Sonic Branding Archives - Stephen Arnold Music

SAM Goes Platinum at the 2025 MUSE Creative Awards

Stephen Arnold Music (SAM), The World Leader in Sonic Branding®, has been recognized for eight MUSE Creative Awards in the Audio and Experiential & Immersive categories. The MUSE Creative Awards is known worldwide for celebrating excellence and innovation in creative design, advertising, and digital media. The global competition draws creative entries from high-profile marketing agencies as well as leading brands. This year, SAM is honored to have received four Platinum […]

image of floating audio speakers and a dayglo basketball court

Sound & Sports: How Audio Elevates the Game

Sound is to sport what spice is to food – it heightens the senses and elevates the experience. From stadium seats to the couch, audio is used throughout the sports world to strike an emotional chord that deeply engages fans. The same science of sound enables brands in every industry to generate meaningful recall among their audiences. What makes sound so effective in sports, and how can you use it […]

Tune up Your SPORTS Image – Guitar Giveaway!

There’s never been a more exciting time for local media and sports programming. Our SAM team has been working with our local station partners on some amazing sports projects – including promos, image, show themes, and full game broadcast packages. Ready to hear what we’ve been up to? Check out our latest infectious sports themes, leave a comment below, and you’ll have a chance to win this fantastic Taylor GS […]

Stephen Arnold Music Delivers Dynamic Sonic Branding for the Debut of TGL Presented by SoFi

DALLAS—March 3, 2025— Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) created original music and sonic branding for TGL presented by SoFi, the first-of-its-kind team golf league that debuted this winter in prime time on ESPN to huge viewership and great acclaim. The global leader in sonic branding, SAM collaborated with TGL’s Brand & Creative team to provide music for the league’s electrifying opening title sequence, featuring DJ Khaled, as part of a comprehensive […]

Sounds of the BIG GAME

The NFL championship game is officially in the books, and with it, another year’s worth of unbelievable advertisements from some of the world’s biggest brands. While we love sports here at Stephen Arnold Music, as a sonic branding agency, we naturally pay close attention to the sounds of every spot, knowing that no matter how funny or weird or dramatic your commercial, one of the most eloquent and memorable expressions […]

What’s new from The World Leader in Sonic Branding – Winter 2025

Our team at SAM has been busy with a wide range of exciting projects – custom music and sound for sports, news, experiential, augmented reality – as well as fresh music from our library, The Vault. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve been up to lately. TGL Golf – ESPN Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) created original music and sonic branding for TGL Golf presented by SoFi, the first-of-its-kind golf league […]

illustration of a girl wearing headphones

What is Sonic Branding?

How a peacock gave birth to the first sonic brand. A true story. Way more mellifluous than a squawk. More memorable than any chirp, hoot, cluck or quack could ever be. Over ninety years ago, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) — the network that years later would be canonized as the proud peacock — aired three distinctive chimes on radio for the very first time. Chimes that global marketing experts […]

Human vs. Machine, Round 2: Can AI Write Better Songs Than Taylor Swift?

Earlier this year we put generative AI to the test to see if it could out-create a human composer when given specific musical briefs. The results (featured in Forbes) showed that while our human composer proved superior, AI’s creations rated highly for musical appeal. Its primary weakness, however, was emotional accuracy — inconsistently conveying specific emotional attributes in its creations. With rapid advancements in generative AI music platforms, we decided […]

Stephen Arnold Music + WETA sonic branding

SAM & WETA PBS Hit All the Right Notes

At SAM, we’ve been creating music for PBS stations since we got our start over 30 years ago, and we’re especially proud of the collaboration we have with WETA PBS. Last year, SAM’s audio identity for WETA was rated one of the fastest growing sonic brands in the country according to The SoundOut Index 2023 report — a leading authority in sonic brand testing. Their research shows that listeners, including […]

The Sweet Sound of Travel

Every destination has a distinct vibe, from the people and culture, to the food and entertainment, to the imagery, colors, and yes, even sounds. Stephen Arnold Music — friends call us ‘SAM’ — has been creating custom and production music for over 30 years. As the world leader in sonic branding, we’ve worked with destinations and tourism clients around the globe to ensure their advertising, social content, logos and more […]

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