What music really does for your brand: what the research says

Music is often the last thing to be chosen. The voice is recorded, the picture is edited and then the question comes: what do we put underneath? As if music were wallpaper behind the message. After sonic branding and voices, we have therefore also rounded up the research on music in commercials. The outcome confirms what we hear in the studio every day: music helps decide which brand is speaking. As long as it fits and becomes linked to your brand.

The same spot, a different brand

The clearest evidence is about meaning. In an experiment with 132 participants, listeners heard one radio commercial in three musical versions. The script stayed the same. Yet their impression of the brand and of the speaker changed. What did not change was their opinion of the product.

So music does not change what you sell. It changes who is selling it. A minor chord casts a shadow over a cheerful line. A tight beat makes the same voice sound more businesslike. You hear it in the control room every time the track changes: the words stand still while the brand changes character.

That is why we never choose on genre alone. Classical is not automatically premium. What counts is the personality the music gives the brand.

Fitting is not the same as predictable

Music that fits the message helps. Especially in radio spots packed with information, fitting music helped the listener along. At the same time, absorbing music can actually disrupt a complex message. How much attention the music asks for determines how much is left for the words.

Fitting does not have to be boring. In research on TV advertising, fitting music helped people recall information later. Music that was both unexpected and irrelevant did the opposite: recall went down. So a surprising choice can work, as long as the listener can connect it to the message. The test is not whether the creative team finds it surprising.

Vocals demonstrably draw attention too. Versions with vocals scored better on attention and memory than instrumental versions or a spot without music. But lyrics talk as well. Put vocals under a voice-over and two voices compete for attention at once. That is why we always judge lyrics and voice-over together.

Familiar is not yet linked

Familiar music can steer choices. In two experiments with 486 participants, music that people recognized increased brand choice by six percent. The more they liked the music, the stronger the effect. This was a choice in an experiment and not sales, but it is a meaningful signal.

Still, this is where the pitfall lies. A song everyone knows is not yet a brand sound. The recognition belongs to the song, not automatically to you. For every existing track we therefore ask one question: what problem does the fame of this hit solve that a new piece of music does not? Sometimes the answer is convincing. Often it is not. Also read whether a well-known hit works better than your own music. Your own music has one advantage no hit can offer: it belongs to you alone.

What is more, a link does not form in one go. Older experiments found no product preference after a single musical pairing. That a recurring campaign melody builds brand value over time is plausible but has not yet been robustly measured. I believe that value is there. But in themes strong enough to return, in new arrangements, campaign after campaign. That is how a melody grows attached to a brand.

Emotion is an intermediate step

Music moves people. That is its strength. But in research, happy and sad music produced different outcomes for recognition and purchase intention. So the emotion music evokes is not an end result. It is an intermediate step. What counts is whether the feeling fits the brand and the message.

A spot that gives you goosebumps and then sticks to nothing has created a beautiful moment. Not a brand.

What this asks of the studio

We brief on six connections: music and brand, music and message, music and picture, music and voice, music and audience and music and campaign. "The music fits the brand" is too vague to steer by.

We also make a version without music. That way you hear whether music really makes the commercial better. Sometimes the bare version wins. Then we want to know that too. It matches a finding from the research on voices: among 987 radio listeners, music improved recall, while willingness to donate was higher without music. Also read whether music always makes a commercial better.

We compare several tracks per direction, from the TRX Music Library or composed to measure. Not one random choice. And we test the brand link: do people recognize your brand by the music, even without a brand name or picture?

Finally, we mix around the message. Music that steps back briefly around the brand name. A radio version that is more than the TV spot without the picture. If you choose an existing song, we handle the rights and licenses in-house.

Everything at a glance

On our new page about what music does for your brand, you will find the eight core studies, the familiar rules about music and what is actually true about them. You can also read how we apply the insights to your brand. Together with the overviews on sonic branding and voices, you will find everything on our research page.

Research does not give a fixed percentage of sales for music. The studies answer different questions. You cannot add them up as if they measured the same effect. That is exactly what makes them useful. They replace the question "which track is the nicest?" with a better one: what does this music need to do for this brand?

I believe music is the fastest thing a commercial has. Before the first word, the listener knows which world they have landed in. That is why music belongs in the briefing and not at the end of production. The best music is not the nicest track. It is the music that makes people recognize the right brand, understand the message and hold on to the right feeling.

Looking for music that suits your brand? Explore the TRX Music Library and custom music or visit our music studio.