- SOUND STRATEGY — MEASUREMENT — BRAND CONSULTING
The distance between what a brand intends its sound to say and what a customer actually hears is one of the most underestimated gaps.
Music is the only unmeasured element of the brand experience.
Businesses spend millions on it.
Nobody asks if it is actually working.
Until now.
Music
Shapes
Culture
OutSound is a research-led, independent music strategy consultancy.
Because every brand has a visual identity.
Very few have a sound strategy.
We help retail and hospitality brands use sound more strategically — across physical spaces, digital touchpoints and every moment in between.
Through consumer research, cultural insight and music metadata, we build the methodology and framework that turns a brand's music from background noise into a measurable commercial asset.
Working directly with brands and alongside agencies, architects and creative studios — strengthening the brief and delivering the full music strategy across every brand environment.
An independent strategic sound partner specialising in physical and digital brand environments.
- WHY
THE RESEARCH IS READY.
Twenty years of research says the same thing. Music changes how people feel, how long they stay and what they buy. What has been missing is a way to measure it commercially.
THE CATEGORY IS FORMING.
The DJ, live act or artist partership is considered. The brief behind it rarely is. What plays the other 364 days often says nothing about the brand. That is not a culture strategy. That is a gap and it is costing the brand more than anyone has measured.
THE MEASUREMENT IS THE PROOF.
Every track has data behind it. Every customer engagement says whether the music is on-brand or working against it. For the first time that answer is a number you can present to the board.
→ SERVICES & EXPERTISE - WORK - Connect
- SERVICES & EXPERTISE
DISCOVER & CONSULTANCY
Understanding the brand and its sound environment
A Brand Sound Audit that researches what the music currently communicates, where it contradicts the brand story and the commercial cost of the gap between what the brand intends to sound like and what a guest actually experiences.
Not an opinion. A scored diagnostic across Brand Alignment, Sound Engagement and Cultural Resonance — the evidence base for every decision that follows.
— Brand Sound Audit
— Customer Behaviour Analysis — how long are customers staying, are they engaging or just not leaving, the numbers every provider quotes but never explains
— Competitive Sound Landscape — where the brand sits sonically relative to its category and its cultural positioning
A written Brand Sound Strategy as specific as the visual brand guidelines. Built around both design intent and commercial objective — target market, consumer behaviour, tempo, genre, cultural register and daypart logic across every touchpoint the sound environment touches — in-space, digital, events and brand activations.
Backed by a scored framework across Brand Alignment, Sound Engagement and Cultural Resonance that connects the strategy to measurable commercial return. For the first time that answer is a number you can present to the board.
— Sonic Identity & Strategy — tempo, genre, cultural register, artist criteria, daypart logic, owned by the brand
— Consumer Touchpoint Mapping — in-space, digital, events and every moment in between
— Measurement Framework — Brand Alignment Score, Sound Engagement Index, Cultural Resonance Score
DEVELOP & STRATEGY
The brief that has never been written
CURATION, TRENDS & INSIGHTS
Built to brand. Not to algorithm
Cultural mapping of where the brand sits sonically — which artists and genres authentically carry the brand identity and which quietly undermine it. Playlist curation built from that insight rather than algorithm or taste alone.
The DJ set is considered. The brief behind it rarely is. What plays the other 364 days should say as much about the brand as the artist partnership does.
— Cultural Mapping — artists, genres and registers that carry or contradict the brand identity
— Playlist Curation & Management — bespoke playlists built through metadata that translate brand DNA, updated monthly, consistent across every location
— Cultural Programming & DJ Direction — artist sourcing, DJ briefing and live music direction for residencies, brand activations and events, the DJ works from a written brief not a vibe
Full music delivery, licensing and compliance across internationally. Ongoing playlist refreshes, daypart management and brand guardianship for sound — ensuring the music stays consistent with the concept and continues to return what the strategy promised.
Working directly with brands and alongside the agencies, architects and creative studios building their world — as a specialist layer inside your process, not an addition to your client's budget.
— Music Management & Licensing — provider managed, full compliance, no gaps
— Experience Design — planning and directing the sound experience across physical and digital brand environments
— Ongoing Audit & Reporting — quarterly scoring, compliance monitoring, commercial return reporting
DELIVER & ACTIVATION
Sound as considered as everything else in the room
- SELECTED CLIENTS AND PROJECT EXPERIENCE
Harrods had the visual identity, the spatial design, the product curation. Nobody had asked what the sound was doing or where it was taking the customer after they left the floor. Working directly with Apple to bring Apple Music for Business to market, the question was finally put.
The answer became the brand's first-ever music engagement programme. Customers could hear a track in-store, scan a QR code and instantly access a curated Harrods playlist on Apple Music. Every scan a logged, measurable commercial event. The brand built a retargeting audience from people who chose to engage with the sound — not a paid audience, not an algorithm. People who heard the music and wanted more.
A single bespoke playlist driving a complete customer journey from physical space to digital touchpoint — connecting window displays, editorial campaigns and the in-store experience into one continuous sonic journey. For the first time, sound became part of the brand's marketing rather than simply operational background music. The playlist a customer followed on the way home was the brand narrative continuing without the brand present.
HARRODS × APPLE MUSIC FOR BUSINESS · LONDON
“Like It. Hear It. Take It With You.”
Music Consultant . Curator
Playlist Link Apple Music
Press Link WSJ
LYNK & CO × KOLLEKT · EUROPEAN ROLLOUT
“How to sound more like a progressive cultural brand than just another car company.“
Music Curator
As Lynk & Co entered European cities, the challenge was to establish a brand with a clear cultural identity — progressive, community-led and distinctly un-corporate.
The brief was to make the brand sound like itself before it had established itself in the room. Music became a way to build cultural resonance and signal positioning early — creating an identity people could feel before the brand had fully landed.
GENTING CASINO GROUP X WILLOW · UK ESTATE
“A 24/7 sound that resonates with a discerning demographic with extensive customer dwell time"
Brand Advisor . Music Consultant. Curation
Full music audit and consultancy across the Genting estate. Four distinct sound identities for each venue profiles across fourteen zones - gaming floor, restaurant, bar, lobby, private dining. Each environment given its own brief. Each transition between spaces considered. The work of understanding what a complex multi-format estate needs to sound like and building a framework that holds consistently across all of it.
BURBERRY · GLOBAL (410 Stores)
Instore Music Curation & Regional Licening Strategy
Music Consultant · Curator
HERMÈS · LAURA MERCIER · ROYAL SALUTE · GLOBAL
Event Sound Direction
Music Consultant · Curator
O2 · UK/IRE (300 Stores)
Brand, Store & Partnership Music Audit & Instore Strategy
Music Consultant · Curator
APEROL · H&M · ALLSAINTS · UK
Live Artist & DJ Direction
Cultural Programmer
KFC · UK (1,050 Restaurants)
Sound of British Hip Hop & Instore Music Strategy
Music Consultant · Curator
FORMULA 1 · POST OFFICE
Music Search & Licensing
Music Supervisor
MATTHEW HAYMAN
MUSIC STRATEGIST · CULTURAL PROGRAMMER · BRAND CONSULTANT
MUSIC ADVISOR / CONSULTANT · PLAYLIST CURATOR · DJ
There is a moment when the music is exactly right - when sound stops being background and becomes part of the brand experience.
Matthew has spent twenty years asking what that moment costs when it is missing and building the methodology to answer it commercially.
The career began in live music curating events for Converse, Lynx, Ford and Xbox alongside artists including Rudimental, Stereophonics, DJ Fresh and Hurts. From there, national DJ programmes for All Saints, H&M, Topshop and New Look. Then Music Concierge, PlayNetwork and a direct partnership with Apple Music, designing and implementing music strategies for some of the most considered global brands in luxury hospitality and retail.
Spanning work across multi-brand portfolios for The Estée Lauder Group (Aveda, Jo Malone, Tom Ford, Le Labo), Hilton, Rhubarb Hospitality, D&D London as well as Harrods, Tommy Hilfiger, KFC, Park Hyatt, COMO Hotels, Dishoom, Corinthia Hotels, The Wolseley and Studio City Macau.
Alongside a long-running presence on the London hospitality scene as a resident DJ at The Arts Club Mayfair, The Dorchester, The Savoy, Sky Garden, Groucho Club, Quaglino's, Somerset House and Bluebird Café.
Across global music providers, curation, licensing and brand strategy, he has sat on every side of the conversation: what the providers are selling, what the research actually says, what brands are getting and what they are not. That position — held by almost no one else in this space — is what makes OutSound different.
START THE CONVERSATION
Working directly with brands and alongside the agencies, consultancies and creative studios building their world — as a specialist layer inside your process, not an addition to your client’s budget.
outsound.co · London · 2026