Audio Branding

How are you listening to this podcast right now? Maybe you're sitting at your computer or hearing it on a smart speaker, which probably means that you're listening with one app while keeping busy with a few other things. You might also be using a tablet or an MP3 player, which lets you stay on the move while you're hearing the show. But what's really become popular over the past few years is listening on your phone. Just this past month, almost 24 million podcast listeners used their smartphones, compared to 17 million for everything else put together. One thing all these choices have in common is that they let you keep busy while you're listening. And in today's fast-paced world, digital audio, particularly podcasts and audiobooks, is becoming a cornerstone of our daily lives.

Multitasking isn't always a good thing. We might feel like we're being more productive when we multitask, but over the years studies have shown that we really do better when we're focusing on just one task at a time. If you're curious to find out just how well you multitask, here's a link to a short test:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-8JdsNWZiM

At the same time, audio does have some advantages of its own. Our brains are finely tuned to listening to each other, to hearing a speaker's tone and pace, their inflections and the mood they're expressing beneath their words. Reading is still a pretty new trick when it comes to our brains, which means written words might not connect as quickly or deeply as hearing them spoken aloud. And while reading lets us consider the words more carefully and go back over them more easily, digital audio leaves us free to keep working, to go running or driving, to live our lives while we’re listening.

Just recently I had Summurai founder Tal Florentin on the show, and his company is at the forefront of this digital audio revolution. Summurai is a content management service that takes written articles and condenses them into short audio snippets for people on the go. Here's a link to a video with more information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG8dn9K71mU

Even so, digital audio doesn’t leave much room for distraction. If you’re listening to a podcast on your way to work, that means you’re probably not listening to anything else right at that moment. This can make audio branding and advertising much more effective than other forms of online marketing; nearly 70% of podcast listeners report that podcast ads made them aware of new products and services. And that audience is quickly growing in the US: more than a hundred million Americans now listen to at least one podcast a month.

Audiobooks are also becoming more popular, with one in five Americans having listened to one within the past year. While the first vinyl book recordings were made in 1932, and the first books on tape released in 1975, the industry’s grown in ways that could hardly have been imagined back then. George Saunders’ 2017 novel Lincoln in the Bardo, for instance, has been adapted into an audiobook with a cast of 166 Hollywood actors, and last year an Audible adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman featured its own all-star cast. Audio dramas have also experienced a revival over the past few years, with authors penning exclusive works meant to be heard instead of read.

While the freedom to listen and multitask all at once might be a selling point for audio content, sound can create a more powerful connection than just one of convenience. The act of learning something new triggers the reward center in our brains, much the same way as eating our favorite food or winning a game. And storytelling isn’t just part of our history, it’s how most of us learned to read: we grew up listening to our parents and teachers read to us. Audio content can combine both these things together, teaching us new things in a way that connects with our deepest experiences.

Printed books and traditional radio certainly aren’t going away anytime soon, but digital audio has become the fastest growing sector in the publishing industry. Twenty million people started to listen to podcasts for the first time last year, and that number’s only going to keep growing. And as more and more people find themselves listening on the go, the opportunities to reach out to and engage with that emerging audience will keep growing with it.

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast? If so, here’s the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453 And if you like what you hear (and read!) – please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much!

And if you’re interested in crafting an audio brand for your business, why not check out my FREE download – 5 Tips For Implementing An Intentional Audio Strategy at https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/

This is the 2nd part of my interview with Tal Florentin. In the first part of our interview, we discussed the background of Summurai and where businesses are starting to use more audio. In this second part, we switch our conversation to talk about other places where audio is being used so content can be relayed to its intended audience.

We discuss:

• Audio being used to give instructions for things like pre-surgery
• Using different audio for male versus female consumers
• The struggle that comes up when working with businesses to use a less formal tone of voice
• Asking what kind of shoes the company wants the voice actor to wear when speaking their script in order to determine the scale of casual to formal in their audio
• It can be tricky to find the right voice to match the tone of the content
• The need for their own unique platform to house the audio
• When having both the written and audio versions of content makes the most sense
• The first use of audio to relay content- the guided tour
• The summarization of content and how it comes into play
• The struggle of long audio versions of content (like an audiobook)
• The benefits of microlearning
• Using microlearning as a way to summarize content for someone the same way a friend might be able to if you were in person
• Summaries of people’s expertise and how that helps
• Using summies to help with the medical field for doctors to learn
• Using summies to help the layman learn about concepts that are hard to understand if you’re not in that field
• How hard it is to be natural on video, which makes it hard to connect with your audience
• The similarity from video to audio and how hard it is to sound natural when doing voice acting
• We connect better when we feel like we’re part of a conversation
• Voice actors who have done in person acting sometimes struggle and will overdo it
• Personal voice versus professional voice
• Opting in to using the voice memo app because it sounds more natural
• Natural communication sounds like people just saying what they need to say
• More info on Summurai

If you want to find out more info about Tal or Summurai, visit:

Website: www.summurai.com 

Downloadable PDF: www.summurai.com/ebook

Audio version of the PDF: http://summur.ai/dTEDG

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco (http://www.humbertofranco.com/).

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast? If so, here’s the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453 And if you like what you hear (and read!) – please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much!

And if you’re interested in crafting an audio brand for your business, why not check out my FREE download – 5 Tips For Implementing An Intentional Audio Strategy at https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/

In this interview, I have the pleasure of speaking with Tal Florentin. He’s in the UX space and has spent the last decade working to enhance UX using audio in the Israeli market. He’s done some monumental things in the UX world, including creating the Israeli UX certification program. After realizing that audio is the future and bound to be bigger than video, he founded Summurai which allows companies to create audio branded channels for a variety of different reasons. You’ll find some great information about how to elevate your business with audio in this interview!

We discuss:

• What life looks like for Tal in Israel with COVID
• Our hopeful look at the future without COVID
• Tal’s background in software engineering which led him to design
• The big things that popped up for Tal when he was working in design and doing research
• The mass amount of content that is now available and how to even start consuming it all
• Tal’s lean toward audio to enhance and make for a better customer experience
• Optimizing our time and what we’re doing each activity
• Using audio to fill badly used time
• The difference between where video is going from here and where audio is going
• Working with companies to figure out how they want to use audio
• The uncharted territory of audio
• When first starting Summurai, trying to eliminate the human element
• Creating shorter pieces of audio- under 3 minutes
• Where the name Summurai came from
• Tal’s process for creating audio
• Some of the different things they’ve tried in Summurai
• Trying to make things sound conversational and when that’s not actually the goal
• Taking written content and creating audio content from that
• Tal’s experience working with LG and creating audio versions of training kits
• Pulling in story telling to the different audio pieces
• Moving ourselves away from technology with audio
• The benefits to moving away from technology

If you want to find out more about Tal or Summurai, you can visit:

Website: www.summurai.com 

Downloadable PDF: www.summurai.com/ebook

Audio version of the PDF: http://summur.ai/dTEDG

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco (http://www.humbertofranco.com/).

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast? If so, here’s the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453 And if you like what you hear (and read!) – please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much!

And if you’re interested in crafting an audio brand for your business, why not check out my FREE download – 5 Tips For Implementing An Intentional Audio Strategy at https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/

It’s been just about a year now since the coronavirus pandemic first started, and sometimes it’s felt like the whole world’s closed for business. More and more of us are working from home, and most of our business meetings, not to mention our daily lives, take place over Zoom these days. Life seems to be much more homebound lately, but with new vaccines being approved and the Tokyo Olympics just around the corner, the world’s starting to open again. And one sector that’ll play a pivotal role in it is the tourist industry.

In 2019 the Costa Rica Tourism Board, or ICT, won the International Sound Award for Audio Branding with “The Sounds of Costa Rica,” a new musical brand that subtly emphasizes the letter C, for Costa Rica. It does this by making a simple but powerful six-note mnemonic out of the circle of fifths, a diagram often used in music. It starts with a C note and uses such instruments as the marimba, tuba and ocarina to play halfway through the circle.

This might sound pretty technical, but the melody, combined with the instruments and festive, colorful imagery that accompanies it, works to create an almost instinctive sense of warmth and inclusion. Like most music, all that work is just to create exactly the right mood for the listener, without anyone even noticing it.

If you’d like to hear it, and to see how it complements the new ICT logo, check out this link to the award video:

https://www.international-sound-awards.com/media/ISA2019/2019-1017_ICT-TheSoundsOfCostaRica_CaseFilm.mp4

When we think about travel, we usually think of it as imagery: bright tropical beaches, flashing city lights or lush green forests. But audio branding’s starting to play a much larger role in the tourism industry lately, creating a sense of excitement, familiarity, even nostalgia using sound. The international resort chain Bahia Principe (bye-ee-ah preen-seh-pay) has made its theme song, complete with band and lyrics, the foundation of its brand. The melody’s used everywhere from its commercials to its phone system, from corporate videos to lobby music, all to create a consistently recognizable audio logo that will instantly engage their customers.

Curious about the song? There’s a link to it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpGNqcH5GuQ

But a lot has changed, even since 2019. Tourist boards and travel companies need to talk about the pandemic, expressing empathy for customers who are understandably reluctant to go on a vacation these days and adjusting their brand to a very different world than just a few years ago. Hotels.com quickly updated its Captain Obvious commercials last spring, previously featuring its mascot aboard a crowded airplane, to show support for social distancing and staying at home, and then again a few months later with a more lighthearted reference to Covid-19’s impact. Visit Las Vegas also started its #OnlyYou ad campaign in March of 2020 and has updated its message several times as well, encouraging visitors to wear masks and practice social distancing once the city’s reopened.

You can find links to both of their ads here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x0QVlKnjRE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dimCZCfGMI

These commercials have to strike a delicate balance between brand promotion, encouraging visitors to take precautions and showing solidarity with tourists who aren’t yet ready to travel.

Other travel companies are working to change their marketing approach altogether and find creative new ways to brand themselves in a post-pandemic world. Expedia, for instance, has relied on audio branding in the past, such as its Sound Travels ad campaign in 2018, and has more recently started its “Work From Here” campaign, replacing its more traditional vacation outings with packages meant for remote workers looking for a change in scenery.

It could still take a while before things get back to normal. The International Air Transport Association estimates that, even with a vaccine, air travel might not reach 2019 levels again until 2024, while the demand for hotels could take as long as 2023 to recover. And when it does, there’s a lot of uncertainty about what normal’s going to look like. But even while we’re all still stuck waiting inside, marketing and audio branding can help keep the tourist industry emotionally engaged with its customers, and all the more ready to recover and help make the world go round again.

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast? If so, here’s the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453 And if you like what you hear (and read!) – please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much!

And if you’re interested in crafting an audio brand for your business, why not check out my FREE download – 5 Tips For Implementing An Intentional Audio Strategy at https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/

In the second part of my interview with Melinda Lauw, we continue our conversation about ASMR. In the first part, we really had a chance to dive into what ASMR is and what it looks like to create ASMR experiences - both in person and online. Now, we're talking more about the commercial side of ASMR and where ASMR is starting to show up in more mainstream media.

We discuss:

• What it looks like to do this work with advertisers
• How Melinda partnered with a hotel and doing events with the hotel
• Creating videos with Moxie hotels - Melinda gives her expertise and creates scripts for the hotels
• Most of her gigs have been in conjunction with in person events
• Melinda has been hired as the consultant for different companies when they're looking to create ASMR content
• The different parameters she has to work within when doing consulting work
• The balance between the purpose of the ad or gig and being true to ASMR
• Melinda shares some of her experiences with different advertising companies
• ASMR forces people to pay attention to the little details
• The growth of the ASMR community online
• The continued waves of ASMR
• How ASMR is becoming much more accessible to everyone
• How ASMR is free and so accessible because of its online presence
• The possibility of making money in ASMR, especially with YouTube
• The pushback when people do try to monetize ASMR
• The selective nature in finding the right brand sponsorship - they want to find sponsorships that are in alignment with ASMR
• Melinda doesn’t like watching ASMR videos with ads in the middle because it ruins the experience (I don't blame her at all!)
• Tastefully adding in ads and how to make them in the same vein as ASMR
• Melinda’s currently working on a live stream and the exhibit in Europe doing a live exhibit on ASMR
• Melinda’s work creating videos for her YouTube channel
• How she’ll be experimenting with different types and ways to make videos

If you want to find out more about Melinda, you can find her through the following:

Find out more about Whisperlodge: http://whisperlodge.nyc

See a video of an immersive live ASMR performance either on Netflix's Follow This, Part 1, Episode 1 https://www.netflix.com/title/80217889

Or on Mashable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKdW5k-7FcA&t=1s

Check out our ASMR videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/whisperlodge

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco (http://www.humbertofranco.com/).

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast? If so, here’s the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453 And if you like what you hear (and read!) – please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much!

And if you’re interested in crafting an audio brand for your business, why not check out my FREE download – 5 Tips For Implementing An Intentional Audio Strategy at https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/

In this interview, I'm talking with Melinda Lauw. She’s the cofounder of Whisperlodge - a company working to create in person ASMR experiences. Whisperlodge has toured San Francisco, L.A., and New York and even been featured in a Netflix documentary. ASMR is one of the more recent additions to audio entertainment (it stands for "Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response") and it was fascinating to hear from someone who's been on the forefront of this growing industry. In this first part of our interview, we're discussing what ASMR is, and where you may have seen it in your own life!

We discuss the following in this interview:

• COVID in the United States and Canada
• How life looks for Melinda right now with COVID
• Her first take on ASMR
• 2008 was the first experience with ASMR
• 2010 - the term ASMR officially becomes coined
• The huge community of ASMR on YouTube
• The most frequently asked topic within ASMR - ASMR erotica 
• The myth behind ASMR needing to be erotic, when in reality, it’s not
• The people who have made themselves up to enhance their ASMR pieces
• A woman in Japan who builds in her own sound design
• The time commitment it takes to create a YouTube video with ASMR
• Melinda’s now shifting from ASMR in real life into ASMR on YouTube
• Melinda’s process for creating her videos
• ASMR sub genres - eating, sex, no speaking, miniatures, etc.
• Melinda’s likes when it comes to what she produces and what she likes to watch herself
• The Netflix production of Whisperlodge
• Melinda walks us through how she was found for the Netflix production
• How different in person ASMR is compared to watching something on YouTube
• The intense immersion of ASMR
• ASMR in person, is not for everyone and requires you to be vulnerable
• Considerations that have to happen for in person ASMR
• The need for consent with each different element of ASMR
• The pros and cons of making an ASMR video - you don’t have any feedback
• Melinda’s preference to work with people she doesn’t know

If you want to find out more about Melinda, you can find her through the following:

Find out more about Whisperlodge: http://whisperlodge.nyc

See a video of an immersive live ASMR performance either on Netflix's Follow This, Part 1, Episode 1 https://www.netflix.com/title/80217889

Or on Mashable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKdW5k-7FcA&t=1s

Check out our ASMR videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/whisperlodge

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco (http://www.humbertofranco.com/).

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast? If so, here’s the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453 And if you like what you hear (and read!) – please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much!

And if you’re interested in crafting an audio brand for your business, why not check out my FREE download – 5 Tips For Implementing An Intentional Audio Strategy at https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/

When’s the last time you really listened to your own voice? Maybe you were rehearsing for a presentation, or if you sing, practicing a song. You might’ve heard it while checking your voice mail or watching yourself in a video, and if you’re like most of us, you probably hardly even recognized it. We don’t think about our own voices very often, and when we do, it can seem like we’re just stuck with whatever voices we’re born with. But speaking is a skill, and just like any skill, we can improve and build upon it.

Author and sound expert Julian Treasure describes two important parts of speaking: what you say and how you say it. When it comes to what you say, Julian recommends the HAIL method, which means to always speak with Honesty, Authenticity, Integrity and Love.

As for how you say it, he suggests focusing on several different aspects of speech. There’s register, which you can think of as being how you project your voice. Some people speak from their noses and that can sound very flat and nasally, while most of us tend to speak from our throats without thinking about it. But if you want to give a sense of weight and authority to your words, you’ll want to speak from deep down in your chest. Think about where your voice is coming from, and then you can focus on other things like the “prosody,” the natural melody of your voice, the timbre and pitch of your voice as well as the pace and volume. Silence can be an important and easily overlooked part of speaking; a moment’s pause gives your listener a chance to consider what you’ve said before you move on.

If you’d like to hear more on the HAIL method and what Julian calls the Seven Deadly Sins of speaking, you can find a link to his video presentation below on speaking with empathy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIho2S0ZahI

Professional speaker and voice coach Cynthia Zhai also suggests looking beyond just the tone of your voice and focusing on where your voice is coming from. More than 80% of people around the world speak with a “head voice,” a bustling, modern voice that expresses thinking, analyzing, doing, but not being; Cynthia notes it may be no coincidence that happiness rates around the world are also very low. When you practice speaking, try taking a deep breath and projecting from your whole body. Instead of thinking of your voice as a tool, let yourself become your voice. People in ancient times believed in a deep connection between our bodies, voices and selves, and that’s something we can lose sight of in today’s fast-paced world.

There’s a link below to Cynthia’s talk about the transformative power of your voice, and she’ll also be appearing on an upcoming episode of this podcast as a guest – so stay tuned!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcDerWSyccg

Finally there are the things you don’t want to do if you want to keep your voice clear and healthy. Producer and voice instructor Judy Rodman gives a lighthearted Halloween list of some of the things you can do to kill your voice: stressing out before you speak, talking breathlessly until your throat dries out, speaking with a vocal fry that strains your vocal cords. Smoking, drinking, staying up late, eating foods that give you acid reflux; just as Cynthia points out, there’s a profound link between our bodies and our voices, and if we don’t keep ourselves healthy, our voices won’t sound healthy.

For the rest of Judy Rodman’s 27 Ways to Murder Your Voice, check out a link to her YouTube video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FFmXsj5N6w

As we end today’s podcast, why not try out a vocal warm-up exercise for yourself? You can also find a timestamp link below to Julian Treasure’s six vocal warm-up steps, starting with arm stretches and working your way through breathing, lip exercises, moving your tongue and finally flexing your vocal cords.

https://youtu.be/eIho2S0ZahI?t=472

It might feel silly at first, but it takes over a hundred different muscles to speak. Just like the rest of your body, the more you practice and exercise, the stronger they’ll become.

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast? If so, here’s the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453 And if you like what you hear (and read!) – please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much!

And if you’re interested in crafting an audio brand for your business, why not check out my FREE download – 5 Tips For Implementing An Intentional Audio Strategy at https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/

This is the second part of my interview with Dr. Cornelius Ringe and Lars Ohlendorf. The first half of this conversation was so enlightening, especially hearing about how sound and audio branding looks in different parts of the world and the history of audio branding. In this part, we really dive into more about where audio branding came from and where it’s going!

In this second part, we discuss:

• The best money saving tips for audio branding
• Giving yourself time to let your own DIY attempts sink in before starting over
• Making decisions based on your business model
• Where audio branding is going from here
• Podcasting’s role in audio branding
• The requirements for different brands when it comes to audio branding
• How Netflix’s sound logo has become synonymous with the pandemic
• How jingles have moved to sound logos
• Technology’s role moving into the need for more sound logos
• Design as a function
• The change of the approach to music in ads and filling emptiness
• What WESOUND does
• What ISA does
• The criteria for awards within ISA 
• The evolution of the ISA awards 
• The impact of the different projects submitted for the ISA awards
• The relationship between sound and the physical product it represents

If you would like to find out more information, you can do so here:

www.wesound.de

And you can find out more information about the Audio Branding Academy and their awards here: https://www.international-sound-awards.com/ 

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco (http://www.humbertofranco.com/).

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast? If so, here’s the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453 And if you like what you hear (and read!) – please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much!

And if you’re interested in crafting an audio brand for your business, why not check out my FREE download – 5 Tips For Implementing An Intentional Audio Strategy at https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/

In this interview, I am joined by two guests who are taking the audio branding world by storm. Dr. Cornelius Ringe and Lars Ohlendorf are partners in the company, WESOUND and Dr. Ringe is the founder of the Audio Branding Academy. We dive into so many great aspects of audio branding in this interview and it’s great to have another perspective on where audio branding is going from here.

 We are discuss:

• What life looks like in Hamburg, Germany and how they’re both dealing with COVID lockdowns
• The shift to home office work with audio
• Musicians’ takes on working from home and doing streaming concerts
• Experiencing online performances and speeches 
• Adjusting to the lack of audience interaction
• Zoom’s impact on musical sound
• How Zoom has upped their game when it comes to sound
• WESOUND and where it came from
• Audio branding’s role in the creation of WESOUND
• The difference between Audio Branding Society and the Audio Branding Academy
• The growth of audio branding 
• Breaking down the difference between sound and audio branding 
• Europe’s role in audio branding
• NBC’s accidental audio branding in the very beginning 
• Radio’s initial sounds and where they came from
• Advertising and how everything’s transitioned over the years
• How we are wired to pay attention to sound
• Finding the right methods and approaches to creating the right sound
• Audio branding isn't all about science
• Methodology changes from client to client when creating audio branding 
• If science does play a role, it’s probably more about psychology than anything else
• The importance of design over finding the right calculations 
• Ongoing work on the brand
• Different companies’ take on the importance of audio branding for their company

If you would like to find out more information, you can do so here:

www.wesound.de

And you can find out more information about the Audio Branding Academy and their awards here: https://www.international-sound-awards.com/ 

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco (http://www.humbertofranco.com/).

 Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast? If so, here’s the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453 And if you like what you hear (and read!) – please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much!

 And if you’re interested in crafting an audio brand for your business, why not check out my FREE download – 5 Tips For Implementing An Intentional Audio Strategy at https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/

When you close your eyes and think about being in a hospital, what do you imagine hearing? Are the sounds soothing, or do they make you tense up with even more anxiety? Hospitals aren’t usually relaxing places, and they don’t always sound very relaxing either. Heart monitors beep, respirators pump, and voices murmur in the background or occasionally ring out over the intercom.

They can be surprisingly loud too. The nighttime background noise at a hospital can sometimes reach over a hundred decibels, louder than a chainsaw. A National Institute of Health study in 2009 recognized noise as a hazard to patients; sleep deprivation weakens the immune system, which has a direct effect on mortality rates. Hospital noise isn’t just annoying, it can be dangerous.

Some hospitals are working to change that. Apart from lowering the noise, they’re also focused on weaving it into a healing soundscape that harnesses the link between music and the human body. You can check out my blog for a short but insightful video by electronic musician Yoko Sen about how her experience as a patient inspired her to help create a more melodic ambiance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-AOTqMtR5s

Last year Aalto University won the International Sound Award for Soundscapes and Ambient Sound for its own work in creating an innovative series of ambient soundscapes for New Children’s Hospital in Helsinki. Each floor has a unique and constantly changing theme, from the ocean on the first floor all the way up to space and the stars at the top, and is designed to help put children at ease, taking their thoughts away from the hospital and into an imaginative journey filled with natural sounds and delicate instruments.

There’s a link on my blog to a presentation video by the project’s director, composer and lecturer Antti Ikonen, as well as a link to an interactive demo of each of the nine soundscapes so you can hear them for yourself:

https://international-sound-awards.com/media/ISA2019/2019-1037_New_Childrens_Hospital_Soundscape_KB.mp4

https://newchildrenshospital.aalto.fi/

The idea that sound can play such an important role in healing has been around for quite a while now. Music therapy as we know it today got its start soon after World War II, when musicians visited hospitals to play for veterans. Doctors and nurses started to notice that these visits made a very real difference in their recoveries. They began to incorporate music into the idea of creating a “healing environment” where each aspect of the hospital setting, both visual and audio, plays its own part in helping the patients.

Florence Nightingale wrote in 1859 that carefully controlling the lights, colors and sound in a patient’s room could help them recover more quickly, and in 2013 Brian Eno credited her for inspiring his own “Quiet Room for Montefiore”, an immersive audio project at Montefiore Hospital in Essex. A few years later the “Healing Soundscapes” research project at Hamburg University began, uniting music therapists and composers to find new ways of improving the well-being of hospital patients.

There’s no doubt that sound can have a very real effect when it comes to health care. One study in 2016 showed that listening to just fifteen minutes of music before surgery reduces a patient’s anxiety, while another study found that creating an immersive natural soundscape is more relaxing and effective than simply masking the background noise. These nature sounds significantly reduce your cardiac stress markers and cortisol levels, and, for some patients, lower stress can make a literally life-or-death difference.

Most of us probably aren’t ever going to find ourselves looking forward to a trip to the hospital. But for the children at New Children’s Hospital, as well as a growing number of hospitals all around the world, soundscape and audio design are helping transform that clamoring background noise into a soothing melody.

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