How restaurants and bars plan playlists

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The first floor of Bandra Born is designed like a small Japanese bar. It features high seating, plenty of wood, and at the far end, a DJ console presided over by chef Gresham Fernandes. He plays electronic, funk, and hip-hop as drinks are poured and diners dance.

Fernandes is music curator for Bandra Born, as well as for his chef friends Prateek Sadhu of Naar in Kasauli and Himanshu Saini of Trèsind Studio in Dubai. “Music just sets it up," he says. It changes the mood, builds up an appetite, and makes people stay—the three main checkboxes of a restaurant, café, and bar.

Follow Fernandes on Spotify for a treasure trove of tunes. Like Fernandes, bar owner Yangdup Lama and restaurateur Manish Yadav have harnessed the power of music to offer diners more than just a good time. Manish Yadav, who runs the speciality café Fig at Malcha in Delhi, takes his music seriously.

Mornings at his café begin with jazz, followed by blues and R&B and in the afternoon, and then back to jazz. The energy of the crowd changes through the day and the music needs to match it, explains Yadav. The morning crowd is more focused and music by Norah Jones and Peter Cincotti helps.

Lunch is fun and there’s some R&B with artists such as Ray Charles. People like to unwind in the evening with some good old jazz by George Benson. Yadav invested in high-end speakers from the Finnish audio company Amphion.

Each comes with copper wiring to produce clean, warm notes, translating into sounds that are relaxing. “To plan playlists and audio, I rely on experts," he says. The song library is managed by the streaming service Roon, and the soundscape was designed by Gurugram-based The Audio Co.