Art by Jon McCormack.
The never-before-told story behind the iconic Netflix sound.
MUSIC FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE
Conflicted by Ghost Beatz
Hopscotch by CommonKid
Mariposa (90) (Instrumental) by JB Lucas
Sneaker Smeaker by Avocado Junkie
Netherland by Sound of Picture
Perfect Night (Instrumental) by Eves Blue
We Got It All (90) (Instrumental) by Charm School
Slimheart by Bitters
Tuck and Point by Onesuch Village
Frontier by Shimmer
Respect Old Arrangements by Sam Barsh
THE FULL NETFLIX THEATRICAL SONIC LOGO, WITH VISUALS!
Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced out of the studios of Defacto Sound and hosted by Dallas Taylor.
Follow the show on Twitter, Facebook, & Reddit.
Become a monthly contributor at 20k.org/donate.
If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org.
To get your 20K referral link and earn rewards, visit 20k.org/refer.
Consolidate your credit card debt today and get an additional interest rate discount at lightstream.com/20k.
Try ZipRecruiter for free at ziprecruiter.com/20k.
View Transcript ▶︎
[music in]
Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine a world without Netflix, but it’s also easy to forget how relatively young Netflix is. It really wasn’t that long ago when you’d log in and load up a movie queue, then wait for 3 DVD’s to come in the mail. Fast forward to 2007, around the time they mailed off their billionth DVD, they decided to start streaming some of their content.
Since then, Netflix has grown into the household staple that it is today. But really, what I’m most interested in, is the story… behind this sound:
[music out]
[SFX: Netflix logo]
You’re listening to Twenty Thousand Hertz. I’m Dallas Taylor.
[music in]
The Netflix sound logo debuted in 2015. Since then, it's become the quintessential sonic brand of all sonic brands.
Todd: We actually call the sound ta-dum.
That’s Todd Yellin. He oversees what’s called the “product experience” at Netflix.
Todd: We have a wonderful content team that produces and licenses all of the comedies, and dramas, and TV shows, and movies that you see on the service. Our job is to take the baton from them and to create a great experience around it.
Before Netflix, Todd was a filmmaker and he had a particular love for sound design. So when Netflix started producing a lot of their own content, Todd immediately realized that they could use a sound logo. He ended up leading the process that eventually resulted in that iconic “ta-dum.”
[SFX: Netflix logo]
Todd: The thinking was, shouldn't we have a sound that, when you hear that, it makes you think of, wow, I'm about to get a treat. I'm about to get an amazing story that's very relevant to me. And that's most importantly, cinematic in my home.
[music out]
Recognizing that Netflix could use a sound logo was the easy part. Deciding exactly what that sound should be is way harder.
Todd: First off and arguably most important, it had to be really short. The reason it had to be short is... As opposed to in a movie theater, when you have a captive audience, and they're going to be there, and they paid their $10, and they're going to watch whatever you throw at them, so some of the grander sound idents, you can imagine, like THX... Great one... It's really long [SFX: THX logo]. The “da na, da na, da na, from 20th Century Fox… [SFX: 20th Century Fox logo] long. Even Leo The Lion was too long [SFX: MGM logo]. Because, in our age of click and play, you get to Netflix, you want to be able to click, and there's no patience, and you want that great experience, and you almost want it immediately. So, the first thing is it had to be short.
Todd: Past that, I said, "I don't want an electronic sound that is reminiscent of a game platform like X-Box [SFX: X-Box startup sound], or a computer like Apple [SFX: Apple startup sound], or an operating system like Microsoft launching [SFX: Microsoft Startup sound], because we are in the entertainment business." Even though we are the double helix of entertainment and technology coming together, wanted to make sure that it sounded more cinematic than electronic and computerish.”
Todd knew that when someone heard this sound, he wanted them to immediately think “Netflix.” Generally, in the world of sonic branding, there’s two ways to do that. The first way is just to say the name in the sound
[SFX: montage of CNN, Bad Robot, Playstation].
The other way is a lot harder. Where do you even start to make a sound that captures the entire spirit and heart of a company.
[music in]
Todd: I don't want Netflix, the name being said, but I want eventually the sound to be, you hear it and you think, aha, it's Netflix." [SFX: Netflix sound] We knew lots of repetition would do that. I thought some kind of call and response thing would be interesting and maybe something that builds up tension and then releases it, just like a story does, but you've got to do that in like three seconds [SFX: Ticking lock for 3 seconds].
Todd: One of the directions I would give is don't be afraid to be quirkier or different. An obvious one that comes to mind is the HBO static [SFX: HBO logo]. [music out]
Todd: That's not static. That's like the most annoying sound. But, they've made it into a positive thing. So, wanted to try all kinds of things.
[music in]
Todd: We started listening to a bunch of potential sound designers, composers, who might be the right person to do this for us.
After many, many, many different attempts, Todd decided to call up a sound designer he loved working with in the past.
Lon: I had a phone call out of the blue from Todd Yellin.
*That’s Lon Bender.
*Todd: He is just an Academy award winning sound designer. I wasn't even sure if they would do this kind of work, but he was interested. I gave him the direction of the kinds of things we were looking for. I said, "Try all kinds of bits and don't be afraid to be quirky."
[music out]
At this point, Todd had gone through tons of different composers and sound designers. He had folders full of demos, but none of them still sounded quite right. Todd was hoping Lon could help make a sound that checked all of the boxes - tension, release, not too electronic, quirky, something that screams “Netflix”, but without actually saying it… and all of that in a few short seconds... Seemingly an impossible challenge. Here’s Lon.
[music in]
Lon: We had all types of programming that this had to work for. So it couldn't be in any one genre, because there was dramas and comedies and romantic things and action things. So all of those things have very vast differences in terms of the type of audiences. And I think Netflix wants to be a company that's delivering all these different things.
Lon: We tried many different roads. There was a lot of work done with sound effects, straight sound effects. We had things that were funny, we had things that were irreverent. We had things that were about opening doors [SFX], things about time ticking [SFX]. There was all kinds of different approaches using sound effects.
Lon: I think we'd come up with 20 or 30 choices, we broke them down into groups, and each group was different areas of aesthetics. In terms of musical things [SFX], some sound effects things[SFX] and things that were a combination of the two.
Todd: Music boxes [SFX], and strange instruments [SFX], things I've never heard about coming from every corner of the globe. And then, he tried things that were like, here's actual sounds from the filmmaking process [SFX]. Here's sounds from old fashioned filmmaking [SFX]. So we tried all kinds of bits.
[music out]
After going through countless options, there were just a couple sounds that made it into the final round.
Todd: One thing I was initially attracted to was, if we're going to do that call and response, that create tension and then resolve it really quickly, I liked the sound of a goat.
Todd: It was funny. I thought it was quirky. It was our version of Leo The Lion. And so, for a while, we were stuck on that goat sound. I thought that would be a good time.
So, I can’t play the sound for you, but I did hear one of the goat options they considered… and it’s… um very goaty. It was basically an ending response to the ta-dum we already know and love… Here’s my best impression on what I heard… ahem…
[SFX: Netflix Sound with Dallas vocalizing a goat sound]
Yeah…
Todd: Then, we had another one where it was a little more electronic than I was wanting, but I kind of like it. It was ethereal, bubbly, sound from the depths of the oceans or something like that. I don’t even remember where he got it from. Sometimes it has nothing to do with what it evokes, where you actually get the sound from. But I remember liking that one as well.
Hindsight being 20/20, it’s easy to look back and think that these sounds clearly aren’t as good as the Netflix sound we know and love today. But when you’re listening to tons of options over and over again it’s easy to lose perspective. The right choice becomes a lot less clear.
Todd: How the heck do you decide which one to use? That's a lot of pressure, because this thing we knew is going to get millions, hundreds of millions, billions of impressions. People are going to hear this around the world. Oh my God, that's a lot of pressure.
[music in]
By this point, Todd needed outside opinions, so his team created an anonymous, blind survey that would go out to thousands of people. They didn’t tell these people what these sounds were for. They just wanted, in general, to get their opinion on the sound. Now, they could have just played every sound for every person and have them pick their favorite. But Todd wasn’t necessarily interested in which sound would be people’s favorites. He was more interested in how each individual sound made people feel. So instead, they decided to play a single sound for a bunch of people…
Todd: And then see what words come to their mind and what they associate. And then, thousands of other people try a different sound.
At this point they compiled all the words that came back for each sound. For instance, that rejected bubbly sound produced words like, “curious” and “relaxed”. But one of the most common words was “confused”.
Todd: It was like, ugh, I don't really like the confused.
But when they gathered the results from the “ta-dum” sound…
Todd: Overall impression, dramatic, interesting, beginning, good, short. When we go, what does it make you think of? By far, and this is what got me excited, and this is probably what led to this being the winner... And the biggest word by far was movie. They didn't know this was a Netflix sound. We were just asking consumers, what do you think of the sound? What does it evoke? And so, they put movie and great.
[music out]
Todd was getting very close. After an entire year of countless versions, iterations, first impressions... there were just a final few sounds left. These contenders still had to pass through one last test...and it was a big one.
Todd: I needed one more arbiter. This is a lot of pressure. Billions of people are going to hear this. I got home and sat down, did a little nighttime work. My 10-year-old daughter, she was wandering about, and I go, "Somara, I need some help. Get over here." I played for Somara our five top sounds. She was immediately, no hesitation, "It's so obvious, dad, it's this one." She was gesturing towards the sound file for the one that we use, the ta-dum.
[SFX: Netflix sound]
[music in]
Finally. After a year of work and trial and error, Todd and his team did it. They finally had a sound they were proud of. This sound would go on to define the Netflix brand. But we still haven’t found out how that sound was actually made? What were those two hits… [SFX: Netflix sound without blossom] …and where did the resolve sound come from? [SFX: Netflix logo without knocks] Also, you probably don’t know that Netflix actually has a second sonic logo. All of that, after the break.
[music out]
MIDROLL
[music in]
Just like you, I’ve probably heard the Netflix sound thousands of times in my life. Compound that by every Netflix subscriber around the world, and almost like the digits of pi we can’t possibly calculate how many times this sound has been heard in total... But what we can do is break down what the sound is actually made of. Here’s sound designer Lon Bender.
[music out]
Lon: It's a combination of music and of the sound effects of these knocks, which were my wedding ring that I'm wearing knocking on the side of our cabinet in our bedroom [SFX: ring knocking on wood]. And in order to add different qualities to it I sweetened it with other things, which is normal for us in the film sound industry. Any sound is made up of four sounds, generally.
Lon: There was a slowed-anvil sound which had a deeper tone [SFX: slowed anvil hit].
In addition to the ring and anvil, Lon also added a couple of muted hits to give it a little bit more oomph.
[SFX: Netflix sound without blossom]
Lon was happy with the two hits… at least this part of the sound. But by itself, this percussive approach didn’t seem like it was enough.
Lon: As much as I liked the sound effects idea, it had its place, but it didn't give me the aesthetic, lean-in kind of feel that I was hoping for.
Lon needed a musical element that would help draw listeners in. The sound his team ultimately came up with was codenamed the “blossom”. It’s that tonal swell you hear in the final resolve.
[SFX: Netflix logo without knocks]
[music in]
That blossom sound is difficult to place. It’s both familiar and strange. You might think it was created by some sort of synthesizer... but it wasn’t.
Charlie: I had used mostly my electric guitar, which ended up being the sound for the blossom.
That’s Charlie Campagna. He’s a sound designer and composer who works with Lon.
Lon: One of the most important elements of this was the guitar material that Charlie came up with, because I wanted it to have a musical component, but any instrument that was played straight up, it was too specific because someone would instantly recognize it as that instrument.
They really needed a sound that was unique. They didn’t want it to be recognizable as a specific instrument. They definitely didn’t want it to be “that guitar sound”. They wanted it to be “that Netflix sound.” Ultimately, the blossom wasn’t even a new creation. It actually came from a recording that Charlie made decades ago.
[music out]
Charlie: Back in, I would say the '90s, I bought a piece of gear by DigiTech called the 2101 and it was kind of like a modern day approach to using heavy guitar amplifiers. So it had really cool reverbs and delays and such. I was trying to learn the unit and I plugged into it, and I also had another piece of gear called a Lexicon JamMan, which was a 42-second delay that could loop. And you could loop what you're playing, so you could play a phrase and it'll record it, and then you could press a button twice and it reverses it.
What you’re hearing right now is Charlie’s original recording.
[SFX: Charlie’s recording begins playing and continues under]
Charlie: One particular sound stood out at that time, which is the blossom sound that's used. And it's about a 30-second phrase of guitar playing that has been reversed and processed through that DigiTech, and I always had it because it's so beautiful, but I never was able to use it. And it just so happened that I decided to use that piece of audio for one of the submissions that I gave to Lon.
…and listen carefully right now. Buried in this recording… this happened.
[SFX: the section of recording that became the final Netflix sound is heard]
Charlie: It ended up being directly put in there without any extra sound design. It's literally just the reverse guitar doing its thing.
Lon: The reverse and forward nature of it, the fact that it takes you in and takes you out. It was really the perfect sound without it having to be more than one thing.
Charlie: That orphan sound found its purpose. It like found its parents.
[SFX: guitar recording bumps out]
This Netflix sound logo has become the gold standard for sonic brands. It's immediately recognizable and everyone knows that it means “Netflix”. Another amazing aspect of this is that the sound works for any genre. Think about it, this sound works just as well to introduce The Crown, as it does Stranger Things, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, True and the Rainbow Kingdom, Ozark, or BoJack Horseman. But there is one environment where this classic ta-dum sound doesn’t work so well. And that’s where we find Netflix’s other sonic logo.
[music in]
Tanya: We were sitting in the theater and the toudum would come on and then the film would start and it felt so short and so abrupt that you really didn't quite understand what you even saw before you just went, you dove right into the film.
That’s Tanya Kumar, she’s a brand design lead at Netflix. In addition to the traditional television series, Netflix has also been producing a lot of original films. They started playing them in theaters around the world. Originally they used that classic ta-dum sound to start the films, just like they would normally do with the shows on their streaming side. But a theater is a very different setting than your couch at home.
Tanya: So that was the first problem we were trying to solve is how do you really set the movie mood and set people up for this experience that they're about to see, we are separating our films from our series in a way. You're in a theater, you're here for the long experience, whether it's an hour and a half, whether it's two hours, you're here to hear the whole story to really sit down and experience it in a theater.
They needed something new for the theater, but that still sounded like Netflix. That means the ta-dum, or toudum as Tanya calls it, had to stay in some form.
[music out]
Tanya: Our toudum sound was extremely important. We didn't want to mess with it. We wanted to make sure that that was the tie back to our brand and that we didn't lose sight of something that our members and non-members really love. So how do you tie in something that's so iconic and only four seconds long into something that is a much longer experience. So the big brief really was taking the current sound and implementing it into something much longer.
The process for creating the theatrical sound was a lot quicker than the original toudum sound. Netflix already had a sound they loved. They just needed a way to transform it into something more cinematic, and for that, they needed a cinematic composer.
Tanya: Who had we worked with that we really liked and enjoyed working with, and also who had a brand tie to us? So someone who had actually worked on our original content or had experience on our production sets and we ended up working with Hans Zimmer mostly because he did a lot of work with us on "The Crown."
Hans Zimmer is a legend. He’s composed film scores for movies like The Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk… but I don’t need to keep going.
Tanya: I don't know if you've heard the soundtrack for "The Crown" [SFX: The Crown main theme] it's beautiful. It's very iconic. It just has the simplicity and elegance to it that we thought was perfect for bringing into our brand as well.
[SFX: The Crown theme bumps out]
Hans was told by Netflix that they wanted to maintain the ta-dum sound, but integrate it into something longer and more cinematic.
Tanya: We received about six or seven different various compositions in the first round, which we then narrowed down to about three. So it wasn't a lot of brainstorming. I think he immediately picked up on what we needed and we were able to narrow it down to about three different compositions that felt pretty different. After that there were a couple more brainstorm sessions and sharing and we landed on really one that we really liked.
There was some creative back and forth, but when you’re working with someone like Hans, it doesn’t take long to get the sound right. Here’s what Hans came up with. This is the final Netflix theatrical sonic logo in its entirety.
[SFX: Netflix Theatrical Sound]
[music in]
Even when they needed something new for the theater, Netflix stayed true to their original sound. It’s a testament to just how important sound is to Netflix.
Tanya: It's kind of a thing that we don't really mess with. We know people love it as is, even with the updated visuals that we rolled out last year. It was super important to the company that we keep the toudum sound as is, and the visuals might get an update to help with the story. But holistically, the sound really is kind of something that we don't really touch or play with at this point.
Todd: We noticed visual things, visual idents, tend to go out of style a lot more often than sounds, which tend to be a lot more long lived. That visual has already evolved since we made this around six years ago. It's already changed, and we expect it to change a lot more. Whereas, the sound has pretty much stayed the same since we created it, and I expect it to stay the same for a lot longer.
The Netflix sonic logo is enormous. It’s heard countless times, every day, all over the world. Every other company out there wants a sonic logo that’s this impactful. When I originally spoke with Todd, I mentioned to him just how huge this Netflix sound is in the world of sonic branding.
Dallas (from interview): So every single sonic branding brief that I’ve ever received or seen, every one of them refers to Netflix sound. This is the most influential, popular, sonic brand in the entire world. Like how does that feel?
Todd: When you say that, honestly, my chest gets a little tighter and I go, "Oh my God, that's a lot of pressure...
[fade music out]
Todd: Thank God I didn't go with the goat."
[SFX: Dallas making a goat sound]
[music in]
Twenty Thousand Hertz is hosted by me, Dallas Taylor, and produced out of the sound design studios of Defacto Sound. Find out more at defactosound.com.
This episode was written and produced by Colin DeVarney. And me, Dallas Taylor. With help from Sam Schneble. It was edited, sound designed, and mixed by Colin DeVarney.
Thanks to our guests Todd Yellin, Lon Bender, Charlie Campagna, and Tanya Kumar. And a huge thanks to Sarah Jones from Netflix for all of the help with this episode.
If you’d like to see the full Netflix theatrical animation, we’ve embedded that to this episode’s page on 20k dot org.
Finally, what does the Netflix sound make you think of, and what are your other favorite sonic brands? If you think we should do a story on it tell us, you can chat with me, and the rest of the 20k team through our website, facebook, twitter, reddit, or by writing hi at 20k dot org.
Thanks for listening.
[music out]
