22 SEPTEMBER 2019 THE ATLANTIC
DISPATCHEST
H E R O A R O F the MGM lion. NBC’s
iconic chimes. The godlike C-major
chord of a booting Apple computer. Com-
panies have long used sound to distin-
guish their brands and to create a sense
of familiarity with, and even affection for,
their products. Microsoft went so far as to
tap the ambient-sound legend Brian Eno
to score the six-second overture for Win-
dows 95, a starry ripple trailed by a fading
echo. Lately, however, the sounds have
proliferated and become more sophisti-
cated. Amazon, Google, and Apple are
racing to dominate the smart-speaker
market with their voice assistants. But a
device need not speak to be heard.
No longer do household machines
merely bing or plink or blamp, as they
might have in a previous era when such
alerts simply indicated that the clothes
were dry or the coffee was brewed. Now
the machines play snippets of music. In
search of ever more tailored accompani-
ment, companies have turned to experts
such as Audrey Arbeeny, the CEO of
Audiobrain, which composes notifica-
tions for devices and machinery, among
many other audio-branding pursuits. If
you’ve heard the start-up pongs of an IBM
ThinkPad or the whispery greeting of
Xbox 360, you know her work. “We don’t
make noise,” Arbeeny told me. “We cre-
ate a holistic experience that brings about
better well-being.”
You may be skeptical that an electronic
jingle, however holistic, can make doing
the dishes a life-affirming endeavor—or
even one that might bind you, emotion-
ally, to your dishwasher. But companies
are betting otherwise, and not entirely
without reason.H
UMAN BEINGS have always relied
on sound to interpret stimuli. A good
crackle is a sure sign that wood is burning
well; the hiss of cooking meat might be
the original branded audio experience.
Pre-digital machines offered their own
audio cues: Clocks ticked; camera shut-
ters clicked. The noises may not have
been intentional, but they let us know
that stuff was working.
An early example of a device that
communicated data through sound was
the Geiger counter. Invented in 1908 to
measure ionizing radiation, it makes an
audible snap to signal the presence of
alpha, beta, or gamma particles. (Viewers
of HBO’s Chernobyl will understand why- BUSINESS
WHY ARE WASHING MACHINES
LEARNING TO PLAY THE HARP?
Appliance makers believe more and better
chimes, alerts, and jingles make
for happier customers. Are they right?BY LAURA BLISSIllustration by PAUL SPELLA