Getting started with Curator Now
Tell us about your space, pick a program, connect your speakers, and press play. Most businesses are live in under an hour.
Curator Now turns your business into a professionally soundtracked space: fully licensed, human-curated music that fits your brand and runs itself. This guide takes you from a blank account to music playing in your first zone.
What you'll need
- A way to play sound in your space: a computer or tablet with a browser, a Sonos system, a Q-SYS core, a Marshall speaker, or an Epicentre player. If you have no dedicated hardware, browser playback works anywhere.
- About 15 to 60 minutes, depending on how many zones you are setting up.
1. Create your account
Start a free 14-day trial from the start page. Tell us your business type, how many locations you run, and how you play music today. A curator uses those answers to build a starter program matched to your space, so you are not staring at an empty library on day one.
2. Set up your first zone
A zone is one independent area of music: one playlist playing at one time. A cafe with one set of speakers is a single zone. A hotel with different music in the lobby, restaurant, and spa is three zones. You only pay for the zones you actually use.
In your dashboard, create a zone, give it a name you will recognize (for example Front of house), and choose how it will play: browser, Sonos, Q-SYS, Marshall, or Epicentre. Each connection method has its own short setup guide in the Integrations section.
3. Choose your program
Every zone plays a program: a scene or playlist built for a moment and a mood. You can:
- Keep the starter program a curator built for you.
- Browse the library by genre, intensity, vibe, or scene and pick something that fits.
- Ask for something specific. Our curators take requests, and every track is screened so nothing explicit or off-brand slips through.
4. Let it run itself (recommended)
Instead of the same playlist all day, set a schedule so the energy shifts with your day: a softer open, a busier midday, a warmer close. The music turns on and off on its own. Build it once per zone and it repeats every week. See how scheduling works.
5. Go live
Press play. Your program starts streaming to the zone, and staff can control volume without being able to change the channel, skip to something off-brand, or connect a personal account. Everything day-to-day runs from Curator, with no consumer music app required.
Where to go next
- Playing different music in different areas
- Reporting an explicit or off-brand track
- Multi-zone control and scheduling