A coincidence. A journalist recently came to interview me at Sixième Son’s offices, and I introduced him to the team members. One of our creatives walked up and introduced himself as a “sonic designer.” The journalist, Bruno Faure*, looked surprised. “Aren’t you a composer?” Eric answered, “I used to be a composer. But creating sonic identities is a very different discipline.”
Then this morning, a brand called to tell us they’d decided to work with Sixième Son. “We tried creating our sound with composers, but it didn’t work out. It took us a while to realize we didn’t need music, we needed an identity, and a way to create brand experiences that do double duty, satisfy the customer while building the brand.
I’ve recruited, auditioned, and managed dozens of creatives. They all begin by introducing themselves as composers. And that’s exactly how they start. As some of the most talented composers I’ve ever met. I tell them all the same thing: it takes time, a lot of time, and it requires a real mental shift to succeed in sonic branding. Being a composer and being a sonic branding designer are two different jobs, with almost opposite ways of working. A brilliant composer is often a terrible sonic identity designer. Not for lack of talent. But for lack of perspective.
Here’s why.
A composer’s holy grail is the moment. Making you feel something: making you cry, giving you chills while the music plays. It’s an art of the present, and of emotion. Sonic branding creatives minds don’t focus on the moment. They work for what comes later. It’s an art of meaning, of signals, and of transformation. Does the brand stick? Does it get stronger? Does it stand out when it shows up in a radio spot or a TikTok video six months later? Does the sound leave a lasting, positive trace that creates meaning and connection? And a composer who’s brilliant on the first question can be completely lost on the second.
A composer has a captive audience. A concert hall, a film, a chosen playlist. People are there to listen. Attentively. Willingly. A sonic identity, on the other hand, shows up amid the noise. A notification, a message at a point of sale, hold music on a phone call, a three-second jingle between two ads. Nobody came for this. Nobody is listening for it. The sonic designer’s real job starts at that point – turning passive hearing into active listening. Capturing attention nobody is giving you. It’s a discipline of disruption, not of continuous storytelling. And that’s not a natural instinct for someone used to composing for an audience that’s already anticipating the music.
A composer knows how to tell a story over three minutes. Over one minute. Sometimes over thirty seconds. Now ask him to tell the same story in six seconds. In three seconds. In one-and-a-half seconds. In my experience, that’s usually where the creation falls apart. A composer needs time to build tension, breathe, and resolve. The ultra-short format gives him none of that.
And yet, a sonic identity lives in those formats: a sonic logo, a notification sound, an app startup chime. This isn’t compressed music. It’s a different discipline entirely, with its own rules of construction — just as demanding, but completely different.
The real issue isn’t talent. It’s the goal.
A composer can be an inspired artist and a terrible sonic designer. That’s not an insult. It’s that the composer is very good at meeting a need that has nothing to do with a brand’s challenge. Composing aims to make a person feel something when they experience the music. Designing a sonic identity seeks to transform how people understand a brand — even after they’ve stopped hearing it.
Artists live in personal expression. They bring their own styles, their own worldviews, their own ways of telling a story. The designer steps into the brand’s shoes, embracing the brand’s style, its vision, its personality. Again: two jobs. Two perspectives. Two disciplines. And brands that confuse the two pay dearly for it. “So, you never work with composers?” That’s the question the journalist asked at the end of our conversation. “Quite the opposite — we do it all the time.” True. But this happens once the strategy is set, once the sonic identity has been created, once the brand’s sonic signifiers have been defined. We often bring in composers for adaptations or specific developments, when we’re looking for a particular touch, a different perspective for a specific application. We just launched Atlanta’s sonic identity and announced it: we’re going to collaborate with dozens of local composers to bring the city’s sonic identity to life. To give Atlanta and its audiences the best of both worlds, in music.
*You can find the interview by Bruno Faure, here
