I eat at Chipotle’s a couple of times a week. On Friday I realized I was bobbing my head in time with the song coming from the restaurant sound system. Didn’t recognize the song or the artist. Thinking back, it occurred to me the music there was always to my liking. So I asked Google “do all Chipotle’s restaurants play the same music?” and found the answer in a story at Businessweek (yes).
Chris Golub the founder and sole employee of Studio Orca which “creates customized playlists for restaurants tired of putting their dining atmosphere in the hands of Pandora or Sirius XM Radio. His job consists of researching music, discovering bands, and asking questions such as, “Would you rather hear folky banjo music or classic Motown as you eat your steak burrito bowl?”
“Golub runs Studio Orca out of his spacious apartment in a Brooklyn high-rise. There he spends 8 to 10 hours a day researching music for Chipotle, which lets him play anything he wants. “I’m looking for songs that make you want to dance around your kitchen in your socks and underwear before you’ve even had your second cup of coffee,” he says. “Not many songs can do that.” Golub listens to about 500 songs before he finds one that will work.”
“Chipotle’s 1,500 stores all play the same music. […] Four times a month he loads up his iPod with 15 to 20 new tracks and goes to a restaurant in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood to see how they sound in the store. Once a month he sends the updated list to Mood Media, formerly known as Muzak, which then streams the mix over the online service Rdio and into every Chipotle store.”
I asked Gemini for an update. Specifically, has the music curation process changed.
……..
The short answer is: No, the core system hasn’t changed, but the scale and “corporate” integration have grown.
Chris Golub and his company, Studio Orca, are still the primary curators for Chipotle’s in-store music. While your 2013 post captures the early “indie” spirit of the operation, here is how the machine has evolved in the decade since:
* Same Curator, Bigger Footprint: Chris Golub (now also known by the alias Kid Ô) remains the man behind the curtain. He still focuses on “non-mainstream” tracks and emerging artists to create that specific Chipotle “vibe.”
* From iPods to “The Box”: In your 2013 post, you noted he would load an iPod and test it in a Chelsea neighborhood store. Today, the process is more automated. Stores now have a proprietary hardware box in the office that pulls curated streams directly from corporate.
* The “Muzak” Evolution: Mood Media (which swallowed Muzak) still handles the distribution, but the partnership has become more sophisticated. It’s no longer just a monthly playlist; they often use regional variations and specific “day-parting” (changing the energy of the music based on the time of day).
* Marketing Integration: Chipotle has leaned harder into music as a brand pillar. In 2017, they launched “SAVOR.WAVS” with RZA (Wu-Tang Clan), where they assigned musical sounds to their 51 ingredients. More recently, in 2025, they’ve started using their 4,000+ locations as global “listening parties” to premiere new albums for artists like Alex Warren.
* Employee Pushback: If you look at employee forums today, there’s a lot of skepticism. Many workers complain about the “loop” being too short or the music being intentionally high-tempo and loud to encourage high “throughput” (getting diners to eat and leave quickly)—a far cry from the “dancing in your underwear” vibe Golub originally described to you.
The “perfume” of the 2013 era was about discovery; the 2025 reality is a highly engineered tool for brand identity and table turnover. Same DJ, different motive.