Julian Treasure presented at TED this year, and his topic was the influence and power of sound in life and business. For those in the music business, this is a particularly interesting topic as we do not only market and sell our own sound products, but we also find a secondary income stream in licensing these products to help others market their products. Julian’s talk isn’t necessarily about music, but music does come up in one segment where he states:
Music is the most powerful sound there is, often inappropriately deployed. It’s powerful for two reasons: you recognize it fast, and you associate it very powerfully.
This is the reason why you’ll find that large corporations do not only have a visual logo, they have a ‘sound logo’ as well. Who wouldn’t recognize Nokia’s ringtone, or Intel’s chimes? The same goes for jingles on the radio, and theme songs on TV. One could even argue that ringtones are essentially sound logos for people’s personal brands, signaling what they stand for sonically.
With all the doomsday talk about the music business falling apart, it’s always good to be reminded in how many industries we actually operate. It’s not just selling music to listeners. We’re in the lifestyle business, the marketing business, the tv and movie business, the live entertainment business, and quite a few more. So diversify your portfolio, and do not rely only on selling music.
Again, music is really only a small part of this talk, but I recommend watching this 5 minute video anyway. It’ll give you a new appreciation for how sound can be used.