For this guest post we are glad to share Benjamin Doubali’s analysis on how to visualize sound. Benjamin studied sociology in Mainz and Paris. Through his work and research, he aims at exploring shifts in society, knowledge and everyday interactions under the conditions of digitalization. He is passionate about artistic concepts in regards of the relationship between culture and technology.  

The article was written by Benjamin Doubali.

Let’s say music is a code. 

This call may seem a little confusing. Isn’t music an aesthetic experience, isn’t it dynamic, fleeting? Isn’t it everything that code usually cannot be? Sure, music is unique, it is art. Nevertheless, allow that thought for a moment: music is systematically structured, categorised, it follows a strict “grammar”. It is not mysterious, but enigmatic. Music is auditory code. A code that needs to be deciphered and translated. And we can process this code by technological means, like any other sign system. Unlike other codes, however, the code of music is not stable and predictable, but surprising and diverse. 

Songwriters are translators – and so are music lovers

Consider the matter from the songwriter’s point of view: she has an experience to share, a story to tell or a musical idea she can’t let go of. Songwriters seek to express feelings from the depths of the human experience, like the confusion after a break-up, missing the person that is now just somebody you used to know. They have the knowledge and the tools (literally “instruments”) to transform and condense ideas into sound. For this purpose, they use established symbol systems, tonal grammar, musical code. A songwriter expresses her feelings in a sonic language, which is a term used by the musician Claudio in addressing this issue. The songwriter becomes the translator of her own emotional world. 

Later, someone will hear the sonic language, its tones, rhythms, lyrics and translate it once again, perhaps feel something, associate situations, or images with it. How does emotion translate into a great song? And how does it “turn back”?

Admittedly, this is a very broad concept of translation: I refer to the mere interpretive, consistent transmission from one thing to another. One could call it intersemiotic translation; this is a term from philology, the cultural study of languages, indicating the translation between totally different sign systems (or modes of expression). This is what happens, for example, when novels are adapted for cinema. 

Sounds are symbols – and they’re able to touch us

How does a great song turn into emotion? It’s not so easy to determine: Sound does not “carry” meaning in some magical way. In other words, the emotion, and images we associate with an auditory impression are not surfing on the sound waves, they’re not transported to us. Sound itself is a meaningless symbol of a complex code. The solution can be found elsewhere: Emotion has not been transmitted into our consciousness – it is already there. 

Music can resonate in places of our inner world; it touches and moves us. By listening to music, we feel sadness, joy, and ecstasy – fundamental components of the human experience. These are not plainly inscribed in the sonic language. We should rather think of music as a way to stimulate impressions which are deeply intertwined with our existence. 

David Anderson © Unsplash

When music looks like twisting shapes

Our interpretations of the sonic language encompass elusive associations, slight toe tapping, wild dancing, and unrestrained singing. Another unique mode of musical perception is called synaesthesia. Synaesthesia is a cognitive phenomenon, describing involuntary combinations of perception. In a common form of synaesthesia, people perceive numbers as inherently coloured. For others, sounds have shapes. Illustrating this, a synesthete described an example to me: When two people sing together, she perceives two lines that either run harmoniously or repel each other. The cognitive perception of music can thus become a dance of geometric forms.

Su-san Lee © Unsplash

This is fascinating and underlines that the full meaning of the sonic language isn’t part of the physical sound, but only evolves through individual perceptual processing of its structures, sometimes creating surprising effects. The listener’s perception processes the material entity of sound into an experience. According to this, a melody is like a sequence of data that requires a “processing unit” to be meaningful (for more on this, I recommend the book “Muster” by the sociologist Armin Nassehi).

Using digital technology for translation

It may hardly come as a surprise that the power to process and therefore translate the sonic language is not an exclusively human ability. Digital technology can also access the sonic language. Cyanite’s AI is trained to analyse it by recognising recurrent patterns. 

The process to successfully analyse music with neural networks takes several steps. Following my reasoning, we can picture these steps as translatory tasks. When it comes to data pre-processing, the team at Cyanite generates a visual representation of music (namely spectrograms); an activity we can call a “strategic rearrangement” of music: The characteristics of music are translated into graphical patterns, which can therefore be subject to pattern recognition. With the help of strategic rearrangements, the musical code reveals itself. After thorough training procedures, the AI learns to “read” the sonic language and to ascribe, how it resonates in us.

Going a step further: Creative Coding

It is well known that there are bittersweet ambiguities in music; a song can be both uplifting and sad. Cyanite’s music analysis tries to do justice to such contingencies by giving probability values for its attributions and by allowing “overlapping” mood categories.

In the context of inherent ambiguities, the independent art project vi · son tries a different, creative approach to digitally translate music. The project is working on audio-reactive digital art and engages with the question: Can we make music visible? Not just metaphorically, but truly? 

To translate the sonic language visually, the group applies methods of creative coding. Particularly so-called Generative Art enables data-based artworks such as moving sound sculptures that accentuate specific features of music. The curator and digital art expert Jason Bailey writes: “Generative Art is art programmed using a computer that intentionally introduces randomness as part of its creation process.” This doesn’t imply the complete autonomy of the machine nor total command over it: “The truth is that generative artists skillfully control both the magnitude and the locations of randomness introduced into the artwork.” Generative Art is a way to explore portrayals of sound-data, creating visual suitable representations of music. The resulting artworks interpret and reflect the spirit and aesthetics of the sonic language.

Guido Schmidt & vi · son: Sound Data Sculpture Sketch

One example is the digital scene “aurora” from the series Sound Data Sculpture Sketches. The creation process starts with a set of dots that move on a sphere. Over time their path is traced to form tubes, this produces an organic appearance. A representation of the underlying song’s frequencies is texture-mapped onto the geometry of the tubes and used to generate colour gradients that react to music. From this interpretative, digitally mediated translation of the original song, a dreamy audio-sculpture is created. By interpreting the musical parameters, this artwork goes further than a mere technical analysis. It thereby contemplates the poetry and beauty of the sonic language, seeking to visually formulate an accurate translation.

The project presents further examples of creative music visualizations in an ongoing digital exhibition. 

The whole theme of “translation” points to the fact, that music is socially formalised and follows symbolic structures. Music is deeply connected to our human experience because it works like a language, because it translates into emotion and bodily reactions. The notion that music is tangible and rests upon patterns that we can calculate and process with digital technologies is not as weird or scary as it might seems. Music is a code – and that is a beautiful thing.

Visit vi · son ‘s digital exhibition here

For more of our blog articles,

we recommend to check these out: 

3 Ways to Display and Integrate AI Search Results in Your Music Platform

How to use the Cyanite API to analyze Music on Genre, Mood, Bpm, Key and more

The 4 essential Steps for analyzing Music with Neural Networks

For the third part of our interview series #CyaniteTalks we sat down with Josephine Geipel, music therapist and researcher at the SRH University Heidelberg. Josephine’s insights show us the power of music far beyond its use for entertainment and leisure purposes. 

Learn more in this interview about the healing effect of music for depressive teenagers and how all of us can actively use music as a tool for emotional and mental stability. Enjoy the read.

Cyanite: Hi Josephine, you are a music therapist and teach at the SRH University of Applied Sciences in Heidelberg, to begin we would like to ask how you found your way into this profession and how can music therapy be defined?

Josephine Geipel: First of all, thank you very much for the invitation to the interview. My journey to music therapy is actually a very classic one, which most of our students also can tell. I made a lot of music at school, went to a musical high school and when it came to choosing a profession, I thought that a social job would be nice. I could imagine myself as a pediatric nurse, a midwife, or special education teacher, and in my investigation I discovered that you can study music therapy and I thought: how crazy is that? I took a small detour, studied theatre studies and worked in cultural management. But then I realized that I needed direct contact with music again and that I didn’t just want to take care of the administrative part of the music business. Finally, when I studied for the second time, I added a master’s degree in Music Therapy on top.

There are actually only 5 universities in Germany where you can study music therapy, which is certainly the reason why the subject is not so well known. Music therapy is now also listed as a small discipline at German universities – a list of small disciplines that are particularly worthy of support and protection.

We define music therapy in Germany as: the use of music within a therapeutic relationship to restore, maintain and promote mental, spiritual or physical health. And what is very important is that this happens within a therapeutic relationship. This distinguishes music therapy from music medicine, which uses music for the same purpose, but does not do so within a therapeutic relationship. Instead, a health professional turns on the jukebox and the music plays. There is no exchange of the effect of the music with the patient and there is no playing of music together.  And this offers a good demarcation of the two areas, since these terms are often confused.

“We define music therapy in Germany as: the use of music within a therapeutic relationship to restore, maintain and promote mental, spiritual or physical health.” 

Cyanite: Is music therapy already an accepted field in medicine or do you still have to fight to justify it?

Josephine: It is actually a very, very old field. Music has been used in medicine for thousands of years. Both with indigenous people and with the advanced ancient civilizations like the ancient Greeks. It is not so much anchored here in our Christian culture. Illness was long seen as God’s punishment and music was used to proclaim the word of God. Only since the 17th/18th century has ‘music as a remedy’ been discussed again. And that is why it is not yet as deeply rooted in our culture as it is in other parts of the world. Nevertheless, today’s music therapy is present in many guidelines for the inpatient care of patients and is an relevant part of the treatment of psychiatric and psychosomatic illnesses. Psychiatric and psychosomatic clinics are the places where most Music Therapists work. However, they are also found in acute medical areas or in rehabilitative institutions. In Germany neurological music therapy, for example, is a growing field where music is used very functionally, e.g. to improve the postural control of stroke patients who have lost certain bodily functions or Parkinson’s patients, where rhythm is used to restore motor functions.

Further, I also work practically in the field of neonatology, i.e. with premature and sick newborns and their families. Here, the main aim is to encourage parents to hum and sing for their child to strengthen their relationship and promote relaxation. Other areas of application are in oncology, palliative care and also in curative education context or in the field of community music.

” In many hospitals music therapy is a relevant part of the treatment of psychiatric and psychosomatic illnesses.” 

© Photo by George Coletrain – Unsplash

Cyanite: What can music do that other forms of therapy cannot? What makes music so special in therapy?

Josephine: Well, I think the most pronounced thing is that music therapy is one of the therapy methods that also enables the treatment of non-verbal patient groups that cannot come to psychotherapy. These can be people who, due to a limitation, can no longer understand or produce speech, e.g. after a stroke or disability. Or people who no longer have the strength, e.g. in palliative care at the end of life. For them, music can be a different approach to thoughts and feelings that they are dealing with. Or groups of patients who have literally lost their power to speech, e.g. after traumatic experiences or people with depression and anxiety disorders who find it difficult to talk about their feelings and thoughts – to put them into words at all. 

I am mainly researching music therapy with depressive teenagers. Young people are already going through such a difficult phase of change. The brain is being remodelled and might lead to slight mood swings; if an illness such as depression is added, they often find it difficult to access, express and regulate their emotions. Active music-making is a great way to express those feelings that cannot be expressed verbally and then find the words to express them. Music is a kind of opener.

If we look at the symptoms of depression – people withdraw, have little social contact, a depressed mood, low self-esteem and a low level of activity – and then look closely at what actually happens when I make music with a young person; write a song and then record it: We have a common activity in a social relationship. It is something active to make music, it increases the level of activity and music is fun. We make music because we enjoy music. And in the case of a depressive mood, it is doing something that is fun and encourages people to open up. Music picks people up quite well, especially young people. There is no age group that listens and creates music as much as young people. 

“Active music-making is a great way to express those feelings that cannot be expressed and then find the words to express them ” 

© Photo by Hans Vivek – Unsplash

Cyanite: What does music do to us, that it touches our inside, that it can trigger us or bring certain things to light?

Josephine: Well, I am not a neuroscientist who can explain this in detail. But the regulation of mood or one’s own activity level is one of the most important reasons for people to listen to music. Music activates many different areas of the brain that are important in terms of emotional reactions. It directly addresses the limbic system, which is responsible for processing emotions: The body’s own reward system is activated. Music can therefore cause the release of dopamine and endogenous opioids – similar reactions we see with sex or certain drugs. These substances increase our drive, motivation and mood. 

Cyanite: Can we then also generalize that certain music triggers a positive mood and a high energy level? Or does it differ from person to person?

Josephine: Well, there are certain musical parameters that cause similarities. Music can trigger certain emotions in us, but there are many, many different mechanisms that can underlie this. Some are universal and some are individual. Universal would be the mechanism of musical contagion, i.e. when a song is in a very slow tempo and in a minor key and perhaps the song also has a sad lyric. Through musical contagion, the mood in the music can be transferred to our mood. Scientist discuss whether this really happens via the mirror neurons. Imagine I have a patient who had a car accident – therefore a traumatic experience, and during the car accident ‘Dancing Queen from Abba’ was playing. It’s a very positively charged upbeat song, which most of us would perceive as a happy song, and therefore puts many people in a good mood. However, for the patient who experienced the accident listening to this exact song could trigger a flashback which could brings them directly back into the difficult emotional state experienced during the accident. Then playing this song would be absolutely contraindicated.

There is no music that works the same for everyone, but it depends on the situation you are in, what your current state is, what experiences you have had and so on. There are multiple variables at play in this process, which makes the process highly complex.

Cyanite: Algorithms try to make exactly such generalizations. To what extent do you come into contact with artificial intelligence in your profession, and where do you see the greatest potential for integrating this technology into music therapy and medical applications?

Josephine: In my practical work as a music therapist I have less contact with artificial intelligence, but of course both patients and I are surrounded by our environment and therefore also by AI. Patients use health monitoring apps with sleep and movement trackers and are reminded by the app: ‘Now is the time to get up to benefit your health’, so we are already getting in touch with AI. If you look at research projects in the field of psychotherapy, it is also very exciting for the field of music therapy. For example, an embodied AI – like a robot, can be useful for interactions with elderly people who often suffer from social isolation, or for children with autistic children to practice social interaction. Also apps that are used as virtual therapists can, for example, chat with people with depression and thus simulate a therapeutic conversation. AI development is not directly affecting my work, but I can see its presence in fields around me: Research projects are also taking place in our sister disciplines of music medicine and psychology. 

For example, there are many who try to explore the correlation between psychological and physiological parameters to music listening behaviour – that they then analyse and implement in machine learning models. I think that we are still at the beginning, and there is certainly potential for us music therapists to be open to – or at least we should know about what is being developed. In the end our patients will use the products that are developed with the help of these research results, so we have to stay informed. 

There are very exciting projects. There is a research group in Finland at the University of Jyväskylä that is developing a machine learning model to support affect regulation of young people through listening to music via an app. And this is, of course, a topic I am very much involved with, because I often develop playlists with the young people who are in therapy with me. Not based on AI, but completely human. I also believe that in the long term such apps could be included as a support for music therapy treatment. But as with the use of AI in the diagnosis of cancer, in the end the doctor has the last word. And I also think that in music therapy treatment, the music therapist and the patient should participate in the process and have the last word on what is being listened to. Think of the example before with the car accident and the woman, the machine didn’t know the individual case. 

Cyanite: What do you wish for – from a music therapy point of view, for the developers of modern algorithms?

Josephine: Keep the human being in mind.

From my own dealings with technology I know the enthusiasm of: “Wow, what you can do with it!” I think you just have to be careful not to get carried away, to put the machine above the human being. Apart from the fact that the machine does not know the individual case, there are also ethical and social aspects, and social consequences which are not yet foreseeable. We do not yet know how we – humanity – will react to them. With machine learning, it’s madness the speed at which it is developing. If we look at how slowly evolution is proceeding, the question is ‘how quickly we can adapt to these new developments?’.  And I think we have to take a good look at this and, despite all the research in the technical field, we must not lose sight of the ethical, social and data protection issues.

© Photo by Fixelgraphy – Unsplash

Cyanite: As a last question:  What are your tip for everyday people on how to use music at this moment in time where isolation, home office, and lockdowns are still realities for a lot of us?

Josephine: Well, I found the balcony music which has taken place in many cities very nice, because it makes a typical music-psychological phenomenon visible: making music together creates a feeling of community, solidarity and cohesion. I find highly exciting that in such an exceptional situation, we humans intuitively use music functionally as social cement.

For personal listening to music: pay attention to what you put on your ears! Pay attention to what the music you listen to triggers in you – especially in times when you are not feeling so well. Take care that you do not get into a loop. I see this often with depressed patients, that when they are not doing so well, they listen to songs that relate the depressed mood they are in. They have to be careful not to get caught up in this and end up in a rumination loop with musical accompaniment.

And for all of us: start where you are right now and make a playlist that gets you out of a bad mood. The first song can be a song that picks you up out of a depressed mood and then think about what kind of mood you want to be in? Search for a song that reflects this mood, put it at the end of the playlist and then gradually fill it up. 

Thank you Josephine for sharing your insight with us and for your valuable contribution in the field of music therapy!

If you are interested in knowing more about music in relation to therapy, psychotherapy and brain functions, here’s a list of recommendation on the topic: 

Books:

“This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession” 

by Daniel J. Levitin

” Good Vibrations”

by Prof. Stefan Kölsch

“Handbook of Music, Adolescents, and Wellbeing”

by Katrina McFerran, Philippa Derrington, and Suvi Saarikallio

Podcasts:

Clinical BOPulations

Instru(mental)

Musical Health

The European Music Therapy Confederation

Deutsche Musiktherapeutische Gesellschaft

Article on Playlists

Music Therapy ( M.A) – SRH Heidelberg

For more of our thoughts on Artificial Intelligence and Music, check these out:

4 Ways How We Use Music To Regulate Our Emotions In Everyday Life

Cyanite Talks #1 with Karolina Namyslowski from AMP Sound Branding

Podcast: Cyanite’s Data Scientist Roman about the potential and challenges of AI in music

Learn more in this interview about what DJs and sound strategists have in common, how TRO has integrated AI into their workflows and what artists shall look out for when they want to be considered for synch deals. Enjoy the read.

Vincent Raciti: A DJ set, at least for me, includes preparation. You think about who might be expecting you in the club and to a certain extent, adjust your record selection. That doesn’t mean that I change music genre or style for a certain audience; but maybe select records with a little more or less energy. As a DJ I have a kind of ‘brand’ or ‘fixed style’ but I also work in accordance with the external factors present at each gig, and most importantly: find an empathy with my audience and keep a fascination for the music I play.

When we talk about a brand for which we want to find the right sound, we deal with similar parameters: Brand fit, consideration of the target group, empathy and creative intuition are key. Most of our clients have a huge international reach. But even at this scale, a fascination for music from our producers, creatives and strategists is of the utmost importance – 10 experts work on a large project with us. In order to always hit the bull’s eye when choosing the right sound for a brand, we have sought scientific support beyond intuition.

“Brand fit, consideration of the target group, empathy
and creative intuition are key.” 

Vincent: The effect of music on people is an extremely exciting field of research that we (collaborators involved in the project) have always dealt with individually. Through past projects we already knew a lot about the effects of music – but the knowledge was fragmented. So, we started to look for models that objectively describe the emotional effects of music in order to provide orientation in the selection of music for complex projects. Because we were not satisfied with the results of the research, we joined forces with the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences and the University of Osnabrück.

The collective approach was soon clear to us: we conducted studies in which test persons listened to music and while doing so, tagged perceived emotions. Then we started to teach a machine learning algorithm with this data so that we no longer had to conduct new listener studies for each project. Our Research & Development Leader Michael Wittland did an amazing job as a one-man team. He optimized the algorithm to such an extent that we see it as the core of our Sonic Branding projects.

This is how it works: Together with the client, we firstly determine an emotional profile of the brand. Based on the profile and the target group, the algorithm creates a musical mood board that is used by our creatives and music producers as the basis for conception. Newly created music can be checked with the algorithm for its brand fit.

Thanks to the emotion model we use, we can talk to our clients in a very clear and direct way about the actually very subjective topic of music – this helps all parties involved in such a project enormously.

“Thanks to the emotion model we use, we can talk to our clients in a very clear and direct way about the actually very subjective topic of music.” 

Vincent: Algorithms are omnipresent, increasingly in both music and in marketing. Even Spotify is in the end a user interface with a lot of algorithms that make sure that you basically don’t have to select a song in your account anymore, and still love every song that is played automatically.

Our algorithm works differently because, similar to the algorithm of Cyanite, it tries to imitate a human being and identify emotions in the music. We use it as a supporting tool in complex processes. Despite its accuracy, every result is checked by our creatives, adjusted and implemented by our music producers and artists. And this is also important to communicate, because our clients would be rightly skeptical about an algorithm that does all the creative work – and ends up producing the music itself.

The way we use and communicate the technology has given us astonishingly good experience – 5 years ago, we were already allowed to use our work in progress’ algorithm’ in large projects for our customers.

In general, I believe that it is becoming increasingly important for all companies to identify, filter and effectively use new technologies.

TRO’s music and audio production for a mighty Porsche ad featuring Peggy Gou

Vincent: It is important to be where the gatekeeper is. And these are practically the same platforms on which you present yourself as an artist one way or another: like streaming, radio and social media. I think, even if it might sound tempting now to focus on syncs, or in the short term paid placements of music in media, it’s much more crucial in the long run to work authentically on your brand awareness and artist brand. That’s how the gatekeepers become aware of you. Label, publisher, management and distribution can of course help with a network and infrastructure to pitch the music directly. Dubious offers that promise quick sync success or want to bind artists exclusively, cost money and will rarely bring happiness.

“Dubious offers that promise quick sync success or want to bind artists exclusively, cost money and will rarely bring happiness.”

Vincent: No, I don’t think any “industry” is crisis-proof. Let’s take sound branding as an example – shooting film is currently prohibited so there are no new TV or media spots that we can set to music. Also for us, this means that we’re working on fewer projects. But we see this strained situation also as an opportunity: If it is not allowed to shoot with actors, more animation is simply created – and then perhaps it will end up in our studios for dubbing. Personally, we have also gained exciting new customers during the Corona period, who have used this time to take a strategic look at the use of music and sound in respect to their brand.

Audio-only media such as podcasts and smart assistants will generate reach for brands that was previously only achieved via TV and radio. Culture and the personalities behind the music will become more and more important for authentic brand communication – especially as a distinguishing feature, if AI really can produce great sounding music soon.  All in all, I see more opportunities than threats for the industry if it is open and proactive in shaping these developments together with its customers.   

Thank you for taking your time Vincent! Shout-outs to the TRO gang and all the best for the upcoming projects.

For more of our thoughts on Artificial Intelligence and Music, check these out:

Ellen Allien, Roman Flügel and Dub Isotope: An AI Analysis of Techno and Drum ‘n’ Bass

Cyanite Talks #1 with Karolina Namyslowski from AMP Sound Branding

Podcast: Cyanite’s Data Scientist Roman about the potential and challenges of AI in music

Check out the podcast below, and contact us if you want to know even more about what we do and how it can help your music catalogue.

Sound and music are probably the most universal languages in the world. Especially the increasing popularity of audio through music streaming, podcasts, Siri, Alexa and Co. makes the creation of a sound identity an essential component of a brand personality. “If” a brand uses audio in the right way, it is 96% more likely to be remembered and can build a lasting relationship with its customers. This is especially true for young adults, 74% of whom understand a brand personality better through music.

The “If” exists because it’s one of the biggest challenges for a brand to find its sound. That’s why we sat down with Karolina Namyslowska, Senior Creative at one of the world’s leading sound branding agencies AMP, for our new Cyanite interview series.

We wanted to know more about the challenges when finding the right music for a customer, how subjective music a really is and especially if and how the use of AI benefits her work.

Cyanite: Hi Karo, on your LinkedIn profile is written: “You are only given a little spark of madness, you musnt’t lose it” – which spark of madness has lead you to the music industry?

Karolina Namyslowska: You need to be slightly „mad“ to decide against a career path in economics, law, medicine or engineering. The creative path is much riskier and requires courage. Many of my classmates continued their careers at university and other academic institutions. I personally never saw myself doing this.

After my bachelor I wanted to stretch out my feelers and in 2013 I came across amp, where I started as an intern. That’s 7 years ago and I’m proud to say that I was their first employee. I’m very happy to have followed this creative path and to apply my knowledge and creativity to my job. 

You have studied music from both a technological (Music Informatics) and a social/cultural (Musicology/Cultural Studies) perspective. To which extent do these 2 perspectives help you in your daily work, and when does which one come into play?

I’m a Senior Creative at amp and lead the entire Creative Team.

The job requires creative input, as well as quality control for all of our creative output. One of my main tasks is the translation of brands into sound.

For the conceptual part of my job, I rely on the vocabulary and analytical techniques I picked up in my musicology studies and my musical background (piano). I also have technical proficiency, which is equally important and useful.

I’m a little disheartened by the women in the industry who lack technical skills. I’m not talking about a highly technical specialization, but rather, just common sense and the ability to use basic software tools to your advantage. I hope we buck this trend going forward.

My music technology curriculum also provided me with the basic audio-technical know-how to contribute to all types of media productions. My day-to-day involves a constant exchange with our internal production team and external teams (bands, producers, sound designers, etc.). So knowing how to navigate tools like Final Cut, Logic, Pro Tools, etc.. provides me with valuable insight throughout the different phases of a production. Even in a creative / conceptual phase I profit from those tools, for instance, when making mood-videos to better imagine or explain an idea.

“I think the key to knowing or being familiar with a large musical repertoire is not shying away from certain genres or styles or artists” 

At AMPs website you are named as their inhouse Spotify. How do you maintain a good overview of musical trends and new artists, when 300.000 new songs are being uploaded to the internet every day?

Listening to music is a core responsibility that comes with the job. Whether I’m looking for songs to better explain a concept to our clients – or if I’m digging for reference tracks to determine the creative direction for a new composition or production – my ultimate source is always Spotify.

I think the key to knowing or being familiar with a large musical repertoire is not shying away from certain genres or styles or artists. I was blessed with musical parents and a musical home – and we didn’t just use music as background noise, we actively listened to music.

I never lost interest or stopped enjoying music, despite my constant listening habits (professional and private). When I get on the train I put on my headphones and when I wrap my working day I listen to some more to relax. I’m always happy for new leads and new music, whether it’s from my friends, colleagues or through Spotify.

Your job is basically to understand the language of non-musicexperts (brands) and musicexperts (songwriters or publishers), and to bridge the gap between them. What do you consider to be the biggest challenge in this process?

Many of the stakeholders and client partners that we work with consider music a purely subjective art form. Our greatest challenge and mission is to settle on a common language (with our clients) and define parameters to better understand, discuss and evaluate music.

For this reason, our process always includes an “educational” part. We develop a common understanding for how the brand should and it should not sound. To do this we derive and translate brand values (e.g. “edgy”, “urban”, or “innovative”) into basic musical characterizations. These parameters or criteria serve as the basic description for the sound of the brand and help to evaluate any and all Sonic Assets (incl. Tracks, Sonic Logos, etc.).

Our goal is to provide the client with more than just a “gut feeling” for what sounds on-brand and what doesn’t. We teach our clients to develop the skills necessary to judge and understand music themselves. Because ultimately, the client stakeholders are determining the current and future sound of their brand – not their personal playlist

Their recent campaign with Mercedes is one of AMP’s many examples that show the power of sound branding

When music is used in a commercial, but also when algorithm-based music recommendations come in to play, the emotional effect of music becomes is more or less generalised. How subjective is music really and how do you measure the emotional effect of a song?

I agree! Music can create a deeply emotional and personal experience.

But there are parameters that can influence or steer the experience in specific directions. Let’s take a basic example:

We have a song with a dragging tempo and melancholy vocals. If we were to show the song to 100 people and survey them, only a fraction would consider the song driving, bright and uplifting. Of course there are unpredictable and personal factors, such as an individual’s past experience or past relationship with the song. However, the overwhelming consensus will always be that the song is “introverted” and “melancholic”.

We trust the expert-team at amp to track and define this relationship between musical parameters and their effect on the emotional listening experience. But we also regularly rely on market research (implicit, explicit and emotion-based) for our projects. An important element of our evaluation process is the AI-Testing Tool Veritonic. We use it to quickly and regularly test Sonic Assets along a set of standard attributes and give us an indication of Brand Fit, Uniqueness and Recall.

We don’t, however, use market research and AI tools as a replacement for creativity. All it does, is help us and our clients verify observations and decisions.

“Our greatest challenge and mission is to settle on a common language (with our clients) and define parameters to better understand, discuss and evaluate music”

What has been the biggest technological revolution since you started working in Sound Branding?

I think the age of voice is no revolution, but an evolution. I’m very impressed with Amazon Alex and how every-day interactions have been so seamlessly integrated into people’s lives. I’m excited to see what happens to autonomous driving in the next few years and how sound will help facilitate the human-machine interaction.

How do you look at AI in music? Do you think there is a place for AI in the space of Sound Branding?

Like I said early, I think that AI has a place in Sonic Branding. Whether it’s used for the cataloguing of music (in databases, through search-algorithms, etc.) or in the evaluation of certain aspects of music. We at amp, recognized this potential early and have developed a platform for our clients, which they can use as their own brand-specific Spotify to browse and search for Sonic Assets. Our clients greatly appreciate this tool and it’s become one of amp’s USPs. We prioritize giving our clients the necessary implementation tools to use their Sonic Identity in the best and easiest possible way.

Ok, last question, imagine, you’re sitting in the English Garden in Munich in the summer of 2021, the corona crisis is hopefully over, and you’re looking back on the previous year. What do you hope to say in the future? Do you think the job of sound branding experts will have changed?  

Primarily, I hope that the crisis will be over by then and that my family, friends and colleagues are healthy. I hope that the average 8 hour work day / 5 day work week becomes a thing of the past. I’m currently having a very good experience in my home office with amp.

I’m not sure if the job itself will change much. The significance of music and sonic branding will not level off – the opposite is true. The Corona virus is proving just how important and invaluable music is to people, especially in difficult times. It would be nice, especially here in Germany, to observe the same passion for music as we do in Italy and Spain.

Thanks a lot for taking your time Karo. Shout-outs to AMP and stay safe.