, events, sport fixtures and seasonal campaigns across every screen in every pub, from one central dashboard.
Startle operates on a predictable monthly cost per site, with no surprise hardware fees. Free next-day shipping, plug-and-play setup and no-quibble hardware replacement are included as standard.
Yes, playing music in commercial premises requires a licence (typically PPL PRS for Music in the UK). Find out more about music licenses here.
