When you walk into a store, you may be used to hearing the faint hum of background music pumping unobtrusively through the space. Or, if it’s a cool teen-targeting jeans brand in a mall, maybe not-so-unobtrusively. But from a marketing perspective, that audio may be missing a sales opportunity—something Australia-based Qsic is here to fix.

And we do mean here. The company recently opened an office in Dallas that will be the home base for its co-founder and CEO, Matt Elsley, who’s in North Texas to support his company’s new business growth across North America.

Founded in 2012, Qsic says it’s one of the world’s first “commercial music streaming platforms,” influencing over 100 million shoppers at the point of purchase monthly.

The company helps businesses establish and own their own “brand sound.” It also helps retailers activate their retail media networks by setting up, running, and commercializing their audio assets.

Aiming to reach ‘high-intent shoppers’ with AI-enhanced audio

“Despite significant spend going into digital channels, 85% of U.S. retail sales still occur in-store,” CEO Matt Elsley said in a statement. “In-store advertising puts a brand in front of high-intent shoppers at the point of sale to drive higher conversions and sales. The challenge for in-store advertising has always been infrastructure and scale, and we’ve been able to address both with our advanced audio technology. Our seamless in-store setup and proprietary AI enable personalized, data-driven experiences that not only enhance customer engagement but also maximize advertising impact.”

That includes providing everything from music curation, ad production, and collateral all the way to ad sales and price evaluation. Qsic says it’s invested heavily in developing a patented method of measuring the impact of audio advertising on real-world in-store transactions, leveraging the power of audio to deliver “better customer and sales experiences.”

Blending gen AI with music via ‘Lucy’

Qsic said it has developed a proprietary generative AI model called Lucy for the creation of custom audio ad content at scale—including “on-demand voiceovers.” Lucy dynamically creates and localizes ad content in real-time, the company said, “leveraging retailer data to include details like local pricing, inventory, and weather conditions.”

220% YoY growth

Qsic said it’s on track for its strongest year to date. It closed out Q2 by reporting over 220% YoY growth, “primarily driven by strong adoption across North America.” Over the past year, the number of retail locations using Qsic’s in-store audio retail media platform has tripled compared with the same period last year, the company said—with the majority located in the U.S. and Canada, along with an increasing presence in Mexico.

An increasing focus on in-store advertising has helped spur demand for Qsic’s services, the company added, noting that in-store retail media is expected to grow at an accelerated rate through 2025, with spend poised to surpass $1 billion by 2028, according to EMARKETER data.

To prepare for further growth, the company said it has “significantly ramped up hiring” over the past year, nearly doubling its workforce by adding new positions across engineering, product, operations, and sales teams.

The company said it aims to continue driving innovation and providing support for the rapidly expanding number of locations leveraging its platform.

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