Sound as a System: Why Global Brands Build Their Identity Through Audio

When Sound Stops Being an Accident

There is a question very few brands ask themselves seriously: does your business sound the same at every point where customers encounter you? At the entrance, on hold music, in the video you posted yesterday, in the dining room while a customer waits for their order. For the vast majority, the answer is no. Their brand sound is accidental. A random playlist here, a generic jingle there. And in 2025, that is a differentiation opportunity being left on the table.

The brands that understood this first are not small ones. They are Emirates, Mastercard, and Etihad. Their sonic decisions have been functioning as brand architecture for more than a decade — and what they built holds direct lessons for any business with a physical space and customers worth retaining.

Emirates: A Melody That Built a City

The sonic identity of Emirates spans more than 20 minutes of instrumental music, all built from a single 30-second theme known as the "Emirates Tune." It is not a campaign jingle. It is a system.

Emirates incorporates elements from Native American, Indian, European, and bossa nova styles in its iconic boarding music, creating a sonic identity that embodies its worldwide network. That decision was not aesthetic — it was strategic. The melody had to communicate global reach, accessible luxury, and a promise of experience before the passenger ever sat down.

The result was something few brand teams anticipated: Emirates' boarding music became a sonic landmark for Dubai, a brand-building tool applied online and across media in every country where the airline operates. The boarding music is more than background noise — it is a carefully crafted part of an airline's identity, a soundscape that lingers in memory long after the journey ends. The right melody sets the atmosphere and can evoke a sense of place, subtly reminding travelers where they are or where they are headed.

The lesson is not "make beautiful music." It is that a coherent sonic system has the power to represent not just a brand, but an entire destination. The same principle applies at a local scale: the music in your space communicates your positioning before your team says a single word.

Etihad: Sonic DNA as a Brand Promise

Etihad went even further. The airline partnered with Sixieme Son to develop the most ambitious and robust sonic identity any airline has ever created. The concept behind that identity did not come from a musical preference — it came from culture.

The music is inspired by the traditional Al Sadu weaving method, an emblematic Emirati craft. By layering multiple traditional instruments with organic and electronic textures, the music suggests innovation, openness to the world, and a commitment to a better future.

What makes this case a benchmark is the implementation. Etihad passengers and stakeholders hear dozens of custom music tracks, all built from the same sonic DNA, whether on board its aircraft, in its lounges, at events, when calling the contact center, on the radio, or in branded content. That is what distinguishes a sonic identity from a playlist: consistency across every touchpoint where the customer experiences the brand.

A study at retail points of sale found that positive brand perceptions increased by 14% among consumers who experienced a sensory branding experience, compared to those who did not. Sound is not decoration. It is the infrastructure of perception.

Mastercard: Sound as a Flexible Global System

Mastercard offers perhaps the most complete example of a sonic system built to scale. The company conducted two years of research into how its brand could be translated into the audio space, working with artists, composers, musicologists, and agencies.

The result was not a jingle. It was what its team called a "comprehensive sound architecture." At the center of Mastercard's sonic brand is the sonic logo: a distinctive melody that plays when customers interact with the brand online or in store through point-of-sale sounds. Cinematic, operatic, and localized versions exist — designed for cities like Bogota or Mumbai.

That dimension is most relevant for brands in LATAM: a sonic identity can and should have local versions. It is not about imposing a uniform global sound, but about building a sonic DNA robust enough to adapt to markets and cultures without losing coherence. Mastercard's holistic sonic identity is flexible and adaptable to the needs of its teams around the world, designed to resonate globally and be relevant locally, across different platforms and environments.

What Science Says About Sound in Commercial Spaces

Beyond the major brand cases, consumer behavior research in physical spaces is compelling. According to research from the University of Leicester, music influences purchasing decisions by as much as 30%.

Field studies in retail, food service, and hospitality consistently show increases in dwell time of between 15 and 40% attributable to atmospheric design interventions, depending on the quality of the existing environment and the degree of congruence achieved between the active sensory channels.

In restaurants specifically, a study by Ronald Milliman found that slow-tempo music increased time spent in the dining room by nearly 25% compared to fast-tempo music, and that the same slower music increased overall sales, primarily because diners stayed longer and kept ordering.

And there is a finding particularly relevant for hotels and hospitality businesses: experimental study results indicate that the use of sonic branding increases engagement tendencies toward a hotel brand, with business travelers showing more favorable attitudes and higher engagement tendencies when a sonic brand is used.

The proportion of consumers who said that ambiance influences their spending more than doubled in a single year. Additionally, ambiance now impacts hospitality experiences, with 52% reporting that well-designed atmospheres increase their enjoyment in restaurants, hotels, and lounges.

From Global Reference to Your Space: Three Diagnostic Questions

Emirates, Etihad, and Mastercard operate on a different budget. But the logic behind their sonic decisions does not scale with money alone — it scales with intention. Before defining what plays in your business, it is worth answering three concrete questions:

• Is there coherence? Is the music playing in your space consistent with what your visuals, service, and pricing communicate? Background music should be aligned with the brand, not generic. Congruence between the soundtrack and the identity of the space leads to longer dwell times and higher sales.
• Is there intentionality by time of day? The same playlist at noon and at 9 PM does not serve the same purpose. Sound should move with the rhythm of the business and the customer who inhabits it during each time window.
• Does your sound carry across all your touchpoints? If a customer hears something in your location and then visits your Instagram or calls by phone and encounters a different sonic aesthetic, your identity fragments. The power of sonic branding lies in consistent repetition.

At that intersection — coherence, intention, and consistency — lies the difference between a brand that sounds like something and a brand that simply has background music.

Sound as a Strategic Decision, Not an Ambiance Detail

2025 was the year sonic branding stopped being a finishing touch. Brands that spent the last decade debating logo colors and typefaces began taking sound seriously as a strategic tool.

That is not a passing trend. It is the recognition that sonic branding — the sonic expression of a brand's identity — is the audio equivalent of a brand's logo, and that a shift has occurred from the "visual turn" to the "sonic turn." Physical spaces are the territory where that transition has the most direct impact on customer behavior.

At Mystify Radio we work precisely at that intersection: the one between what a brand wants to communicate and what a customer feels when they walk through the door. Building that does not require the budget of a global airline — it requires the same strategic clarity that led Etihad to ask what a passenger should feel when they hear its boarding music, and then work backward from that answer.

Your brand's sound is already making decisions. The question is whether you made them.