Ride the Sonic Branding Wave

Here's something I have learned.

The mark of a great salesperson is not that they are great listeners or smooth operators or have a contacts list as long as your arm (though these are all useful). The true sign of a great salesperson is that that can spot a wave coming (at approximately the right moment) and ride it for as long as it is worth riding.

Selling is super-super easy when you have a product or service to sell that people actually want. Understanding this - and letting this principal guide you - will allow anyone to be great salesperson. Trouble is, passion, emotion, sunk costs and a general lack of ability to 'smell the cheese' often get in the way of a person's ability to think clearly: Do people want what I am selling? If not, how can I change what I am selling so they will want it.

So much sales training is based upon techniques for changing the minds of the buyers - to get them to want your product. I'm afraid that is all bull***t. You can't work that way and have long term success - unless you want to turn into this.

The point of this post?

For the first time since I started in sonic branding I can say without a hint

of BS that the market finally wants what I have to sell.

Here comes the wave...get yourself a board.

Defining Sonic Branding

I've been here before. I started 'defining' sonic branding back in 1998, have contributed to dictionaries, wrote a book and yet...here I am still refining what it is.

This is my current definition. It reflects my 2010 mindset in that:

1. It is short - just like our attention spans

2. It is plain language - I've simply had enough of corporate, middle-management, 3 letter acronym, bullshit-laden marketing speak

3. It is easy to understand - so everyone (you included) can get a grip on this stuff without having to engage too much of your brain. Heaven knows, there is too much information out there - I don't want to pollute your heads.

So here it is:

Sonic branding is: A brand's relationship with its audiences through their ears

If you have a better definition (and you may well have) let me know via Twitter @DanielMJackson

Free music anyone?

So maybe I shouldn't blog twice in a day - but what can I do? I have just had an interesting thought...

At Cutting Edge, we have been grappling with our client's desires to have 'free' music for their websites. What are the options? How do we keep our clients happy but still honor the fact that we work in a world of licensing, royalties and ownership? We are PRS members, after all.

It is pretty easy to go down the unsigned route. Grab the music of some youngster - ready to be exploited (in the nicest way) but is there another way?

Maybe it is here http://www.publicdomain2ten.com/

There has to be an amazing opportunity right now in music that is going public domain. I haven't done all the homework yet - how long is copyright of masters and publishing? - but I do know that some of the recordings on this site are pretty usable (in terms of audio quality and musicality). And every passing year brings a greater volume of works into public domain.

Food for thought...or is this just a can of worms?

Rage Against The Machine

I spent the last ten years building a sample library, buying more and more powerful computers and selling my clients on the idea that you can make music more easily, more cheaply and more creatively with one man and his machines rather than with live musicians.

Now I think I was wrong.

I have just seen the creative director of Cutting Edge hold a sonic branding session with three musicians in a studio + a client. What came out of the session was an organically created piece of work that everyone contributed to, has a vested interest in and has more soul than anything we have every come up with using the machines.

Having espoused a mechanised approach to music creation I am now firmly flip-flopping into the camp of those who believe the real magic happens when talented people get together in a room and play their instruments, use their ears to judge what they hear and develop iteratively.

I am sure there are some parallels to be drawn from the world of software development; SCRUM methodologies versus Waterfall and all that but I'll leave that for another day (and another book?)

For now, I just wanted to say that musicians are not the enemy of sonic branding - just the opposite. Time for the people to rise up against the machines!