When you think about shopping, what sound comes to mind? It might be the carts rolling up and down the aisles, or maybe the beeps of the scanners when you’re standing in the check-out line. Music might not be the first thing that crosses our minds, but it’s almost always in the background of our shopping trips, and it can have a surprising impact. From how long we stay in the store and how much we spend while we’re there to how we feel about it afterward, sound plays a pivotal, and often...

“If you take the, you know, Foley work and the soundtrack out of a movie and just show, you know, the film with just the dialogue, even a great movie, it just, it completely falls emotionally flat, right? It just it’s, you know, if George Lucas had not hired John Williams to do the score for Star Wars, it would probably be a little-remembered, B-grade science fiction movie that hardly anybody would even know. The music kind of glosses over some of the kind of tropey, pulpy shortcomings of the...

“I know, like, Apple Music is offering that, so you don’t have to have anything but a pair of headphones in order to listen to most music. And it’s even possible on some computers. I know, like, Apple MacBook Pros, if you just play through the speakers in the computer, it’s astonishing. It gives it, it’s got DSP built in that, just, basically, it sounds like the mix is all around you. So, yeah. So that, wow, and none of those things are possible with, um, you know, the classic, you know,...

“I was, like, on tour, I spent twenty hours driving all over Ohio, talking to different places. And I work from home, so I don’t drive a ton. And now I was, and I was listening to all these podcasts, and I was amazed how many times I had to ride the volume knob because somebody would be talking, and then somebody would come in and they’re much, a much lower volume. And then normally, even in a quiet room, you might be able to get away with that, but not when there’s now noise from the tires...

“And I hit play on it, and I hear ‘Hello, Dave, this is Michael Van Lahr from Nuremberg, Germany.’ I’m in the basement of my brother’s house. This is where I started. And that, which goes back to, it doesn’t matter. Just, just start. And my brother goes ‘Did he say Nuremberg, Germany?’ And I go ‘Yeah.’ And we just sat there for the longest time, just, ‘Hello, Dave. Hello, Dave.’ I’m like, and I was just like, wow, there’s somebody, I’m in the middle of Mogadore, Ohio – everyone together,...

“I think sound has this ability. We talked about meaning, we talked about engagement, we talked about flexibility, versatility... but I feel like people are used to visual communication. They understand that there’s logo, animation and everything is like the sign, the bottom of the page, et cetera. I feel like you add this extra layer of surprise as well, that it’s quite interesting.” -- Valentin Fleur   This episode is the second half of my conversation with marketing expert, sonic branding...

“I think, right now, I’ve noticed kind of two opposite trends. I don’t know if they’re opposite, but they’re very, very different. On one hand, I feel like my clients, my clients, they want to talk to their audiences for a longer period of time. They want to engage in a more conversational way. So, you know, they want to find the proper tone. We’re talking about a vocal identity. We’re talking about, they want to explain what they stand for. They want to detail their offers.” -- Valentin...

“Why not brand the sound so people know that they’re with a certain bank? Why not make it a little bit more ‘here’s your money’, which is a little bit more successful sounding, versus ‘don’t forget your card,’ which could be a little bit more alarming sounding. But you don’t want a bank to sound like a perfect human being. You don’t want an ATM to sound like a perfect human being saying ‘Hey, Jodi, you forgot your ATM card,’ you know.” -- Laurence Minsky   This episode’s the second half of my...

“I was just looking at a LinkedIn post. And they’re talking about branding and strategy, and everything in there was visual. There was nothing about sound, nothing about texture, nothing about taste. And it all goes together in the brand and brand perception. But sound is so strong compared to sight. It directs. It helps direct sight. It helps interpret what you’re seeing.” -- Laurence Minsky   This week’s guest is a professor of advertising and social media marketing at Columbia College...

“Because it’s very difficult to be different and distinctive and you kind of need both of them in this modern advertising world because everything’s so fragmented. Um, people are not just sitting down at the TV at a certain time or listening to the radio together. You know, it’s a much more solo experience than it was when we were growing up. And I think lots of people aren’t seeing the same stuff or hearing the same stuff. And so therefore it’s very difficult for brands to make an impact.”...

“Usually the thing I love about sound is how it answers the question within a very short period of time. You don’t have to listen for very long, right? If you hear a message twice, you go, ‘Oh, that must be their message.’ Turned up in two ads, you know, like it becomes a current. I mean, to me, it’s obvious pretty quickly.” -- Josh Butt   This episode’s guest is the Chief Production Officer of Ampel and an award-winning content creator of podcasts, TV, audio ads, and video content with over...

“I see in your videos and I hear your, a lot of your episodes and I could tell right away, Jodi, you do have fun. You laugh, you’re laughing right now, you’re smiling. I mean, you’re obviously having fun. And I obviously don’t want to be on a podcast with somebody that has a very straight face and has a monotone voice and is not laughing. I think it depends on what the topic is. Oh yeah, definitely.” -- Bruce Chamoff   Have you considered starting a podcast but are unsure of what direction to...

“You wanna know the hobbies, they’re part of the psychographics. That’s the lifestyle. And I say this all the time: you’re not going to make any money if you’re a football podcast and you’re marketing yourself to baseball fans. And I say this. You’ve I got people coming to me saying, you know, ‘I have a sports podcast, but I’m not making any money. Why am I not?’ Well, what sports are you talking about?” -- Bruce Chamoff   This episode’s guest is a web developer, musician, marketing...

“But you don’t know how that user is going to do it. Are they going to somersault through the entire level? Are they going to climb up a wall and jump down? And are they going to just sit in a corner for a while and then walk three steps and then sit in a corner for a while? You don’t know if somebody is going to, how somebody is going to play. And that’s the beauty. And that’s the draw of video games and the interactivity of it.” -- Chris Hegstrom   This episode’s the second half of my...

“I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was my first introduction into user experience, right? Like a UX or user experience. It’s exactly that. It’s like I could put a microphone out in a storm and then all I get is like, you know, wind distortion and then the gain dipping every time there’s a thunderclap or something, you know, and it just sounds completely, you know, just different levels of noise and it’s not exciting. It’s not interesting at all.” -- Chris Hegstrom   This episode’s...

“We had an up and coming musician here last week who, he’s being followed around by a Netflix documentary team, but, like, he knows that, like, every day he has to post something, you know, and he was talking about starting a podcast, because it’s another form of content. And I think it's just like one of the easier ways to, like, look into your daily life and make those things interesting.” -- Rob Puzzitiello   This episode is the second half of my discussion with podcaster, filmmaker, and...

“What we did with this product was, we’re trying to give people the benefit of using a mixer without necessarily having to be like the audio professional who went to school. Like, I hear all the time, anytime I meet someone they’re like, ‘Oh, the first board I ever used was a Mackie,’ and, like, we all learned on it. I, you know, we have them in my classrooms.” -- Rob Puzzitiello   This episode’s guest is a creative self-starter who’s worked across podcasting, independent filmmaking, and the...

“Yeah, there’s a real opportunity here. I mean there’s a trend here in the conversation that we talk about the nostalgia and these spots that keep coming back. There’s equity in that. There’s, I mean, the giant equity. Even in a seasonal piece of music. It really is the subjects that we talk about in for what it boils down to this consistency and persistency. And even if you’re you know, Colleen, you’re 100% right, you know they have to be ready for this, they have to be ready to roll this...

“I was just thinking that humans generally like things that are new, but not that new, and you probably have the familiar tune. And then if you hear something clever, I think the biggest danger is cheesiness. But if you have something clever and, as Adam says, anchored in the brand, if it’s a tongue-in-cheek brand and it’s a tongue-in-cheek lyric, that’ll work and maybe it adds freshness rather than clutter.” -- Colleen Fahey   Recently, I had a conversation in a LinkedIn Audio Event with...

“I do believe in independent voices getting heard and elevated throughout the world, and I don’t feel that there’s a lot of mediums anymore where we have that opportunity. But podcasting, to me, is the ultimate solution right now for getting a voice heard and elevated throughout the world, that it can really change somebody’s life. I’ve had stories from listeners. I have a lot of friends that have stories from listeners that are all around the world focused on something really specific,...

“Usually my podcast, I’d say, I probably say eight months of the year, it has no advertisement at all. But that way, when I do place it in, it’s on every single episode, and it’s there just for a short time to really pique someone’s interest, cause they’re like ‘This is different. What is this?’" “Yeah, that’s a really good option. Yeah, I like the dynamic insertion at the very beginning too, because people are that’s when they’re you’ve got them hooked. They’re there to listen, so you may as...

“Also, because nobody listened to these sounds, even the nurse that should be paying attention. They really, they got used to this kind of droning sensation." "You have to tune it out." "Yes, yes, and imagine the mental load to do that, to tune out these kinds of sounds, and, of course, imagine the poor people that are in the hospital as a patient as well." -- Andrea Cera   This episode’s the second half of my discussion with sound designer and composer Andrea Cera as we talk about his...

“I don't know if in Canada or in the States the sounds are different, but here, Toyota, for instance, is very abstract, high-pitched, it's a bike or like 'peeeeee,' like this, for instance. The Renault is more reassuring, more warm, it's welcoming, it's a little bit more, you know, it's less cold than other sounds." "Sure, yeah. Well, I guess maybe if it doesn't focus specifically on the sound of the engine, but even the engine sounds have been changing over the years right, yes. They're...

“My now retired business partner, who was the head composer for this company for years and years and years, he put that perfectly, and he said, I remember he talked to a young composer. He said, ‘Look, at the end of the day, it’s the difference between art and craft,’ said, ‘when you’re making your own music and you’re doing your own thing, it’s art, it’s art for you. You’re the artist and you’re making it and you can make it whatever you want, whatever you want. But when you’re making...