Resources for starting out in sonic branding, from Here

Interested in how sonic branding uses sound to build recognition, spark emotion and shape how audiences connect with a brand? Branding agency Here, known for redefining icons like Bacardi and 7UP, takes a cross-disciplinary approach. In this round-up, Josh Shires, Audio Director at Here, shares his go-to resources for exploring, understanding and starting out in the industry.

🎵 Music discovery and curation

New Music Playlists

Some people are pretty good at doing this themselves, but it’s a big job to keep on top of new music releases (if even possible at all). Curated playlists on streaming platforms will help you stay updated, these are great for quick access to what's trending.

The Long Play Playlist

An independent option worth subscribing to is The Long Play: a new releases playlist, sent to your inbox every Friday. Curated by Josh Epstein-Richards, it’s an excellent supplement to streaming services and offers a hand-picked selection of tracks.

Subscribe to The Long Play here

💻 Industry insight

Audio Research Agencies

Audio research companies test and evaluate sonic branding assets with sample audiences. They provide insights that help shape audio identity execution, and monitoring these websites and the reports they publish can really help you stay informed.

Check out:

Sonic Branding Agencies

Having a good awareness of the sonic branding landscape and what’s out there is important, and an easy way to do that is by going straight to the horse’s mouth: the sonic branding agencies that do the work.

Alongside sharing new projects, agencies often share insight into both the brand strategy that underpins that work and their own processes in a way that can be insightful, educational, and help you to shape your own creative approach and perspective. There’s a real spectrum in terms of size and there’s good work being done at every scale, so don’t just follow the biggest ones!

It's Nice That's homepage

Creative and Design Publications

These design and brand identity publications help broaden your creative thinking beyond the world of audio. They offer inspiration and explore wider design trends, which can be really useful when working with audio in a multidisciplinary environment.

Check out:

📁 Your own reference library

Building your own library of references is invaluable for staying organised and inspired. I recommend keeping folders dedicated to sonic logos, adverts and other content you come across that are creatively interesting or inspiring.

This library will grow over time and can become a go-to resource for quick references when you need to support an idea with a real-world example or gain inspiration under tight deadlines.

🏆 Industry recognition and awards

Prestigious awards offer dedicated categories for sonic logos and audio branding packages. Although their longlists and shortlists won’t represent every piece of work from the year, they’re essential for seeing what’s being recognised as the best in the industry and can help guide your own work towards innovation and excellence.

Check out:

The Music + Sound Awards

📱 Brands on Instagram

Instagram is where brands engage directly with consumers. Following them can help you understand how different sectors incorporate audio into their branding strategies.

It’s a low-maintenance way to track industry trends and behaviours. Depending on the sector or brand you’re referencing, other social platforms might also be relevant.

🎙️ Podcasts and educational content

Audio Branding Podcast

Hosted by Jodi Krangle, this series features interesting guests from across the sonic branding world and beyond.

Listen to Audio Branding here

Mix With The Masters

To finish up, this one is less a professional resource and more personal interest, but I love the Mix With The Masters content. Their focus tends to be on creative and technical aspects of music production (for artists as opposed to brands) with some additional insights around songwriting, depending on who’s featured.

I find it quite addictively watchable and the content can span specific mixing tips through to philosophical approaches to crafting music, and I regularly come away feeling like I’ve learnt something.

Check out Mix With The Masters here

Here is a Creative Lives in Progress brand partner. Every year, we partner with like-minded brands and agencies to support our initiative and keep Creative Lives a free resource for emerging creatives. See here to find out more about how you can work with us.