Muzicons go right to  the heart of the power of music - its ability to communicate emotion - succinctly and directly. 

They’re already a great personal branding tool - and with a bit of tweaking, mashing and imagination could be turned into a powerful communication tool for brands.

If the creators could make it easier to integrate into blogs, and social networking sites like the iLike Facebook application they could have a real winner on their hands.

Here’s my muzicon for cool. (Apologies if it doesn’t show - Wordpress/the Muzicon site/flash are bit flakey for some reason)

Music Credits

Artist: Barry Adamson
Album: Oedipus Schmoedipus
Song: Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Pelvis

Get it on iTunes and Last FM

via Mashable

“An artist featured in a new campaign pushed by the Australian music industry to discourage illegal file sharing… says he was duped into joining an anti-piracy “witch hunt”.”

Read the article here.

I won’t wade into the right or wrong arguments about file sharing but it’s worth checking out the comments on theage.com.au to get a feel for where the customer is at.

I will say that the video patronises it’s intended audience - high school students- who do understand the industry. They understand it so well that they don’t need it. Just look at Last.fm, Mog and imeem.

Lindsay gets “The Kids”.

“I’m from a punk rock band, it’s all about getting your music out any way you can - you don’t make money from the record, the record companies make the money from the record. If they can’t make money these days because they haven’t come onside with the way the world is going, it’s their own problem.”

And why didn’t the makers link to YouTube from their site so that the video is easy to share.

Don’t they get “The Kids” ?

I really like how Seth Godin prefaces the viewing of this video with the following statement.

Safe for work, audio is okay.

As our media and ad spend becomes more diversified it is important to consider the appropriateness of audio content in different environments.

For example, if your target audience spends most of their time accessing your on-line content/ads in the workplace, is it appropriate to have sound? And if so what is appropriate and how can the user protect him/herself from an embarrassing audio onslaught?

Where and when sound should be used is just as important to your sonic branding strategy as the type of sound you use, and of course determining this always starts with your audience.

Enjoy the silence.

There’s been bit of discussion (which is great) by user experience and web designers around how to use sound on a website

Including:

1. Making it easy for your users to find and control the volume of the sound.
2. Ensuring that the sound is appropriate for your brand.
   Why is it that those clicky sounds on a lot of flash sites all sound (a)like they’re off the Matrix?
3. Making sure the sound suits your target audience’s viewing/listening environment.

I was listening to some of the iWork tutorials on the Apple website and noticed that the volume of the narrators voice was different for each tutorial.

This meant that I was continually distracted and annoyed because I had to keep resetting the volume to a level that worked for me and others.

Usually what happens in this situation is that the user turns the sound off because it has become hard to use. Unfortunately the voice over was integral to the sales pitch… oops, sorry, tutorial.

Good bye sales pitch. Good bye customer.

Find the experience here.

You hear a song on a television commercial or website, you like it and you want it. How hard is it to get it?

If you’re experience is anything like mine, it can be a complicated journey through Google searches and forums: Often with no joy at the end.

Why do so many companies make it so difficult for their customers to voluntarily spread their brand? Maybe they’re spending too much time reading books on solving the complexities of viral marketing instead of looking at the obvious.

So who gets it?

Wolf Blass does: they’ve got a link to the great music that everyone talks about here. It’s pretty easy to find on their website.

They could make it easier to download and also embed data in the file so that when it’s played in a mp3 player (software or hardware) the song title and album art will show up; but compared to a lot of other brands they’re doing a good job.

Apple should get it! After all one of their core businesses is playing and selling music. So you like the new iPod/iTunes ad music right. You want to find the tune to put on your brand new iPod right. How easy is it?

Not very. Apple lists the artist and song on their iPod ad site. But can you just click and buy? No.

This is how easy it would be for Apple to use iTunes and music to reinforce brand recognition and association.

Coca Cola Europe gets it: You just click on the Subscribe on iTunes which takes you to their iTunes podcast page. They could go even one click less by automatically subscribing you like this. It would be nice if their music player remembered the volume I’ve set it at, so that it didn’t deep ripping my head off. I do want to listen to the music, just not that loud.

I’m surprised that Coke’s Australian Music site doesn’t take the same approach. Actually I gave up. Too hard, too many clicks. “Why should I give Coke all my personal data? I just like the bands…” right?

It’s common knowledge that music is a powerful tool in creating positive and memorable associations.

So next time your so called integrated communication agency tells you to spend lots of money licensing music for their fancy award entry campaign, ask them whether they have a simple strategy for spreading this valuable asset. If they don’t, maybe they aren’t listening to you or your customers.

This website just sounds right. http://www.maikostudio.com/

The music is on brand and matches the visual ambience.

It stands out because it doesn’t sound like that synthy ambient dross that everyone else has.

It didn’t make me want to turn off the sound by screaming at me.

Very rare indeed.

How does it make you feel about the brand?