Michaël Boumendil

Michaël Boumendil (born 25 April 1971), is a French composer and producer. He is the creator of the audio identities and sound design for brands such as Alstom, Baccarat, Chanel, Europ Assistance, Fnac, France Telecom, Jacques Vabre, Michelin, PSA Peugeot Citroën, SNCF, Société Générale, Samsung and others. He is one of the pioneers of audio identity.

Boumendil was born in Sarcelles, France. At the age of 11, he began composing his first songs and two years later joined his first rock band. This early experience would motivate him throughout the rest of his music career.

After graduating at 17, Boumendil enrolled in HEC Paris and in EDHEC, where he learned brands and communication. He then decided to build a business around his two passions, music and design, bringing music into the field of design and brand strategy. He founded the first musical design - or more often called audio branding - agency Sixième Son in 1995

Musical design is part of the identity of a company. In the same way that a company has a name, graphic guidelines and a logo to give it a specific personality and to differentiate it from its competitors, it may also develop a sound identity. Music enhances the identity of a brand. It is an identifier, differentiator, and an added value to the company’s communication.

Before the development of the concepts of audio identity and sound design, sound was rarely used by companies. For their advertising, call waiting messages, sales floors, or even on their websites, they all tended to use similar generic titlesor use various recordings in various places, thus blurring their image. Boumendil argued that a specific audio identity would provide a musical vision for the brand identifying and differentiating a brand from others, and facilitating knowledge and understanding of its universe. He explained that music clearly has the power to strengthen brands and assert their individuality. Musical design and the creation of audio identities contribute to strengthen brand awareness and business as much as do graphic design and visual identities.

Boumendil's SNCF jingle has inspired the title track of former Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour's 2015 album, Rattle That Lock (2015). It was co-written by Gilmour and Boumendil, with lyrics by Gilmour's wife Polly Samson. Gilmour, in many interviews, has talked about the rare quality of Boumendil's work.