Who's composing music for my washing machine?
episodePreviously titled “Who are the musicians composing for my washing machine?” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, it's Flora, and you are listening to Science Friday. Have you noticed that your appliances have suddenly begun to serenade you? Listen to this washing machine.
And it's not this one diva. Many new dishwashers, dryers, vacuums have sonic signatures. So why are so many brands turning to sound to try to make their products sing?
What makes modern appliances create musical sounds?
And who are the composers making music for your Roomba or your washing machine? Well, my next guests. Audrey Arbini has composed for Whirlpool, KitchenAid, and the London Olympic Games, and also Microsoft Xbox 360. She's the owner and executive producer of AudioBrain. And Joel Beckerman is a composer and founder of Made Music Studio. He's composed for NFL, IMAX, Roomba, AT&T. And he also wrote a book called The Sonic Boom, How Sound Transforms the Way We Think, Feel, and Buy. Audrey, Joel, thank you for being here. Thank you for having us.
Appreciate it.
Okay, why are my appliances suddenly making music? How did we get here?
In my opinion, we got here for several reasons. One, because technology is now capable of putting... Interesting kinds of sounds into devices that aren't just pings and blips. Number two, the marketplace is so saturated and crowded that people want to differentiate. And three is the overall customer experience.
Yeah, I think the real... I almost want to jump to the problem. The problem is there is so much of this now. A while back, it actually was really valuable to people. Brands could really send out. Customer experience really benefited. But in a lot of ways, everything's making too many sounds, and it's too loud and too long. They're not thinking about sound in the totality of somebody's day, but they're thinking about just the sound of their product.
They're adding literal bells and whistles just to be a bell and whistle.
Yeah.
And to shout out loud, everyone's shouting for attention, right? The question is, how can you, as Audra was saying, differentiate, provide great experiences, but it's just we're overwhelmed. We're overrun by sound now.
Let's get into an example. I want to play this washing machine song again that we heard in the intro, and then I want you all to dissect it for me.
Joel, what are your thoughts on this?
So many things. First of all, it sounded like a fife and imagining a leprechaun, but that's just in my mind. It's very long. Maybe it's kind of fun and it's quirky. And one of the things we have to think about is there's a lot of different cultures in the world, right? In Japanese culture, this is very familiar. And I think in the U.S., we have a much lower tolerance to it um also the end of it not to get a like all musical geeky but it's kind of like it didn't finish like what's at the end what happens after this so another load of laundry joel if it's my house fair enough what about what about you audrey what do you think
I think if that was ever on my appliance, I think I would, like, break it.
Who are the experts behind appliance sound design?
It's too long. It's too monotone. Even though it sounds like a little fife, but it sounds like an old, cheap sound when we could do so much better. And most importantly, it's too long.
I love that you all are hating on this. I feel vindicated. But are there differences, Audrey, between a cheap sound and a luxury sound?
I believe there is. I mean, there's ways to do sounds that sound like quality and sounds that sound like the old piezo buzzer sounds. And that's kind of what this reminded me of. Just don't sit well, at least, you know, for... People with discerning ears and the general consumer, just because we can play sound doesn't mean we have to play sound everywhere and all the time. It starts to sound like a cacophony. Joel?
Yeah, it's, you know, I think just to add is we want to use sound in intentional ways. We have to think about sounds that are functional and emotional. Emotional, it should feel like what you might want to do in association with a particular brand, if it's a luxury car or if it even is a toaster or whatever it is. Those should have a different feeling to it. And then functional, to what Audrey was saying, that...
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