Long before it was described as anything, sound worked this way. The signature tune of All India Radio bulletins. The opening notes of Doordarshan news. Television intros that marked the start of primetime. Jingles like “Gali Gali Sim Sim” that returned often enough to stay. They repeated, until they were recognised.
This is not new. It just didn’t always have a name. Today, it is called sonic branding — a way of describing what sound has been doing all along.
In industry conversations, sound is framed as a distinct layer of branding, something that can be designed and owned. Companies like Dolby Laboratories position immersive audio as central to engagement, while platforms such as Spotify now offer brands audio-first formats built around recall rather than visibility. Agencies describe “sonic identities” alongside logos, colour systems and typefaces.
The shift is not in the function, but in the framing. What once settled in quietly is now structured into systems, tested for recall, built to travel across platforms. The suggestion is that something new is being created. It isn’t.
A short cue marks the start of something. A tone confirms that an action has been completed. The default ping of WhatsApp. The low, cello-led opening of Game of Thrones breaking in before the first frame appears. The five-note mnemonic of Intel. The opening fanfare of 20th Century Studios.
Heard often enough, these sounds settle quickly. They travel — across rooms, conversations, contexts — registering even when no one is paying attention.
That quality is now being formalised.
What once emerged through use is now being designed in advance, built into systems and extended across platforms. In marketing language, it becomes an asset — something that can be measured and owned. The scale of this shift is visible in the numbers. Global audio advertising is projected to cross $10-12 billion in the next few years, driven by streaming, podcasts and short-form video. In India, more than 10 billion UPI transactions are processed every month, each accompanied by a confirmation sound that has become one of the most widely heard audio cues in everyday life.
This is happening at a moment when visual attention is stretched thin. Screens multiply. Feeds refresh. Everything competes for the same field of view. Sound moves differently. It doesn’t demand to be looked at. It stays in the background, returns often enough, and before you realise it, it has become a high-recall memory.
That is what makes it work. And that is why it has become valuable.
Brands have begun to respond accordingly. In gaming, titles like Fortnite and Call of Duty carry distinct audio signatures across menus, lobbies and match transitions, recognisable without looking at the screen. Electric vehicles now treat sound as identity: Porsche Taycan and BMW i4 use designed engine tones that make motion itself identifiable. Even consumer tech leans into this consistency. The startup chime of Apple devices or the login sound of Microsoft Windows remain stable across generations, marking entry before anything appears on screen. The move is not just creative.
What ties these together is not style, but function. The sound does not need to be seen to work. It signals, directs, confirms, warns. It creates continuity across spaces that may never look the same.
What was once shared has begun to narrow. Sounds that moved freely across public space — through radio, television, announcements — are now increasingly tied to platforms, products and interfaces. The sound no longer just marks a moment; it points back to a source.
There is something gained in that shift. Consistency, clarity, recall. But something else slips out quietly. The open quality of sound, its ability to move without being claimed, begins to shrink.
Naming it changes how it is made. What existed as habit becomes system. What settled in quietly is now built, measured and refined. The effect remains familiar, even as the process behind it shifts.
The language may be new. The experience is not.
Sound moves through spaces, through moments, through people who are not even looking. It has always done that. What has changed is what we now call it.
Not how it works, but how it is understood.
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 "Sound wave (Photo: Pexels)")