Why Everyone is Listening to Podcasts (and You Should, Too)

Man and woman filming a podcast with Push Button Productions in a studio.

The Rise of Podcasting: A New Era of Audio Entertainment

With 1 in 5 Americans now listening to podcasts regularly, the medium has become a lucrative business. Serial, the true crime podcast with over 100 million downloads, made us fall in love with binge podcasting and created record audiences for podcasts. It was podcasting’s first “big break” and paved the way for other mega-hits to emerge.

The Diversity of Podcast Content

The landscape of podcast content today is more varied than ever before, with Spotify and Apple Podcasts leading the charge in the podcasting world. As of January 2023, Spotify boasts an impressive library of 4.7 million podcasts, while Apple Podcasts hosts 2.5 million, showcasing the vast array of choices available to listeners.

The world offers many cultures with unique sounds and styles to pull from. Consider the band Dropkick Murphys. Their integration of bagpipes and punk music make them memorable, and at the same time, it highlights the predominant Irish heritage of their hometown, Boston. The band even calls their music Celtic Punk. These cultural influences can be used in audio branding as well. The trick lies in using the right music without getting into the realm of cultural appropriation. You’ll also need to find tunes that fit your products or company.

Music and Culture

While some people believe that all music stems from the same place (Hollywood record labels), there are actually cultural influences in many different types of music in the United States alone.

Some of the best jingles are timeless. Who can honestly say that they don’t know the song in the Oscar Meyer Weiner commercial or the McDonald’s Big Mac tune off the top of their head? Odds are, most people can, even if they’re too young to remember when those commercials were live on the air. Having multiple generations humming a tune, even decades down the road, is the sign of the perfect jingle.

So, what goes into a jingle? What makes those two examples so timeless? As it turns out, there are several characteristics that the best, most unforgettable jingles have in common.

The Emotional Impact of Music

Have you ever listened to a song that was so hauntingly beautiful it made you cry? Do you wonder why the upbeat songs that you listen to in the car make you hit the gas pedal a little harder than more mellow options? As it turns out, music can make the parts of your brain responsible for emotions feel things. It isn’t unusual for a song to stir up emotions of all kinds, ranging from nostalgia to sadness to happiness.

How does it all work? Here’s what you need to know about using audio branding to tug at the heartstrings of your target consumers.

The Power of Earworms: How Jingles Captivate Your Mind in Seconds

It happens before you even realize what’s going on: one second, you’re casually strolling through the mall and the next you’re humming the latest jingle for the product standing in front of you. How did that happen? These earworms, as they’re called, are designed to be catchy and memorable. And that’s exactly what they are!

Jingles take cues from popular music in order to fit into the time period which makes it easier for you to remember them. How far back does this little trick go? Believe it or not, you can trace this all the way back…

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Radio Jingles 101: Why They Work, How They Are Produced, & More!

Why Do Radio Jingles Work? According to Science

So, you’re thinking of using a radio jingle in your newest ad campaign. Here’s some concrete evidence that a radio jingle is exactly what you need to get your brand out there and stuck in consumers’ heads. Music and advertising are a historic power duo. Merchants in the crowded marketplaces of London in the 1500s would sing to cut through the noise of the space and attract customers. Their songs may not have been as catchy as our modern-day radio jingles, but the concept of them is that long-standing. Today, we know a lot more about exactly why radio jingles work than our friends did back then.

Before you dive into the world of using popular music in your radio ads, it’s essential to understand the ins and outs of licensing for commercial use. Here’s a concise guide:

Popular music—everyone knows it, and everyone loves to sing along. But is it worth paying out the ass for in your radio ads? Tons of people ask us if they can use a popular song or theme from a TV show/movie in their radio ad.

When you’re in the jingle-making business like us, you really appreciate the holidays because it’s the only season of the year that has it’s own never ending Pandora station. There are radio stations that only play holiday music 24/7 for 3 months. You hear “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” on your parent’s record player. Jingle bells dominate TV commercials. You even hear Christmas classics on the grocery store speaker system while picking up some egg nog. Mmm, egg nog.

Luckily, we enjoy a good holiday jingle. There’s a million to choose from, but we narrowed our list down to our 9 favorite holiday jingles.

Original Music, Ninjas, and YOU!

In the advertisement drenched world of today, it is increasingly difficult to influence buyers. If people sense they are being sold something, they shut down. So how can brands advertise effectively, without really ‘advertising’? One way to burrow into a consumer’s subconscious is to employ the powerful use of music to affect their mood.

A few years ago, a study was conducted involving different styles of music being played in a supermarket. The results were freaking awesome! When French music was played in the store, 77% of the wine purchased was French. When German music filled the air, 73% of wine purchased was German.

“Funny” is elusive. A thousand different people will definite it in a million different ways. Few could even conjure up a concrete definition of it–we just know it when we see it, and we know when it’s definitely not there. Take, for example, the funniest joke in the world:

“Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He’s not breathing and his eyes are glazed, so his friend calls 911. ‘My friend is dead! What should I do?’ The operator replies, “Calm down, sir. I can help. First make sure that he’s dead.” There’s a silence, then a loud bang.