Audio Alchemist | Sonic Strategy Director for Studio Resonate (SiriusXM Media), (New York, USA)
So… if you’ve ever wondered why Netflix’s “ta-dum” hits harder than your morning coffee, or why some brand jingles live rent-free in your head for years — meet Steve Keller, the guy who basically weaponises sound for a living (in the nicest, most award-winning way possible). He’s the Sonic Strategy Director at Studio Resonate, SiriusXM Media’s audio-first creative consultancy, shaping how brands show up across Pandora, SiriusXM, SoundCloud and the SiriusXM Podcast Network. In short: if a brand has a voice, Keller has probably told it how to use it.
Steve blends art and science like it’s nothing — with a Psychology degree, 35+ years in music and advertising, and a brain that clearly never clocks out. He studies how sound messes with perception and behaviour (spoiler: it absolutely does), from audio archetypes to the weird-but-real relationship between sound, taste and aroma. Yep, your ears might be influencing your taste buds. Cute. Terrifying. Both.
And because DK likes its brains with a side of spice, he also dives into the uncomfortable, so stuff like AI voices, the existence of audio archetypes, the cost and benefits of music, how bias impacts the aesthetic judgements of advertising professionals, the application of the behavioral, cognitive, and experimental sciences to the art of sonic branding, the relationship between voice, racial constructs and sonic racism and the way the industry makes “aesthetic judgement calls” that are… let’s say not always innocent. While listening to this audio alchemist, there’s always at least one moment where you’ll think: “Wait… have we been manipulated by sound this whole time?” Yes. Yes we have.
Steve Keller: Sound Thinking — The Power of Audio. Amplified.
Audio is the growth lever most brands are still ignoring. In Sound Thinking: The Power of Audio. Amplified, Steve Keller turns up the volume on what sound can really do: shape perception, trigger emotion and build memory that actually sticks. This is a fast, TED-style session packed with his go-to playbook for going deeper into the psychology of sound, longer into brand equity, wider across every channel, and further than traditional audio ads ever dared. You’ll learn how to design sound like a system, not a soundtrack. You’ll rethink what a sonic logo is for, and why your brand voice matters more than your brand font. And yes — you’ll probably leave judging every brand you hear on the street. In a good way. Probably.
