How Is Sound Used in Advertising? Songtradr’s Amber Morris Explains It to a Teenager

I went to a panel with Songtradr, TikTok, and VaynerX where I met Amber Morris, who introduced me to some new concepts about how music is used in TV, social media, and branding. She is the Director of Global Accounts at Songtradr.

What’s Interesting About Songtradr?

Songtradr is a company based around music and sound that helps other companies and brands get the sounds that they want. They make sounds for certain brands and companies that they can use to boost their recognition using sonic branding. 

I think the most interesting thing that Amber Morris does is what's called sonic branding. Sonic branding is another form of advertising that is used very frequently by most major brands and companies, yet goes unnoticed because of how subtle it is… it’s everywhere!

Sonic branding gives companies a trademark sound so they can be recognized just by hearing a simple sound. It could be a chime or a song but as long as it gets the consumers to recognize that sound and pair it with the brand, it works. 

Songtradr itself also has a website that you can use to look up songs and artists and other music-related things in general to see things like statistics and licensing deals. Things like what shows are using what songs, or what regions and cities like what music on Spotify and TikTok. 

What I liked about her message:

Her message was to “understand the importance of sound in advertising, especially when it comes to selecting the right music for your campaign objectives.” This was really interesting to me because I have always been interested in music and the effects of sound and it's intriguing to see that it can be used for more than just personal enjoyment. It can be used in business and make a real difference in the whole experience someone has with a brand (or a service like TikTok).  

TRANSCRIPT 

RIO: And how does your company work and make money? 

AMBER: So essentially, our company is a business-to-business music licensing company. We offer several different solutions to agencies, brands, and entertainment companies that are all based around music and audio. So we do everything from licensing music to agencies and brands for commercials to custom compositions and Sonic branding, which essentially means that we are creating the Sonic or sound music identity of brands.

RIO: And how do you work with TikTok?

 AMBER: So we are actually an approved marketing partner and were part of TikTok’s marketing partner program, we are badged in the sound department. We offer music to their commercial music library. So we curate music that's artists driven, that we know is going to perform well on the platform and help brands scale there. And then we also partner with them on the custom composition side of things so we can create music specifically for brands to use on Tik Tok. 

RIO: Last but not least, what's your message or messages to fellow marketers? 

AMBER: So I think the message today for me is to understand the importance of sound in advertising, especially when it comes to selecting the right music for your campaign objectives. And then understanding that there are companies out there like Song trader and map and music and bass think music, who can help you maximize your ROI when it comes to music in advertising. 

RIO: Thank you very much!