You are designing a four story retail mall and multiple sound systems within it. Which system should you design to support general music programming within common retail areas?

Distributed paging systems are designed specifically for voice announcements and emergency notifications, not for continuous background music programming.

Life safety audio systems are code-required emergency notification systems (fire alarm, evacuation) and are not intended or approved for general entertainment use.

Sound masking systems generate low-level broadband noise to reduce speech intelligibility between spaces for acoustic privacy, not to deliver music content.

Sound reinforcement and playback systems are purpose-built to amplify source audio (such as music streams or recordings) and distribute it through a network of loudspeakers to cover large areas with multiple listeners. This is the correct functional match for background music in mall common areas, providing consistent SPL levels and audio quality across the space.