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Science Friday

Who's composing music for my washing machine?

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Life Sciences, Friday, Wnyc, Natural Sciences, Science

4.46.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2026

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Why are appliances playing elaborate tunes, and where do they come from? Two sonic designers explain how they compose for your vacuum.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, it's Flora, and you are listening to Science Friday.

0:07.0

Have you noticed that your appliances have suddenly begun to serenade you?

0:12.3

Listen to this washing machine.

0:13.5

Music And it's not this one diva.

0:32.7

Many new dishwashers, dryers, vacuums have sonic signatures.

0:37.5

So why are so many brands turning to sound to try to make their products sing?

0:42.0

And who are the composers making music for your Roomba or your washing machine?

0:46.9

Well, my next guests.

0:48.8

Audrey Arbini has composed for Whirlpool, KitchenAid, and the London Olympic Games,

0:53.3

and also Microsoft Xbox 360.

1:01.1

She's the owner and executive producer of Audio Brain.

1:04.6

And Joel Beckerman is a composer and founder of Made Music Studio.

1:08.6

He's composed for NFL, IMAX, Roomba, AT&T. And he also wrote a book called The Sonic Boom,

1:18.7

How Sound Transforms the Way We Think, Feel, and Buy. Audrey Joel, thank you for being here.

1:24.7

Thank you for having us. Appreciate it.

1:30.9

Okay, why are my appliances suddenly making music?

1:31.8

How did we get here?

1:36.5

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.

1:49.0

Number two, the marketplace is so saturated and crowded that people want to differentiate.

1:55.6

And three, is the overall customer experience.

1:59.9

Yeah, I think the real – I almost want to jump to the problem.

2:05.2

The problem is there's so much of this now.

...

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