Audio as a Top Priority: amp’s Sonic Hub on a Mission to Transform Sonic Branding

As you read, listen to a Vodafone track created by Sonic Hub.

“We are bringing back audio as a top priority with the launch of Sonic Hub. There is nothing compatible in the market that delivers this,” says amp’s Sound Branding founder and CEO Michele Arnese.

With the launch of Sonic Hub, amp, the global sound branding company, part of WPP, opens the floor to companies around the world to autonomously create and manage branded sound and music using tailored AI technology. As the world’s first AI-powered audio management platform for brands, agencies, and content creators, Sonic Hub provides access to existing sonic branding, smarter performance forecasting and analytics.

This new platform transforms how organizations approach sound, making it more scalable, consistent, and strategically aligned with their brand identity.

The customised platform designed for brands to use and develop sound with AI took a long time in the making.

An intuitive beginning

Founder and CEO, Michele, came up with the idea during a meeting with his Mercedes-Benz client, back in 2019. That’s when he first noticed a need for a sonic platform. “We made Mercedes’ sonic identity, so they actually own it,” says Michele. “But they really wanted a way to implement it globally. That’s how I knew something was missing.” After putting himself in the customer's shoes, he decided to create a mock-up version of what would later be the first version of Sonic Hub. The client loved it. He laughs: “They said: ‘Can we have it?’ I said: ‘Okay, now we have to develop it.’”

After the first client installations, amp consolidated the tool ecosystem in one single end-to-end platform and finally launched Sonic Hub two weeks ago – “I am so happy with how it turned out. We have had a great response across the board.

Sonic Hub - a one stop shop for all things audio (branding)

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“Sonic Hub connects everything,” Michele says. “Audio, music, voice related to a brand or an agency.” The platform also offers ready to use music tracks and music tracks that can be customised for the brand and specific projects using generative AI and machine learning. “Ethically it works perfectly because we train a brand system with our own brand work. We have worked with those artists and have paid them. The music is licensed and cleared, so you can just enjoy the options.”

Finding cleared music is a big issue across the creative industry. Securing rights for commercial music often involves navigating a convoluted approval process that can span over several weeks, Michele explains.

The cost of licensing is high and can carry legal risks with some agencies resorting to creating "sound-alike" tracks that mimic popular songs. This practice can lead to legal disputes and damage relationships with rights holders. Library music is estimated to be almost double the revenue of global sync. While record labels’ revenue will be around $700 million this year, library music revenue will be around $1.3 billion, according to global music authority MIDiA’s research.

Sonic Hub “solves this problem” by being pre-cleared and licensed, Michele stresses. He calls the platform a “closed system”, meaning that Sonic Hub only uses amp sounds to learn from and imitate. Michele also highlights that creating further music and sounds for the AI to learn from is vital for the platform to grow and improve.

Through the creative library, brands and agencies have access to more than 30 million pre-cleared music tracks with an industry-defining partnership with SourceAudio, the industry's most widely adopted sync platform. “The worst thing is if everyone uses the same stock music, picks the same track and uses the same cinematic sound. What is the point, you know?” With the creative library and the AI search functions available in Sonic Hub, brands, agencies, and content creators can tailor the music for their profile and projects and multiply the value they get from their customised sound.

Michele explains how Sonic Hub can be used: “When you import a video into the hub, it gives you music suggestions for the specific video and times it accordingly if it is AI music.” He continues, “The search doesn't stop with the video analysis: audiences, markets and trends, music briefs, and a brand profile itself can be used to find the music you need.”

Sonic Hub’s in-built prediction tool means users can analyse what type of music would work with different purposes, including the occasion or the moment when the music will be aired what medium it would be most appropriate for and the predicted success rate of a track considering the specific audience. Michele adds, “For example audiences like gen z are genre-fluent. Sonic Hub can recognise multiple music genres and tell you what track it would best fit.”

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Your Sonic Hub – A customised sonic space

“Technology is good if you don’t see it,” Michele says. “It was important to us that the tool is intuitive and nice to look at.” After all, designers, creatives, marketers and more are looking at it every day. “I am incredibly happy with how it looks. It is hyper-modern and user friendly because of the different user profiles. It can even be tailored to the look and feel of the brand.

Sonic Hub also offers voice overs created by AI. “You can train the tool to even be an expert for your own brand language.”
Another thing Michele is excited about are the monitoring capabilities. “With Sonic Hub we also implemented an instrument for marketing and procurement, measuring impact, monitoring spending and savings across multiple markets. That is what people call ‘efficiency’ in marketing.”

When it comes to future plans, Michele says amp wants to “continue creating value for creatives.” He says amp works on making quality audio more accessible and simple to use. “Making things measurable for brands is where we are headed. Working closely with clients and being close to them is key for us. There are brands such as clients, Mastercard and Vodafone, who have implemented Sonic Hub from day one because we work so closely together, which is testament to our relationships and the vision behind our product.”

‘Discovering hot water’

“In Italian we say ‘It is the discovery of hot water’ when something is obvious but you only notice later,” Michele says. “We all know that access to music is crucial for marketing and creative work but it still gets overlooked. It is a sea of sameness in the world of overused stock music.”

He explains that through tight budgets, music and sound can be on the back-burner and a last-minute thought for many creative projects, even though it is key to effective marketing. Through the intelligent search, the generative AI and the data the prediction tool provides, “we are bringing back audio as a top priority for planning and creating, instead of just being so reactive. This tool provides data evidence, which can give brands greater accountability and measurability in all things audio.”