NEW WEBSITE: Where’s soundlounge going next?
A personal letter from Ruth Simmons, CEO, soundlounge.
A time for soundlounge to reflect…
Coming into our 40th year simply doesn’t seem possible. I wanted to take the time to thank everyone who has been with us on our journey. When soundlounge started, we had an idea that we could change the conversation about how to synch music for agencies and brands, but no idea where this conversation would take us. It was uncharted territory; no one knew what it meant to license a copyrighted track for a brand. Nigel Elderton, then a junior at EMI Publishing and now Chairman of the PRS, and I worked with Rights Owners to design and draft what is known now as a Publishing License. We were rookies together and literally sensed our way around the challenges – heady and exciting days. It wasn’t easy trying to define the terms; on one occasion, it landed us both in court, we won but also learned a lot!
The success from this collaboration and clearance design meant soundlounge were the first consultants to understand copyright licensing and the first to license the Beatles, Bowie, Madonna and Radiohead, to name but a few. This colossal learning curve led us to realise that the secret was to ask the right questions and to listen to the answers. An ethos we continue. We were even talking about sonic branding way back in 2003 but was way too early to be heard. Our research found that everything you know and understand about a brand should be reflected in what you hear, which remains our philosophy now.
Moving from ‘I think this music is right’ to ‘I know this music is right’.
But that’s enough about where we have been. Let’s talk about where we are going and why the refocus. Today’s multidimensional consumption means it’s not enough to be a creative resource and just aim for artistic excellence. With so many platforms for communication, the competition for attention span from consumers is short. Research led by Microsoft (2015) revealed it was just 8 seconds. Advertisers now have 4 seconds before we ‘skip ad’. But sound captures attention at 100s of milliseconds. This is why, over the past year, we have developed a dedicated neuroscience division, with comprehensive consumer research and testing capabilities, to discover the emotional engagement of music. This reveals what music works. We then go that bit further by finding out how, when and why people respond the way they do. We’re talking brains here. As the luminary Rory Sutherland edified at our last event, “Behaviour is much more driven by our emotional response than it is by rational communication. Therefore, music is central to emotion has to be central to our design. Because different music equals different take out, different emotional response equals different behaviour. Simple as that.”
Our brand-new website allows us to show you everything we have discovered since day dot. It reflects our work, our cutting-edge solutions – so that you always get the most from your music. So where are we going next? Our new website is just the beginning. Join us and be part of the next chapter – it will be heady, exciting and will deliver results that you have only ever wondered possible.
With thanks and appreciation,
Ruth Simmons.
