FINNEAS Created Apple TV’s New Mnemonic — Artists Take Note…

Tapped by Apple, Grammy-winning producer and songwriter FINNEAS has created Apple TV’s new sonic logo, or mnemonic. Artists, there could be opportunity here…

Finneas’ New Sonic Logo for Apple TV Should Give Indie Artists a Boost of Creative Energy and Inspiration

This Monday Apple released a video revealing the brand new logo for Apple TV. It’s a short but beautiful and dynamic graphic animation of the familiar logo, but with a new sonic twist…

The sonic earwig accompanying this logo graphic, which will become the new bumper preceding every new Apple TV production, was composed by Grammy-winning producer, songwriter, and Billie Eilish’s older brother, FINNEAS.

He was initially approached by Apple’s Head of Music, David Taylor, to create the sound effect, and there are three official versions of this piece:

• a 5-second version for Apple TV
• a 12-second version for Apple Original films (like F1: The Movie and Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost)
• and a 1-second stab to accompany apps, and quick usage.

Okay, but, let’s explore this for a moment. Firstly, let’s talk about what sonic branding is as a concept, and then let’s take a look at what independent artists outside the Top 40, like you, can do to create potential opportunities in this space. Let’s dive in!

What Is Sonic Branding?

“Sonic Branding,” according to Mikey Ballou of the creative agency Apostrophe 3, is: “the strategic use of music and sound to help reinforce brand recognition and enhance the consumer experience.”

Sonic branding is everywhere, especially nowadays. When you walk into a store, if you immediately start nodding your head to a dance music track, or if you feel your heart rate slow down and relax, that’s because the music has been carefully selected to induce a specific experience that aligns with that brand. Electric cars use composed audio to replace the sound of the internal combustion motor that they don’t have, otherwise they’d be completely silent in the noise of the outdoors. These days, every app we use on our phone, every text message and click, type, reward, notification, and so on, comes with a sound to alert you that something is happening when you tap your finger against the glass.

But this phenomenon is about much more than just telling our brains the action we just took actually happened. Sonic branding, like all forms of marketing communication, is really meant to convey an emotional response in consumers.

In the case of Apple, they’re trying to tell us — without words — that this feels familiar and comforting, yet innovative and modern. The sound of this logo perfectly encompasses the main emotional resonance points of the brand itself. Even in only 1, 5, or 12 seconds.

How sonic logos fit into this

Not all sonic branding is meant to fit inside an animated logo, that’s just a small part of it. But because you could probably sing at least ten short jingles or cues off the top of your head right now (think of the Windows or Xbox startup sounds, the sound of the start of an HBO show, the three-note NBC chime, or every McDonalds ad ever), the potential for creating a lasting, personal connection is immense.

Thus, a sonic logo is usually one of the core strongholds of any sound branding campaign, since it has the most use applications and may offer the customer the most immediate active touch points. Creating a sonic logo is a simpler, yet higher pressure, brief than creating commercial ad music, as it needs to leave every customer a specific impression and strengthen that customer’s connection to their product. And often they won’t change for a very long time, so they also need to be long-lasting.

What does any of this have to do with me?

As artists, we’re always looking for creative ways to extend our music-making and revenue-generating activities beyond touring and releasing albums. And while it may take years to build a business around composing and producing music for ads, films, television, or dance/performance — if that’s a career you’re interested to pursue — sonic branding is a field that may offer more points of entry than you think.

First, put together a list of local companies, shops, business owners, who you know or support. Start small, start local, and use a personal connection to make an introduction. Here are some ideas you might want to try to pursue:

1. Playlist curation

Every café, restaurant, retail store, spa, and organic grocery market, needs music playing in their speakers when customers walk in. Why not pitch your local, neighborhood business owners to take care of creating a reusable musical playlist for them? Offer to sit down, talk about their brand, the emotional connection they’d like to create with their consumer base, and put together a custom proof-of-concept. If they accept, you can set a price, and offer to create either a full single-use playlist, or seasonal changing playlists, holiday special playlists, etc.

2. Music to use for socials

Because local brands likely don’t have competitive or flexible budgets to create television commercials, there’s an opportunity to pitch business owners on using your music in their social media content. Depending on their budget or your time, you can either pitch that they use pre-published music or original songs and tracks written specifically for them. Everyone is posting on social media these days, this could be a great opportunity to create a longstanding paid gig for yourself.

3. Local podcast connections

Aside from social media, everyone has a podcast these days. Podcasts are also both global and local.

4. A bank of sounds and sound effects

From freelance video producers to full-scale content agencies, to government and commercial entities, to artists and performers, the need for content on a local scale is endless. Think about it. Sound and audio is everywhere: elevators in every office building, waiting rooms in every dental office, hold music for every company with a telephone service, bathrooms in restaurants, etc. Go ahead and start creating bulk folders of very short music, audio clips, and sound effects, to pitch a variety of businesses, either to license on a monthly basis or to sell outright for a flat fee. The idea is that there should be something for everybody.

5. A custom sonic logo

Finally, the crème-de-la-crème of sonic branding. While this might sound like a hard sell at first, remember that almost all businesses small or large, have a logo. And that logo is used in every piece of video, commercial, or social content they produce. Why not offer to create the sonic mnemonic that accompanies that logo, and cite Apple, HBO, Windows, and NBC as an example of what brands can aspire to become?

If you’re an artist looking for unique opportunities to make more music or more money, get creative! Start building a portfolio, a bank of test tracks and sounds, and start having open-ended conversations with folks you already know… It may lead to bigger and brighter things!