On June 15, Songtradr, the world’s largest B2B music licensing platform announced that it was merging two of its acquisitions, MassiveMusic and Song Zu, in Sydney and Singapore. Ramesh Sathiah, former Song Zu executive creative director, and now ECD at MassiveMusic as well as founder of Resonance Sonic Branding, took The Stable behind the scenes to explain what that means to Song Zu, MassiveMusic and clients.

The Stable: How did the MassiveMusic-Song Zu merger happen?

Ramesh Sathiah: We have long admired MassiveMusic from afar, but we were connected in a surprising  way. Song Zu was acquired by Songtradr, a B2B music technology start-up based in the USA, and at first, we were the only bespoke music company in the group. We then heard that Songtradr was looking at a “large European” music agency and we hoped it would be MassiveMusic. We were thrilled when it was announced! It was clear to us there would be a great benefit to us creatively to become MassiveMusic in Sydney and Singapore as part of the biggest ‘music for brands’ agency in the world.

TS:  What do you gain by bringing the two together? What are your plans for the future? 

RS: MassiveMusic is the global leader in sonic branding and works in close partnership with the biggest brands in the world (Heineken, Nike, Henkel). Its expertise and experience here is immense; the global brains trust and creative talent mean more unlimited creative opportunities for us all personally and for our amazing clients.

TS:  What extra services can you provide – what can you do better now?

RS: We are not just Massive by name, we are massive in resources. This includes amazing tools like MassiveBASS, the world’s first data-driven sonic branding tool that matches your brand archetype and values to music, and their experience as official global music partners to TikTok. 

TS:  How has the work you do/you are commissioned to do changed in the last few years? 

RS: The most significant change is the scope of our projects now, especially since we started focussing on Sonic Branding. Although we have made all the music for amazing brands like Woolworths and Commbank, in recent years with Canva for example, we have created a complete audio ecosystem which includes their brand music, audio logo, campaign work, voice casting, audio post, and UI/UX sounds for the platform. 

TS: What can you do for clients that they don’t understand and/or don’t use enough?

RS: One of our mantras is We think before we play. We love nothing more than getting involved in a project at the earliest stages, well before any production. 

We often start our music and sound journey using the script ideas or any existing visual assets, covering as much creative ground as possible, so when we get to the point of the project, we are ready.

TS: Which pieces of work that show off best what you can do?

RS: Samsung Performance Enhancing Music used every aspect of the skills of our network. It started with our involvement in shaping the concept and approach with CHEP Network, then creating the performance-enhancing tracks using our composing talent across the whole network, including Australia, Europe, North America and Japan. The final important piece of the puzzle was the artist connections through our sister company Big Sync Music; the project wouldn’t have been the same without the addition of the athletes’ favourite artists like Sheppard, Alex Kenny (Birds of Tokyo), Jordi Davieson (San Cisco) and Alex the Astronaut performing the songs.

James Squire Ordinary Be Damned is also a spot we are immensely proud of. When we heard about this spot that was being created by the agency Milk + Honey, we wanted in. It was a global music pitch, and the brief was awesome. Our composer, Lance Gurisik, did an incredible job creating a sound you would not normally connect with period type film, supported by the sound design of Abby Sie.

Our sonic branding work for the Australian Open was a dream project which we worked on very closely with the team at Tennis Australia. Our challenge was to create the sound for this incredible global sporting event, the Happy Slam as it’s known, and hearing it reverberate around Rod Laver arena this year was something very special. 

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