Steve Spiro gets between the ears

Binaural beats and immersive sound worlds – the sonic equivalent of Imax – are a new frontier when it comes to the burgeoning experiential industry, itself an unanticipated progeny of the worldwide Covid lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. 

It's Covid’s that is at the heart of the rise of the experience industry.

Already, that time seems very far away, a mixture of dread and willed forgetfulness – which of us can look back fondly on the strictures of social distancing and enforced isolation? 

But it's Covid’s that is at the heart of the rise of the experience industry – think virtual, all-surrounding galleries exhibiting digital Van Goghs or Hockneys at Canary Wharf’s Illusionaries experiential arts hub. Or the four galleries contained in Frameless, at London’s Marble Arch, with its immersive Dalis, Rembrandts, Monets and more.

Above: The experience industry includes galleries such as Frameless, at London’s Marble Arch.

That experiential wave has extended from the visual to the subtle world of sound, and Steve Spiro and the company, Music for Headphones, is at the forefront of this sonic revolution, making waves for clients like BA, Huawei and Sennheiser. It extends into the wellness industry too, with binaural beats specially created for headphones and tailored to cater to a range of states, whether that’s the interior worlds of meditation and relaxation, or to dial down anxiety and sharpen cognitive thought processes prior to a big meeting. 

“The more immersed [people] become, the greater the experience they have. Sound is a massively important part of that.” 

“People want to be immersed now. Especially young people,” says Spiro, who was a major music producer on the 1980s – pop’s greatest decade for a lot of us – and who is also Creative Director at musical services company Felt. “The more immersed they become, the greater the experience they have. Sound is a massively important part of that.”  

The Music for Headphones division has only been operating for a few years, but its impact is systemic. “The company was borne out of lockdown, as was the experience industry itself,” he says. And borne out of what Spiro calls “the biggest quantum leap since mono was replaced by stereo in the late 60s”. He explains: “People chose to pimp up their home entertainment system during lockdown as they knew they weren’t going anywhere, so sound now doesn’t have to be stereo. It can be binaural or Dolby Atmos and, through that, you’re creating a fully immersive experience.” 

Above: Music For Headphones' work with Sennheiser. 

Music for Headphones’ kickstarter was a commission to design an immersive sonic palette for Sennheiser’s soundbar. It paid off well, as Sennheiser also gifted the company a range of top-end recording equipment, including from the likes of legendary microphone specialist Neumann, another pioneer in the ambio-binaural market, and which is now owned by Sennheiser. “I was using that equipment when it was first around in the mid-80s,” remembers Spiro. “It was really complicated, and really expensive, and it didn’t take off then. So it’s interesting how it’s evolved to the present day, making music on your laptop and not in a big expensive studio.” 

"As [we] came out of lockdown, how could retailers entice people into shops again? They thought of ways to provide an experience for shoppers, to encourage them back out there.” 

Music for Headphones’ next job was a lockdown-era project for Huawei called Sonic Escapes. “I’d recorded all those sounds as Frequent Traveller,” says Spiro of his sonic nom de plume. “I’d been travelling round the world recording and capturing the sounds of the human race,” he adds. “During that time the agency said they wanted to do a campaign tackling people’s mental health, after having spent long periods in isolation, and had the idea of taking someone on a sonic sojourn by putting headphones on for ten minutes. We won a gold award at the Campaign Experience Awards, and we had 2.5m downloads in the first few days of going live with it.”  

At this point, the immersive world of experiential was just taking off. “There are two levels to that,” explains Spiro. “One came from the ad side and the other from retail, worried that people had got into the habit of buying everything online. As they came out of lockdown, how could retailers entice people into shops again? So, they thought of ways to provide an experience for shoppers, to encourage them back out there.” 

Above: Spiro travelled the world recording and capturing the sounds of the human race.

Entering the world of experiential as a brand new sector of the creative industries, Spiro, his team and his clients found they could make it up as they went along. “With the experience industry, there’s no benchmark. People would come to us asking, 'what would you do with this?'. We’re used to people coming to us and telling us exactly what they want. So, creatively, it’s great to work in. You can think up grandiose ideas and everyone’s all ears and very excited.” 

"It’s looking at how acoustics are treated in the [retail] space, how noisy the air ventilation is, and how can we neutralise that – maybe put some harmonic tones over the top."

In terms of real-life experiential – wandering round a shopping centre, for instance – Spiro’s quietly immersive sonic solutions can prove a game-changer. “When you’re in a shopping centre you don’t quite realise the subliminal toxic frequencies,” he says. “You feel a bit stressed, anxious, and you don’t quite know why, and a lot of that is toxic noise. People think long and hard about their shop windows, but sound is so overlooked, when it plays such an important part as to whether people are going to stay. 

"It’s looking at how acoustics are treated in the space, how noisy the air ventilation is, and how can we neutralise that – maybe put some harmonic tones over the top. People are bringing in scent as well,” he adds of experiential’s cutting edge, “because the more senses you hit, the more heightened your experience. You can bring in scent and touch to make it a more engaging and heightened experience.”