Chipotle Restaurant music programmer profiled

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ChipotleDenver Westword has profiled Christopher Golub, who runs Brooklyn-based Studio Orca, about the music he programs for Chipotle’s 1,400+ restaurants. While this story was published in July, we can’t help but realize its importance for traditional radio. The songs played at that restaurant are probably a big reason for its huge growth and success—they are just plain good. The sound systems at Chipotle deliver the music well—not too loud, but loud enough to create an atmosphere that only good music picks can do—be it inside a bar, restaurant or, yes, on a radio station. From the article:


“Hearing Tom Waits rumble through “Jockey Full of Bourbon” while you’re dripping Tabasco on a barbacoa bowl at Chipotle may give you pause. Or you might take comfort in the smooth rhythm of Peter Tosh’s “Coming In Hot” as you wait in the lunch-rush line. The music selections at the Denver-based fast-casual giant’s stores hit the spot between far-out stoner radio and hip DJ sets, a brainy mix of new indie artists, alternative-radio favorites and international jams.

However you feel about Chipotle’s musical selections, you have one man to thank — or blame. Christopher Golub is the guy who programs the songs for all of Chipotle’s more than 1,400 restaurants, making him responsible for an essential piece in founder Steve Ells’s restaurant vision.

“When [Ells] opened the first one, over on Evans, his belief was that he always thought music was an important part of the overall restaurant experience,” Golub told Denver Westword. “So he began with his programming at the first store, and it went on from there. He always kept a focus on music as an integral part of the experience.”

A refugee from the East Coast DJ scene, Golub worked as a manager at the Wynkoop Brewing Company and moved on to building and designing Denver’s ultra-hip Swimclub32 before ditching Denver and the restaurant life to rediscover music. Four years ago, he was tapped to take over music-curation efforts at Chipotle. “Steve asked me to come up with a sample playlist of what I thought might work in the restaurant,” Golub recalls. “Having spent a lot of time in Colorado, I had a good feeling for what was going on there.”

But music programming at Chipotle is about more than just a feeling. “It also has to have what I call ‘texture of sound,'” Golub explains. “You know that if you go into a store, you’ve got the small, hard surfaces. You’ve got concrete floors, a lot of windows, hard walls and a lot of cooking gear and tile. So that doesn’t work with certain songs.” For example, the high, tenuous yowl of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke wreaks havoc with the steel and concrete of a Chipotle buildout.

That means you won’t hear “Kid A” at Chipotle — but what will you hear? “It’s hard to put my finger on exactly what song makes it and what song doesn’t,” Golub says. “We do our very best to put on programming that’s not on mainstream radio, on Internet channels. We’re not playing the big hits of the world at all. We’re trying to find emerging stars. Emerging artists have this certain feel to their music.”

An average playlist Golub puts together may have more than 500 songs and be in rotation for no more than a month, to keep the song selection fresh. Once he’s finished a program, it’s streamed to every Chipotle restaurant around the globe. “We don’t program for certain markets; we program based off of what we feel works,” he says. “So when you have a burrito in Iowa, or Paris, France, or London, England, or Canada, you’re hearing the same program and the same vibe.” As with Chipotle’s menu, everyone everywhere gets the same aural experience.

Studio Orca also makes use of a subtle technique called dayparting. This technique is nothing new to radio and club DJs, and back in the ’40s and ’50s, the Muzak Company would program workplace music specifically to increase productivity, a technique called “Stimulus Progression.” Using similar tactics at Chipotle today, music during the lunch rush might have a quicker BPM than something playing during the 4 p.m. doldrums.

But Golub’s personal approach to getting toes tapping makes Chipotle programming much more than sonic wallpaper. “One of the greatest joys,” he says, “is when we see someone lifting up a cell phone and Shazam-ing a song, or just singing along to a song.”

See the Denver Westword story here.

RBR-TVBR observation: One of my daughters loves this place and I have been dragged there many, many times, driving her to two local Chipotle eateries. The food is consistently good, but what is also consistently good is the music—and you can tell that customers of all ages enjoy the mix. Indie Rock, Rock Steady Reggae, Classic Alternative—all things that we should be mixing up and playing on our main signals, but aren’t. Golub knows how to pick the best music from a variety of genres and string it together to create a great atmosphere, a journey if you will. Maybe your music director can too. Take the plunge–open Pandora’s Box on your station.

Here’s a quick mix I came up with…it’s not Chipotle quality or variety, but it would be a good start on an Indie Rock/Eclectic format (played in this order):

LCD Sound System:

I can change

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW8FKkVnqng

 

Pinback:

Good to sea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h9QFXviJ2E

 

Matt & Kim:

Good Ol’ Fashion Nightmare

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylAHFdZqxf0

 

The Halo Benders:

Virginia Reel Around The Fountain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B0ztHiREUs

 

Tame Impala:

Feels like we only go backwards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wycjnCCgUes


Cults:

Go Outside

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPKbG1CCLx8

 

Architecture in Helsinki:

Heart it races

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZjpWs1h7pU

 

 

The Raveonettes:

Love in a Trash Can

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRUqpgg-8Ps

 

Santigold:

L.E.S. Artistes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCeZzW54a2o

 

 

Vivian Girls:

Where do you run to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRHSOH1S0QI

 

 

Black Lips:

Veni Vidi Vici

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JyPU_mgqFs


Beck
:

Devils Haircut

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa3rBVb3v4g


The Kills:

You don’t love me & steppin’ razor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR5pyi-12Eg

 

Dawn Penn:

You don’t love me (No, No No)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mNPKNAQl4c

 

 

Cowboy Junkies:

Sweet Jane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4XVJj4jER4

 

 

The Moldy Peaches:

Anyone else but you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N3BjVMWziE

 

The Vaselines:

Jesus don’t want me for a sunbeam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcLM_gqLlYc

 

 

Deerhoof:

Fresh born

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkpjZXgetDU

 

 

The Dead Weather:

Cut Like a Buffalo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImbW-p4c4gQ

 

LCD Sound System:

Daft Punk is playing at my house

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7kqfeRb0KY

 

 

Jay Reatard:

Frances Farmer will have her revenge on Seattle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8VtU99vO4w

 

 

David Bowie:

Fashion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPVTbDA8dSM

 

 

M.I.A.:

Paper planes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sei-eEjy4g

 

 

Beck:

Que Onda Guero

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RxpvZTVIOs

 

 

LCD Sound System:

Losing my edge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xG4oFny2Pk

 

 

Modest Mouse:

The Good Times are killing me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL1cRSRUUZQ

 

 

Cold War Kids:

Hang me up to dry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrrGKR8Xii4

 

 

Stephen Malkmus:

Baby C’Mon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLwrx2x7q9I

 

 

Silversun Pickups:

Lazy eye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-mxBDuRaZ8

 

 

!!! (Chk Chk Chk):

Take Ecstasy With Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoOcrF2ceUQ

 

 

The The:

Giant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slzlm3OPeNg

 

 

Ladytron:

Destroy everything you touch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtqGoHouoE0

 

 

Mates of state:

Goods (all in your head)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1kkm8f22Es

 

 

Of Montreal:

Heimdalsgate like a Promethean curse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1fFMzu31p8

 

Say Hi:

Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNtFcXqG4w8

 

 

English Beat:

Mirror in the Bathroom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VzakY8h5vI

 

 

311:

Don’t tread on me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KbR0jg48YI

 

 

Gregory Isaacs:

Night Nurse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6oYyG0KcvQ

 

Sugar Minott:

Oh Mr Dc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCQgB9MFTjE

 

Sister Nancy:

Bam Bam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6NQq5qngOU

 

The Kills:

U.R.A. Fever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3fZP7QC4PE

 

Foxygen:

San Francisco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtdWGGpvY1s


The XX:

Crystalized

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pib8eYDSFEI

 

Bauhaus:

Bela Lugosi’s Dead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKRJfIPiJGY

 

Santigold:

Shove it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez2wYCRjYyY