What Do (Should) I Sound Like?
blog | philmckinney | July 20, 2010 at 7:55 am
Sounds like a silly question, doesn’t it? It’s not. We are bombarded with visual logo’s that help sell a brand – why not audio? In the last few years, audio logo’s (sound branding) have become THE thing to have in the brand arsenal with the objective of becoming the “hook” to get people to pay attention. One example of an audio logo is the Intel “bong” (audio).
Through some connections, I was introduced to Audiodraft. They have created a site and business model that crowdsources producers/musicians to create professional audio that can be used for branding, advertising, etc. They made their pitch – I was intrigued but not fully convinced that you could use this approach to create music so I agreed that they could use me as a test subject.
So, we ‘ve setup a real project (real objectives with real money behind it) to create a an audio logo for me. The question (you know me, its always about the question) to be answered is: What do (should) I sound like? What audio “signature” should be played on the audio/video podcast and when I’m being introduced on stage, etc? Can someone (or a team) create a high quality audio logo for an individual?
So here is your chance … you get to hear, vote and influence what I’m going to “sound like” as we go through the process together. How do you participate?
- Visit the project page to see if any artists have submitted a sample.
- If so, vote and leave your comments (you will need to register)
- Check back daily so you can provide feedback as the project progresses.
- The artist that creates the best audio logo gets paid!
If your a musician, feel free to submit ideas to the site.
Do you think crowdsouricing “creative” deliverables is the future?? Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below ….
Tags: audio innovation, brand, branding, creative act, creative economy, innovation development, logo
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Does the emperor’s march from Star Wars get ruled out because of Copyright?
Interesting thought Phil. Audio logos aside from Intel’s signature bong and 4 bars seem to be from an era past—not that it’s something that shouldn’t be considered now in todays era of technology/on demand/gotta have it now mentality. I kinda miss the whole mid-century advertising era where companies were known not only for their visual logo but for their branded jingles.
Being both a designer and part-time audio producer, I appreciate both forms of branding immensely, but I never considered an individual having their own jingle or audio logo/branding. It’s definitely something that I find intriguing and would like to see where this goes. I think about other tech leaders and what would be there “sound” when they come on stage, esp, Jobs and Ballmer…
As far as crowdsourcing, that seems to be the way things are going, and probably not such a bad idea, as long as those involved get credit for the work they’ve done. I think though there are too many people out there who are ready, willing and able to take advantage of talented non-professionals who are looking to break into the media/entertainment industry and too easily get burned. If it’s done right (see hitrecord.org), then I think eventually you’ll see less “production studios”, and entertainment production becoming more democratized, which isn’t a bad thing. Sure there will be a lot of garbage out there (already is), but for the really talented people who can’t afford to go to a studio but can afford to build one at home, this will continue to be a huge game changer. And yes I do think this not only is the future, but the future is now.
Interesting.
The Holiday, while not an epic film, has a great side story about creating the music for a friend to walk up to accept and award. What it should sound like, how to make it represent him. It was a really interesting idea and I wholeheartedly agree we should all have our sound. When friends are nearby, they recognize my laugh and know it’s me, not sure that’s a good thing but apparently, it’s my sound. Music, sound, intonation – all inspire pictures, memories, emotions and recognition. Good or bad, sounds are associative. They create expectations, and every interaction should be preceded by one
Phil, it was great meeting you at Media X. I really enjoyed your discussion with Engin Erdogan from IDEO. Relating to your blog, I love the idea of tapping into the talent of the crowd. When it works well the creative deliverables are often impressively professional and talented people whose work may otherwise have gone undiscovered have an opportunity to pursue their passion on their own time, schedule, and scale. During the Media X conference the panelists on Civic Activism took a detour in their conversation and began discussing true sources of happiness. Neerja Raman suggested that “true happiness stems from creativity” and I could not agree more. People are driven to create and when this drive is coupled with a passion for a particular field and talent people will derive great happiness from their work. This is why the idea of crowdsourcing creative deliverables can work very well in some instances and these types of emerging business models are the most personally interesting and exciting to me.
Crowdsourcing original audio is an interesting challenge. I first learned of this concept through a site called Musikpitch.com, an audio crowdsourcing site very similar to Audiodraft.com. The proliferation of home studio technology is opening the doors to an immense crowd of musicians and many of the submissions are impressive. The challenge is that the nature of these “contests” (written description without much interaction with the “source-er” of the audio) encourages many artists to create an arsenal of “cookie-cutter” pieces of music which they submit (at the last minute) for every contest hoping one will stick. Now the “source-er” is stuck listening to pieces that are not relevant to their project and may find the process more time consuming than anticipated. I also suspect that most “source-er’s” find that the project requires more collaboration than they expected. When audio is created, especially for film, the arrangement has to fit visual cues and therefore must be a working collaboration between the editor and musician.
It will be interesting to watch this space…but in the mean time watch out for my submission for your entrance theme…hopefully I will prove my own concerns wrong
Yes, I do believe that crowdsourcing creative deliverables is the future and will help unleash the creativity and the hidden talent of thousand of part-time musicians, song, script and book writers. It will also make such kind of production more costly and readly available. That is the future, and the future is now!
Crowdsourcing means that you only get entries from people that cannot get a real, paying job or contract for doing the same thing. Like working as an intern. Experienced, respected people with a track record will get paying contracts ahead of time for their time and effort. Plus you have to spend lots of your time sifting through many bad to boring entries on the slim hope of something usable. This is like going to SXSW and listening to zillions of bands, hoping to really like one of them.