“Live is always going to be great. Human connection is the only thing that will differentiate AI from people and from artists. And that is, I think, going to be the key lever that artists have left. So in the same way as you might go and buy a handmade coffee cup for $20 from an artisan stall when you can buy one for a dollar in Walmart, music will still hold great value.” – David Courtier-Dutton

This episode is the second half of my conversation with the founder and CEO of SoundOut, David Courtier-Dutton, as we discuss the catch-22 financial companies can face when it comes to making a sonic impression, how some companies are reaching old and new customers alike by reviving the radio jingles of years past, and the role of audio branding in an increasingly AI-driven world.

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(00:00) – Surprising Trends in Sonic Branding

The second half of our conversation starts as David shares more of SoundOut’s discoveries about the effectiveness of branding, including why Visa and Mastercard’s sonic logos haven’t made the impact they’d hoped. “Listening to their sonic logo in isolation with no brand association,” David explains, “20% and 31% respectively said, yeah, we know the brand. But not one person out of those 400 across the two brands could actually write the brand name when asked what the brand was.” We talk about the old radio jingles and how some companies are finding success in reviving them for a new generation. “Both Maybelline and Pillsbury,” he tells us, “are sort of historic logos that were retired for a long time, and you just cannot underestimate the power of bringing back an old, beloved sonic logo… I wouldn’t say it’s an easy win, but it is, because those neural pathways are absolutely locked in.”

(8:45) – The Role of AI in Music and Marketing

David and I talk about the elephant in the room, AI and its impact on marketing, and the shift he’s seen over the past year. “Up until about six months ago,” he observes, “we were seeing very little of it. There are some obvious concerns around legalities … brands won’t want to use music created by AI in case it is actually breaching copyright. [But[ that will get sorted in the next six months or so, I think.”

He shares his thoughts on how search processes are being increasingly handled by AI, and how audio can help brands stand out from the crowd. “The brand will go nowhere near the consumer,” he tells us. “So anything that you can do to make your brand more distinctive when you are advertising online and through music, anything to make a brand more prominent, can only help.”

(20:30) – The Power of Authenticity in Branding

As our discussion comes to a close, David elaborates on his observation that AI is increasingly talking to itself rather than users. “We’re basically talking agents talking to agents,” he explains, “so AI agents talking to AI agents… I would imagine within 12 months it’ll become quite a big thing. And within three years, it’ll be everywhere. Everywhere.” We talk about the role human creativity might still play in a marketplace driven by AI, and one advantage musicians still have over machine-generated content. “It can feign emotion,” he says, “but you’ll never move an AI with a song because it doesn’t do emotion, and it literally, it never will… Emotion and empathy are all that we have as humans to distinguish ourselves from machines. And so music will… music will survive forever.”

Episode Summary

The challenges and surprising innovations in building a distinctive audio brand.
How AI audio content has already begun to reshape the digital landscape.
David shares his insights on what the growth of AI means for human artists.

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How Audio Branding Transforms Marketing: A Conversation with David Courtier-Dutton – Part 2