Music
The most familiar form of audio branding is music, and there's a very good reason for that. Music is perhaps the oldest form of communication we have: we've been creating and playing instruments for much longer than we've had a written language, and we've been singing since before we knew any words to sing. Sound and music are a vital part of our existence, and music moves us in ways that no other medium can match. These episodes explore the power of music to bring us together, stir our deepest emotions, and connect with our audience in a profoundly meaningful way.
Music: Striking the Right Chord
We speak with a multitude of guests, ranging from musicians and composers to software developers and marketing experts, about the invaluable role music plays in creating and promoting a brand, and the latest developments in sonic branding. From licensed music trends to the return of the old-fashioned commercial jingle, from crafting the perfect cinematic soundtrack to the use of machine learning to create uncanny new forms of music, we examine every aspect of musical branding and discuss how it can help us promote a brand and forge a deeper, more lasting relationship with our audience.
Vocals: Teaching the World to Sing
These podcasts also feature a number of singers, songwriters, and other vocal talents who offer their insights into the more practical side of singing and creating music. Composer Richard Strauss once called the human voice the most beautiful instrument, but the most difficult to play; each interview focuses on such wide-ranging topics as musical trends and genres, the value of both harmony and dissonance in a song, and the surprising benefits singing can have for the brain and body.
For a long time, audio branding and musical branding meant almost the same thing, and while the definition of audio branding has expanded over the years, music still plays an invaluable role when it comes to marketing with sound. These episodes offer a deeper look at that role, and at how music can help you bring your brand's message to life so you can share it with the rest of the world.
“Tap into who your consumer is, really know. And I don’t mean like ‘males 25-34 years old who live in cities.’ No, it’s like ‘what’s important to this person, where do they spend their time,’ you know, those kinds of things, really thinking about who that person is and then what your company’s role, what […]
“The way that advertising agencies, for example, are structured now is still based on the Mad Men era where only billboards and print existed. So we have an art director and a copywriter on every project, but we don’t have a sound person, we don’t have a sound director. And so much of the way […]
“Ultimately, what happens with Spotify and Apple and YouTube or any of the other platforms out there, the majors are going to set the precedent on what the licensing deals look like. That’s eventually going to trickle down to the independent artists to where they just they don’t get a great deal, I mean, they’re […]
“Because a lot of podcasting was audio-only people thought, well, it’s like radio, all you need is, you know, a performance license. And that’s not true. It’s exactly like that, and that we’ve all learned, you know, in time, it’s kind of developed to the point where you have to sync music from a licensing […]
When you close your eyes and think about being in a hospital, what do you imagine hearing? Are the sounds soothing, or do they make you tense up with even more anxiety? Hospitals aren’t usually relaxing places, and they don’t always sound very relaxing either. Heart monitors beep, respirators pump, and voices murmur in the […]
This is the second part of my interview with Chris Wirsig. We dive into other topics like music design, the changes the pandemic’s brought to music production and recording, and how you might get started in the world of music production yourself! In this part of the interview, we talk about: How music design looks […]
