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“Six years ago, I was actually in the world of academia and specialised in the psychology and neuroscience of music and sound. It was about uncovering, from more of an academic perspective, how music impacts us emotionally,” says Aifric Lennon, MassiveMusic and Songtradr’s director of research strategy.

With her background in neuroscience, she left behind the medical lab and channelled her efforts into music, combining the two worlds and embarking on a Masters in music mind and brain from Goldsmiths University. In her first few years at MassiveMusic and Songtradr, she worked in the sonic branding and music strategy spaces for TikTok, Wikimedia, AccuWeather, Ithra and O2.

Over the last two years, she’s headed up the research departments at the aforementioned music companies. “Essentially, our research department exists to measure, predict and optimise the way that the brands and agencies we work with use music and sound,” she says. “Whether that’s a campaign, sonic branding assets or use of voice, we developed a framework that removes subjectivity from the music choices brands are making.”

With the aim of measuring, predicting and optimising the work that clients create, this musical approach supports creativity and backs it up with data, to make it even more effective. “We're all about how we can use data and insights to really optimise the creative work, and often actually enable braver creative work as well.” She explains how testing ‘wildcard’ options becomes easier, and divided opinions can be backed up with facts and insight.

As Aifric explains, insight comes from a portfolio of data at every stage of the process. “Sometimes I describe it as a funnel, where a brand is looking for music and we are looking to help find music for a campaign. At the top of the funnel, the widest part is the endless amounts of tracks that you could potentially select, or create for that campaign. And the bottom of the funnel is the perfect track. So at every stage of that funnel, we have different tools that we can apply.”

Tapping into insights from various avenues, which hone in on the sonic and music-focused metrics through consumer panel testing, the team can target any audience profile anywhere in the world – at an accelerated pace. The team use various methodologies, but also their own proprietary AI-based insights tool “which essentially is able to X-ray, any piece of music across 350 different variables, and is able to – in a matter of seconds – predict not only things like the genre, the mood and the feel of the music, but actually able to predict things like the audience.”

With the power of this AI tool, the team can also predict the age group the music will resonate with, the genders, and location. 

Aside from this, Aifric and the team also tap into existing literature on the topics. She explains, “We have quite a few people working at Songtradr on the research team who have a background in neuroscience and the psychology side of music and sound. We have a fairly large body of literature, either that we’ve created ourselves or delivered in white papers.”

The way the team works with clients varies, depending on when in the process they get involved. While it works best for them to come in during the initial stages, to understand the key objectives and insights, using their tools to target a specific audience, they are able to join in at any stage.