Epidemic Sound is a global soundtracking platform with a world-class catalog of music and sound effects.

As the brand moves from simply providing a transactional audio library to becoming a true partner for creators, they need a brand refresh that can take them from resource to creative influence.

The result is a radical shift from category tech company norms to creative juggernaut, where the sonic brand identity offers an easy, flexible and inspiring way to create branded intros, outros and moments throughout all digital touchpoints, from apps and tools to social media posts and advertising.

In 2009 Epidemic Sound disrupted and democratized the business of commercial soundtracking with the idea of offering access to an entire catalogue of music and sound effect through a simple subscription.

In the 15 years since its founding, Epidemic Sound has successfully expanded its global presence, attracted world class funding and talent, and cultivated a reputation as a tech startup. However, its brand and business model have also spurred competitors, resulting in a category filled with similar offerings and brand tropes.

In a great leap to defend and strengthen their category leadership, Epidemic Sound developed a new strategy and position — placing a big bet on moving beyond their public perception as a generic tech company by unlocking their creative culture, inspiring product and supportive partnership to the creators of the world.

All efforts in this brand refresh are put into breaking free from the category tech company tropes by unlocking the creative core and soul of Epidemic Sound.

The overarching concept ‘Sound that moves’ was born from the ambition of creating a fun and inspiring experience throughout the brand, reflecting the product and partnership that Epidemic Sound offers to composers, influencers, creators and global brands.

The concept inspired a flexible design system infused with fun and feeling, allowing for endless variations for any touchpoint, from the smallest part of UI to the most expressive part of an OOH campaign.

The golden opportunity of developing a sonic part of the brand was identified and explored in this project — prompting the challenging question: How do you create a unique and relevant digital sonic identity for the world’s leading catalogue for music and sound?

Our motivations were clear early in the process: stay away from sound cliches like mic drops, static noise, slow downs from record players etc., and most importantly of all, find a way to seamlessly integrate an audio signature with the music from Epidemic Sound’s catalogue.

Instead of relying on conventional solutions like jingles, audio logos or brand themes, we identified a key inspiration in the user behaviour of its target audience — using sampling as a tool to create new and interesting musical solutions.

We developed a rhythmic sequence that follows the tempo of a chosen track, and added samples from the same track into the sequence. This resulting sonic solution cements ES’ position as a soundtrack innovation platform, and ensures that we’re always in the same key, tempo and genre as the song we’ve chosen to use — so we can make any sound an Epidemic Sound.

We created a flexible framework solution that we can apply to any track by taking an existing piece of sound and arranging it in a rhythmic pattern that follows the song’s BPM. This creates a repeatable sequence that can be applied essentially anywhere in a track to put an 'Epidemic Sound flare' on a moment we want to highlight, and allows the brand to make countless assets that are always in key and on time, whilst staying fresh and unexpected to audiences across different viewings.

The result is a wildly flexible and scalable treatment, built as an easter egg for anybody in the audio industry, whilst delivering distinctiveness and an element of surprise when synced with the vivid visual brand assets.

Such an audio solution has also proven to be financially astute — by tapping into and sampling Epidemic Sound’s own catalogue, we end up not spending a single dollar in the development or production of a typical ‘brand jingle’ that has a limited shelf life.