Sounds Good! #33 // Music Healthtech: An Overview
Tracking developments at the intersection of music, health and technology
Hello!
Today’s email takes a break from tracking the news cycle on music healthtech, and brings you a ‘big picture’ view of this sector.
There’s a wide range of groups represented in the subscriber base here - from record labels to streaming services, healthtech startups to medical professionals. And therefore there’s a broad range of interest and understanding around music and healthcare.
The purpose of this email is to both provide a general overview of music healthtech, but also drill down into some of the current challenges and opportunities in this space.
This email has been inspired and informed by conversations I’ve had with key players across the ecosystem over the past few weeks - a huge thank you to everyone I’ve spoken with.
This email also lives online (soundsgoodmail.substack.com/), and I’ll be making ongoing edits and updates to some of the more informational parts of this post.
Feel free to jump ahead into a section that interests you:
Summary
How music helps
Music Healthtech companies
Challenges and opportunities
Further reading
Itching to point out what’s missing / what’s wrong / new ideas? I would love you to - please reply to this email and I’ll get back to you.
Thank you!
Rob
Music Healthtech: An Overview
1. Summary
The medical community has developed a large base of research which establishes the many benefits of music for healthcare purposes. This includes the ability to help with cognitive decline, anxiety and depression, sleep and physical rehabilitation.
Advances in technology have helped establish this research base (e.g. through brain imaging scans), and enabled ways to deliver highly personalised music interventions in a cost effective way at scale.
The music industry has successfully navigated two decades of digital disruption, and is now ready to consider a music industry which is bigger than the economy centred around fan/artist relationships.
A new class of company is emerging which blends this scientific research base with musical knowledge and cutting edge technology. These companies are producing new products for personal and professional healthcare settings, and shaping the emerging ‘music healthtech’ sector.
There are challenges with blending these disparate domains of science and art, especially when it comes to finding scalable ways to implement products in a healthcare setting.
Now that the benefit for end users is well established, industry stakeholders need to work together to ensure that music healthcare products are clearly presented to customers and patients, and can operate effectively in the organisations that need to adopt them.
2. How music helps
As a species, we have known intuitively about the power of music for millennia. Music can soothe a baby. Relax our bodies. Boost our mood.
Scientific research has now caught up with this intuition, and there is a deep and widening body of knowledge which shows how music can help with the prevention and management of health issues. For example:
Prevention
Child development (e.g. mother and baby singing classes)
Prevention of ill health (e.g. cognitive decline in dementia patients)
Caregiving (e.g. reducing anxiety and fear in clinical settings)
Improving the social determinants of health: (e.g. community-based music programmes for people affected by war/conflict)
Management:
Mental illness (e.g. alleviating the effects of anxiety and depression)
Neurological disorders (e.g. helping people who have suffered a stroke with walking)
End-of life care (e.g. improving the palliative care experience)
Advances across sectors are now being made which are helping unlock the value of music for health at scale:
Technology has developed to the point where personalised, interactive and collaborative musical experiences can be created in a low-cost and scalable manner.
The healthcare community is recognising the value of music in prevention and management. In the US, the FDA approved its first music-based therapeutic product available on prescription. In the UK, the NHS is trialling digital music services for dementia patients. In Germany, the DiGA system has approved digital therapeutics applications which include a musical component.
The music industry has successfully navigated two decades of digital disruption, and is now dedicating resource to this field and supporting innovation.
Public perception around music and health is shifting as the idea of using music in a personal or professional healthcare situation is becoming mainstream.
Charities supporting older people (e.g. Alzheimer’s Society, Age UK) are recognising the value of music developing out programmes to help support healthcare organisations implement music-based interventions.
The combination of music and technology can therefore have a powerful effect across a wide range of health related areas, including:
Cognition: The powerful effect music can have upon people with cognitive decline broke into the mainstream with the documentary ‘Alive Inside’ in 2014. Since then, public awareness of music’s ability to help those living with cognitive impairment has soared, with frequent news articles and TV shows centred on this topic. Research continues to highlight that music has an unparalleled ability to unlock memories in dementia patients, and learning a musical instrument can help avoid cognitive decline in later life.
Sleep: A review published by the World Health Organisation stated that, “for people with both acute and chronic sleeping disorders, music has been found to improve sleep quality, sleep efficiency and time to sleep onset, with greater effectiveness than a range of other interventions, including acupuncture and medication”. The global sleep technology sector was worth $15bn in 2022 and is expected to grow $67bn by 2030
Anxiety & Depression: Music has been found to reduce anxiety, depression and emotional alienation. The personal wellness category among digital apps has grown rapidly over the past decade, and music is a core component of these offerings.
Physical Rehabilitation: There is a growing evidence base to show that music therapy can significantly improve language recovery and motor function after suffering a stroke. “Rhythmic auditory cueing” (i.e. using music to provide strong rhythmic cues), can help improve a patient’s gait, stride length and posture - features that MedRhythms have turned into an FDA approved music-based digital healthcare product.
Medical Experience: Multiple large scale analyses have shown the benefits of recorded music in medical settings, reducing heart rate and blood pressure. Music services have the potential to improve patient experience when receiving treatment, and can increase positive engagement with those treatments.
Child Development: Music can assist mother-infant bonding, speech development, and promotion of learning. Technological implementations in this space range from helping improve children’s focus to musical games for children with dyslexia.
3. Music Healthtech Companies
Digital services that use music for healthcare purposes can be divided into two categories: personal and professional. Personal healthcare services are self-administered and form part of the growing ‘wellness’ category. Professional healthcare services are provided under the direction of a healthcare worker. Some services straddle both these categories, but it is a useful distinction when considering some of the challenges and opportunities for these different types of market.
This list is not exhaustive - there are many other healthcare products and services which have a music component, or music services which could be used in a healthcare setting. However, the focus here is upon those which explicitly communicate a health benefit through the use of music.
Personal healthcare
Better Sleep: Sleep focused app which has a wide range of noise and sounds.
Brain.fm: Science-backed music to help improve focus.
Calm: Wellness app with a range of content, including music for sleep, meditation, relaxation and focus.
Endel: Soundscapes to help focus, relax and sleep. Partnered with artists to create sleep focused music.
Headspace: Guided meditation app which also has original music for sleep.
Humm.ly: Music wellness app with guided meditations created by board certified music therapists.
Moonai: Reducing menstrual pain through neuroscience-based sounds
SOLLOS: Wellness app announced by Universal Music Group in September 2023 (yet to be released)
SPOKE: Mental health app which uses music to improve mood, sleep and focus.
Spiritune: Music app for stress management and mental health wellness.
VibroAcoustics: Manufacturer of sound massage beds which deliver vibroacoustic therapy.
Professional healthcare
LUCID: Digital therapeutics using AI to improve health & wellness using the power of music.
MediMusic: Dispensing music as medicine to reduce anxiety and pain.
MedRhythms: Leveraging the power of music and technology to redefine what's possible in brain health.
Memory Tracks: A caregiver-support app that links memorable songs to care tasks.
Mundu: Digital platform that uses music and images to help people living with dementia.
Music Health: Music intervention tools that empower caregivers and support care recipients, including Vera.
Our Song: Sing, record, and share with loved ones, uniting people through music that will be cherished for generations to come.
SingFit: Developer of the SingFit PRIME app which facilitates group interaction that includes singing, movement, trivia, and reminiscence to stimulate and activate the whole brain and body.
4. The challenges and opportunities
Personal Healthcare
Challenges
Consumers cannot distinguish between ‘functional content’ and ‘scientifically backed content’: There are lots of playlists which curate ‘functional’ content to achieve a particular desired result e.g. sleep better, run faster, concentrate more effectively. These are usually created by music editors and iterated upon based on user feedback (e.g. if a ‘music for concentration’ playlist keeps getting stopped at track 3, then track 3 needs to be re-evaluated and probably swapped out for something which does not interrupt a user’s ‘flow state’). However, this process misses an opportunity to provide music or sound which has been specifically developed by a content creator that possesses the scientific knowledge to help induce a particular state.
Major streaming platforms lack the capacity and capability to adequately evaluate ‘good’ science backed audio versus ‘functional content’: It’s not just consumers that are confused here - platforms that are offering this type of functional content also do not know how to check the validity of scientific claims around music and audio. ‘Health’ is still seen as something outside of their domain, and first and foremost they are curating an entertainment experience.
Opportunities
New premium experiences around science-backed health content: Major music streaming platforms have yet to capitalise on the value of products and content specifically designed for wellness. This could give rise to new premium service options which clearly explain the consumer benefit, and compensate the content owners at a rate which reflects the additional resource which is required to create such content.
Common standards and language around science-backed health content: Music healthtech platforms and content owners could work together to develop a unified way to educate distribution partners about the business and consumer opportunity for science-backed content.
Professional Healthcare
Challenges
Technology adoption in healthcare settings is difficult: This is not a music specific issue, but many healthcare contexts prove to be challenging environments for rolling out digital music products. Healthcare is often a people/relationship driven culture, and understanding this context and making it easy for healthcare professionals to deliver services to patients is key.
Healthcare workers are overstretched: Systemic pressures on those within healthcare systems mean they are time-poor, and need to carefully prioritise their activities. The introduction of new music-based healthcare products into healthcare workers’ routines should be done in a way which feels seamless.
Funding for digital therapeutics has reduced significantly: Technology investment across all sectors has dropped since post-pandemic highs, but digital therapeutics have been particularly impacted. Digital healthcare startups attracted over $3bn in 2021, but only $1.1bn in 2023. Some investors in this sector have been moving their attention away from digital products and towards biotech and medtech.
Opportunities
Integration of music-based healthcare products into other platforms and services: How can music products be seamlessly included in the existing healthcare ‘stack’ of services? How can music healthtech products broker partnerships with current healthcare service providers?
Carer-centric offerings: Music healthtech products obviously need to deliver proven health outcomes, but they also need to work practically for healthcare workers which will use the products. Providing clear wrap around support and education for those healthcare providers to clearly communicate the benefit to them could help improve adoption.
Impact on core health system economics: Healthcare systems are under immense strain, even more so since the cost of core inputs (e.g. food, electricity) have risen sharply recently. Music healthech products that can show a positive impact on the overall economics of a healthcare provider’s business will stand a better chance of support and sustainable adoption.
5. Further reading
There is a wealth of amazing resources on the subject of music and health, and the following list only scratches the surface. This list is largely informed by sources covered in Sounds Good!, though please get in touch if you would like to see other links added here.
Online resources
Music Can: A UK focused online resource which can ‘help you make music a part of personalised care for people living with dementia’. Developed by Universal Music Group and Boston Consulting Group, the site is now managed by the UK’s National Academy for Social Prescribing.
Music & Dementia: A guide to help choose music for those living with dementia, created by the charity Dementia UK.
Right To Music: Home of Dan Cohen’s (whose work was the focus of the documentary Alive Inside) resources on music for people living with dementia.
Manifesto for Music (2023): Includes policy recommendations for music and health, from music industry body UK Music.
Reports
The Power Of Music (2022): Recommendations on how to use music to help improve the UK’s health and wellbeing, backed by UK Music and Music for Dementia.
‘What Would Life Be - Without Song Or Dance, What Are We? - A Report From The Commission on Dementia and Music (2018): Deep dive on music and dementia, funded by the Utley Foundation.
Alzeihmer’s Disease & Music Engagement Economic Impact Analysis (KPMG, 2021)
What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review (WHO, 2019)
Charities
Books
Arts In Health (Daisy Fancourt, 2017)
Noise - A Human History of Listening and Sound (David Hendy, 2013)
Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Christopher Small, 1998)
The Music Instinct (Philip Ball, 2010)
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (Oliver Sacks, 2007)
This Is Your Brain On Music (Daniel Levitin, 2006)
You Are the Music: How Music Reveals What it Means to be Human (Victoria Williamson, 2014)
Video
Academic papers
The relationship between playing musical instruments and cognitive trajectories: Analysis from a UK ageing cohort, Vetere et al, 2024
Biological principles for music and mental health, Bowling, 2023
Listen Up: A case study examination of focused listening, Krause et al, 2023
Entering the Ambient: A Performative Collaborative Autoethnography of Music Therapists' Improvising with Digital Music Technologies, Viega et al, 2022
On the Value of Sad Music, Atte-Picket et al, 2021
Superb overview Rob, thanks