Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.
—Charles Mingus

Better Git It In Your Soul

“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” ?

Do not ask what sound, music and silence can do for you.
Ask what it can do for your customers.

How can sound, music and silence make their lives easier, more pleasurable, more interesting?
How can sound solve their problems?

Is your brand sound track insight led or trend driven?

Thanks to Dave Armano for the original inspiration.

“Are your marketing initiatives insight led or trend driven?”

Sound design for childrens puppetry theatre: “A Bugs Eye View” | Melbourne Museum (2004)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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.

Free Hearing Test

Via Chroma

Did you know that you can turn PDF’s into podcasts which can be downloaded with iTunes and RSS feeds.

Here’s an example and a shameless plug.

View PDF in iTunes

[display_podcast]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Sonic branding is a lot more than an audio logo, or well thought out brand sound track.

It is the total impact of sound across all your assets and touchpoints.

Noel over at IntentionalAudio.com has posted a very insightful article on the impact of environmental sounds on your employees, customers and brand.

He also provided a great list of books on music psychology and related topics which I’ve placed on de.licio.us where you’ll also find a lot of other resources related to sonic branding.

You can also read more about how we approach environmental sounds and “bleed” here.

Insect and nature sounds turned into music

Enjoy

Marcel

Podcast: Play in new window | Download