Blister Media Brings Sound to the Nasdaq Experience

In 2000, Blister Media was commissioned to produce branded audio elements for the NASDAQ MarketSite, located in the heart of Times Square. The following press release was issued by the producers of the project, and I reprint it here because it details our music production process. It may also mark the first time we started referring to the work as 'Sonic Branding' –the now popular coinage for the term. My partner and I had considered using the term as early as '98, but instead opted to use the word 'Audio' because it felt more in tune with the late nineties zeitgeist (ala Audioslave), and so prior to 2001 we referred to our services as 'Audio branding' or 'Branding with Audio'.


BLISTER MEDIA BRINGS SOUND TO THE NASDAQ EXPERIENCE
PRESS RELEASE
FEBRUARY 28, 2001

Apart from being the stock market for the digital world, The Nasdaq Stock Market® now has a place in its MarketSiteSM where visitors can learn even more about the 21st century world of stock trading. The new visitors’ center is a new, integral part the Nasdaq MarketSite, which is located in the Conde Naste building in New York City’s fabled Times Square, and it has become a tourist attraction in its own right. It also represents a year-long effort by the audio designers at Blister Media.

“No matter how inexperienced at investing visitors may be, I hope that they leave here with the enthusiasm to go home and trade stocks on Nasdaq®,” explains Blister Media executive producer Terry O’Gara. “Our goal was to make electronic trading with Nasdaq an audio adventure, and to brand the visitors’ center with a sonic palette that reinforces one’s experience. We didn’t want people to scratch their heads and say ‘interesting.’ We want them eager to trade stock and take part in this economic adventure.”

Nasdaq commissioned Blister Media to create audio content for the “Nasdaq experience,” at its MarketSite, including original music and sound design for the on-site destinations. On the street outside, a forty-five second “Welcome Video” entices passersby to enter and once inside, a five-minute film entitled, “The Global Connection,” plays in a surround-sound theater. The film explains the essence of Nasdaq and the online trading experience. Just past the theater, a bank of interactive kiosks let visitors play a game that simulates online trading.

“The trading game is just for fun ,” says O’Gara. “The data used, though, is culled from the last five years of Nasdaq trading history, so a player can see how well he or she might have done if introduced to the Nasdaq experience earlier.”

Drawing closer to the actual experience of electronic trading, another set of interactive kiosks offer a detailed offline tutorial about navigating the Nasdaq Web site.

“The music is different for each event,” explains O’Gara. “Each is customized. Every sonic element was deliberately conceived to provide Nasdaq with a uniquely cohesive and identifiable sound. Nasdaq was an exceptionally cool client. Beyond our initial conversations about concept, they gave us absolutely free reign in seeking a musical direction. They showed a great deal of trust, which is always gratifying.”

Among the other challenges for Blister was creating a “sonic brand” for the Nasdaq experience that would stand the test of time.

“In this industry particularly, what sounds new today, sounds old tomorrow,” says O’Gara emphatically. “The music we created sounds modern, but isn’t based on musical fads or pop culture. The idea was to give the music ‘legs.’ Instead of relying on the latest electronic sounds, the scores we composed use traditional instruments in ways they weren’t originally intended to be used. Using the guitar, for instance, we would create an unconventional sound, and then manipulate it using computer technology. The result is an electronic sound that is nonetheless organic, a sound somewhere between music and noise.”

Another challenge involved appealing to the multitude of international visitors to Times Square. “In attracting international visitors, the temptation is to use traditional indigenous instruments,” explains O’Gara. “For India, you might think of the sitar, but we wanted something different. We wanted to use traditional instruments from around the world, but to play them in a non-traditional manner to get the feeling of the instruments, without the immediately identifiable trappings. We also recorded voiceovers in six different languages for the guided tour.”

* * *


NASDAQ MarketSite Credits:

NASDAQ TEAM:
Larissa Fawkner - Special Projects, MarketSite Experience
Karen Wilner - Director, MarketSite Experience
Miguel Iglesias - Manager, MarketSite Experience

DESIGN TEAM:
Eleanor Tsang - Senior Producer (Film/video/Guided Tour)
Alexis Menten - Producer (Film/video/Guided Tour)
Jaseung Coue - Producer (Film/video/Guided Tour)
Jason Carreiro - Producer (Film/video/Guided Tour)
Elizabeth Rankich - Interactive Producer (Market Watch game)
Dana Yee - Art Director/CD (Film/video/Guided Tour)
Pakorn Bupphavesa - Senior 3D Animator/Art Director/CD (Film/video/Guided Tour)
Haejin Cho - Senior Designer (Film/video/Guided Tour)
Gary Tam - 3D Animator/Compositor (Film/video/Guided Tour)
Adrian Kays - Editor (Video)
Darcy Bowman - Editor (Film)

AUDIO TEAM:
Composer – Michael Sweet (Film, Video, Game, Installation)
Executive Producer – Terry O'Gara (Film, Video, Game, Installation)

BLISTER MEDIA GOES GOTHIC WITH GHOUL SKOOL

BLISTER MEDIA GOES GOTHIC WITH GHOUL SKOOL
PRESS RELEASE
August 15, 2000

It's a familiar story. Confined to society's shadows and backed by an army of dark forces, a demented scientist hatches a plot to dominate the world that has shunned and ridiculed him for so long. Such is the case of Dr. Diabolical, the green-faced, pink-eyed anti-hero of Ghoul Skool, the latest web-based cartoon creation of animation house Pop NYC, with music composed and produced by New York's Blister Media, slated for release on Cartoon Network Online in September, 2000.

Promising to spread evil over the world "like lumpy cheese across a rye cracker," Dr. Diabolical is a dastardly, deliriously-funny creation whose malicious ambition is continually frustrated by his general incompetence. Throughout, the misadventures of Dr. Diabolical and his minions are punctuated by a score heavily influenced by classic horror movies. Originally asked by Creative Director Vincent Lacava for something approaching "ambient cave music," Blister co-founder Michael Sweet's soundtrack is an intoxicating homage to the giddy dementia of the gothic genre.

"I'm a big fan of really bad horror movies," says Sweet gleefully. "Being an addict of the genre, Ghoul Skool was tailor made for me. It was tremendous fun to be able to pull from the wide variety of music styles that were employed in those old movies. It's great when your work and hobbies coincide."

Getting together with his co-founder and Blister Executive Producer Terry O'Gara, Sweet determined to fully explore the creative possibilities. That exploration included, among other things, recording while inside a 17-story stairwell to capture a creepy, echoing reverb effect. As it is with all things, however, work did get in the way of all the challenging fun.

"Whenever you're dealing with distribution over the internet you must constantly consider bandwidth issues," says Sweet somewhat ruefully. "Those, in the end, are usually the toughest issues to overcome. You have to get inside the technology and figure out how to extend the capabilities of the project. You have to hit the right balance between quality sound and manageable file sizes. Speed is always going to be a big factor. Luckily, the guys from Pop NYC are into good sound and are willing to commit the bandwidth to our work. It was a good collaboration."

Ghoul Skool is just the latest collaboration between Blister and Pop NYC. The relationship between the companies goes back to their work on MSN Netwits, an early online game show initiated and hosted by Microsoft. 'Netwits' has since become the equivalent of a television classic for the electronic gaming community. The two companies also worked together on three episodes of 'The Marshmallow Money Show,' which can still be seen on Cartoonnetwork.com. These projects are, however, only the most recent installments in a series of recent projects for Blister Media.

"Blister Media has been on fire this year," O'Gara enthuses. "We've won several awards, which is very satisfying. When Michael and I launched Blister in 1998, despite the considerable experience we both had accumulated over the years, it was like we we went back to being interns again. I became the intern, a rep, the receptionist. We really did everything. This year, it seems to have all come together. I finally feel validated. We're on the map."

An Internet Audio Tour de Force from Blister Media

Reprint of Press Release (draft vers.) created by visibilitypr.com and issued in tandem with the launch of the initial phase of the project, regarding Blister Media's role in producing audio for Texaco sponsored Sesame Workshop, 'Passport Kids' Web site. As follows–


AN INTERNET AUDIO TOUR DE FORCE FROM BLISTER MEDIA
PRESS RELEASE
July 13, 2000


Kids Create their Own Songs, Jam to Others'
at the New Sesame Workshop 'Passport Kids' Web site

INTRO:

Audio on the Internet is in its infancy. Two year old New York City interactive music house Blister Media has consistently pushed the interactive audio envelope, recognizing that the Web will not reach its full potential until it delivers a rich audio-visual experience.

BRIEF:

Sesame Workshop's online service, Passport Kids, lacked a dedicated musical interface. In planning to redesign the site, SW's Robert Michaels asked Blister Media how they might incorporate an interactive educational musical experience. Blister Media presented three concepts; the winning concept allows kids to create a personal song by combining musical elements from around the world (an audio identity that parallels the visual avatar kids create on their personal SW Web page). Other kids can visit the page, listen to the song, and jam along by adding other instruments.

ABOUT SESAME WORKSHOP:

From creating your own song, the project evolved to enable others to interact, play along, and jam, with your song. Blister created five rhythms, offering as much geo/cultural diversity as possible - African, East Indian, pan Asian (Japanese), Latin, and Modern; and offers a choice of 10 melodic instruments: mandolin, acoustic bass, didgeridoo, gamelan, accordion, steel drum, trumpet, zurna, sitar and panpipe.

Blister creative director Michael Sweet composed pieces from which individual songs can be built.

THREE SECTIONS:

1. Make My Song... create a musical avatar.
2. Jam with my Song... allows another to play along.
3. Global Groove (now open to the public)... allows users to hear instruments
(demo mode).

ACCESSING PASSPORT KIDS:

• Click on the passport icon to go to your page.
• Click on make my tune.
• Roll mouse over instrument icon to play a note.
• Click to play the instrument.
• Double click on the instrument link and a pop-up screen offers more
information.
• Choose a rhythm, drag the instruments, select from four melody blocks.
• Can combine two instruments, plus rhythm.

TECH NOTES:

Sound files are generated on the fly using Beatnik and custom instrument samples collected by Blister Media from around the world. Blister Media wrote code for an engine built upon Beatnik, allowing users to integrate sound files and instrument
into rhythm patterns, a new use of the Beatnik technology. Songs are built around a looping measure of four sections to each rhythm. One composes with 'blocks' of sound, rearranging them as desired to create nearly endless musical possibilities.

Explains Michael Sweet, Creative Director, Blister Media:

"Sesame Workshop is our most ambitious Internet audio project to date and takes the state of interactive online audio into new territory. It comes down to having thought of the idea first. But it's not just about the technology, but what it can do. If you forget about the technology you might end up trying to put your music into a box that it won't fit into. We try to push the limits of the box. Or get into the box and push the walls outward. This is what we've done with Beatnik in building the Sesame Workshop audio site."

Requirements:
Beatnik and Flash
Pentium II or better, Power Mac

Audio and Audio Coding Credits:

Blister Media: Terry O'Gara, executive producer
Michael Sweet, creative director

Site Development:

Modstar, NYC

Launched July 13, 2000 phase one. Full site now open exclusively to Intel users.
Full site opens to public (date TBD).