Stephen Arnold

Stephen Arnold

Industry	Music Production
Founded	1993
Headquarters	Dallas, Texas, USA
Website	www.stephenarnoldmusic.com

Stephen Arnold is an American musical composer who specializes in writing musical signatures for major media outlets and consumer brands. He is president of Stephen Arnold Music, a full service music promotion company that he founded in 1993. Headquartered in Dallas, the company has offices in New York City, San Diego, and most recently, in Santa Fe. The Santa Fe facility, as with the facility in Dallas, is considered to be a state-of-the-art audio recording and post facility

Overview

Arnold was an early pioneer in the idea of sonic branding, which blends original music compositions with distinct tones and special audio effects to create a distinct auditory signature. Sonic branding is typically a short distinctive melody or other sequence of sound, mostly positioned at the beginning or ending of a commercial. It is used primarily to reinforce brand identity. This technique has become increasingly important since the 1980's as marketers have somewhat moved away from using jingles in today's shorter 20-second commercials.

Early Years

Arnold first moved to Los Angeles in the mid '70's at the age of 22 to pursue a career as a rock musician and songwriter. Working for free at the United Western Studios, it was here that Arnold learned the ins and outs of music production, "I was setting up mics and stuff like that, but was getting to watch people like Neil Diamond and the Beach Boys record."

He then returned to Dallas in 1977 and purchased a small recording studio. Arnold was asked by his parents to compose a jingle for their arts and crafts shop. Within a year Arnold had written jingles for local car dealerships and shopping centres grossing Arnold a modest $30,000 in revenue.

Today

Stephen Arnold has led his team at Stephen Arnold Music in the creation of a multitude of Emmy, Addy, and Promax/BDA Gold award-winning musical compositions.

His compositions can be heard broadcast and cable networks, commercials, and film projects around the world, with clients paying anything between $2,500 and $7000 depending on market size (cost in 2003)

Clients

With a client roster that encompasses television stations, networks, advertising agencies, and film studios, alongside emerging broadband channels, mobile content providers, and video game producers, the company’s credits have included CNN, ABC News, CBS, The Weather Channel, CNN Headline News, the National Geographic Channel, FOX, HBO, Time-Warner, TNN, The Golf Channel, ESPN, Belo, Sinclair, and Media General Broadcasting, as well as such major advertisers as McDonald’s, Honda, Pizza Hut, Hershey, and Kodak.

Philosophy

"With all the clutter that's out there on the air now, this is a very important thing for them [television companies] to do...we always say that no one is going to whistle your graphics or sing your animations".

Dedicated to providing quality music productions, easy and efficient access to syndicated production music libraries and superior customer service, Arnold has a well-established reputation for delivering the successful sounds that make a difference and "stick in a viewer's brain like chewing gum."

Personal Life

Originally from Indiana, Arnold is still a musician at heart, playing guitar, piano, and Jimbay drum. When he's not composing, Arnold spends his time immersed in his role as father (he has four kids), snow skiing and playing his Dobro (resonator guitar), while tending to T-bone and Meatloaf, his Black Angus bull and cow.