Men drinking beer in bars tended to finish their drinks more quickly when the level of noise increased, a team discovered.
The study, to be published later this year in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, said the drinks industry already knows that music can have an effect on how long people stay in bars.
Lead author Nicolas Guéguen, a professor of behavioural sciences at the Université de Bretagne-Sud in France, said: "Previous research had shown that fast music can cause fast drinking, and that music versus no music can cause a person to spend more time in a bar.
"This is the first time that an experimental approach in a real context found the effects of loud music on alcohol consumption."
Researchers discretely visited two bars for three Saturday evenings in a medium-size city located in the west of France.
The study subjects, 40 men aged between 18 and 25, were unaware that they were being observed and only those who ordered a glass of draft beer were included in the research.
With permission from the bar owners, observers would randomly manipulate the music volume between 72 dB, considered slightly above normal conversation levels, and 88 dB, considered high and the equivalent of urban traffic or a food blender.
The music was adjusted before choosing a participant who was then watched and after they left the bar, sound levels were again randomly selected and a new participant was chosen.
Results showed that high sound levels led to increased drinking within a decreased amount of time.
Prof Guéguen said there were two possible reasons: "One, in agreement with previous research on music, food and drink, high sound levels may have caused higher arousal, which led the subjects to drink faster and to order more drinks.
"Two, loud music may have had a negative effect on social interaction in the bar, so that patrons drank more because they talked less.
"We have shown that environmental music played in a bar is associated with an increase in drinking.We need to encourage bar owners to play music at more of a moderate level ... and make consumers aware that loud music can influence their alcohol consumption."
On average the number of drinks ordered by customers increased from 2.6 if the music was low to 3.4 when it was turned up high.
High volume music also meant each beer was drunk faster, on average 11.45 minutes per glass compared to 14.51 minutes when the volume was lower.
