It was an ordinary car ride home. No gig, no studio, no noise. And yet suddenly it began: a beep, dull, persistent. Composer Stephen Emmer lost his hearing and reinvented himself.
Suddenly it was there: “A sound in my ear. Not loud, but it didn’t stop.” In the days that followed, it continued. Weeks became months, months became years. His left ear slowly fell out. “I literally had no hearing left,” Emmer says: “zero percent.” For a composer, that’s not just uncomfortable: it’s existential threat.
Stephen Emmer is a composer of well-known television tunes and recognition music, with a career spanning decades and stations. For years, his work resounded in almost every Dutch household. “A fan once said: you can be heard on radio or TV every seven minutes.” It is hard to imagine that precisely he, master of audio, completely lost his hearing on one side, and kept going.
The tinnitus started slowly. Emmer didn’t know exactly where it came from: “No explosion, no concert that threw everything off. Just … a beginning. And it never went away”.
When the diagnosis came, it was definitive: chronic tinnitus and permanent hearing loss on the left. “There is no medication. No treatment. No hope, really.” He continued to work, but his methods had to change: “You don’t hear stereo anymore. Spatiality disappears. You have to rely on technique instead of feeling”.
The impact went beyond the work. “You can’t hear where a sound is coming from anymore. In a restaurant, it’s like being in a fog. It’s socially isolating”.
Stephen Emmer began as a musician in the 1980s, with forays into pop, avant-garde and soundtrack work. He soon found his niche in audio branding: short, recognizable melodies that give brands and programs identity. His work can be heard on the NOS News, RTL Boulevard and countless other programs, among others.
“Making tunes is a craft,” he says: “it’s not just music. It has to be right at two seconds. It has to stick. And it has to be functional.” He won several Buma Awards, worked internationally, and became a fixture in the media industry.
Yet now he sees how that world is changing, and not necessarily for the better.
In addition to his physical limitations, Emmer sees a digital threat looming: generative AI: “For look-alike music, AI is ideal. Faster, cheaper, good enough. And thus first to go”. The work in which he put his craftsmanship is increasingly being replaced by algorithms.
He calls it “the beginning of the end of the golden age for tunes.” Not only because of AI, but also because linear TV is declining, budgets are shrinking, and attention spans are getting shorter: “Where identity used to matter, now speed and volume are leading.”
Yet he does not believe in sitting still. Emmer founded Artists Against Tinnitus, a foundation through which he wants to educate musicians and advocate for awareness around hearing problems: “We musicians are not only victims of loud noise, but also causers. We have to take responsibility”.
He is also working on an album that deals precisely with the relationship between sound and silence. “Paradoxical perhaps, but appropriate.”
Despite everything – the hearing loss, the AI threat, the shift in the market – Emmer continues to compose: “I’m working slower, quieter. But the fire is still there. Maybe even brighter than ever”.
The impact of his work is hard to measure in Spotify streams or Youtube views. But anyone who watches or listens to Dutch television hears his hand. Each tune is a mini-identity, and Emmer was the voice behind the scenes for decades.
He is now more realistic about his place: “I used to want everything. Now I’m happy if I can add something more. You become more humble”.
1) Actively protect your hearing – “Once you have damage, it’s too late. Don’t think it won’t happen to you.”
2) Stay relevant, but don’t lose your soul – “You can’t beat AI on speed. You can on character.”
3) Recognize your moment of shift – “When my left ear went away, I had to reinvent the way I work. You can either ignore that moment or embrace it.”
In an increasingly loud world, Stephen Emmer hears only half. But what he still hears, he composes all the more consciously.
Watch the interview on YouTube, listen via Spotify or via Apple Podcast.