Sounds Good! #35: Alphabeats, Spiritune, MediMusic, Myndstream, Neurable, Renée Fleming, Western Sydney University, University of Manchester, University of Washington, Sonura
Tracking developments at the intersection of music, health and technology
Hello!
Welcome to issue #35 of Sounds Good! — your regular roundup of happenings at the intersection of music, health and technology:
Dutch startup Alphabeats is setting its sights on the North American market and has opened up pre-orders for its brainwave training product. The Alphabeats system comprises of headband embedded with an EEG-sensor (supplied by BrainBit), and an app which provides 8-12 minute sessions of music and visualisations. The system detects the generation of alpha waves in the brain, which are associated with calmness, and adapts the music accordingly. Head of product Elroy Verhoeven explains in Sports Business Journal, “At a very general level, you could say that [the music] would sound more flat [when providing negative feedback]. And if you were doing well, it would sound richer. It’s a continuous process as you’re listening to the music.” A bundle of the BrainBit headband and 12 months’ access to Alphabeats is now available for pre-order in the US for $499, and the company is also offering packages of 10 headbands for sports teams.
US healthcare platform Galileo has partnered with music-based digital therapeutic app Spiritune. Galileo will offer Spiritune as part of its mental health services, provided to employers with over 20 employees. Galileo’s broader service provides app-based access to medical care and prescription medicine. This is promising evidence that music-based solutions can be offered as part of broader private healthcare solutions via employee assitance programmes.
Fast Company ran the article, “This startup wants doctors to use music in the ICU”, centered on MediMusic. “MediMusic recently concluded a clinical trial with the British National Health Service (NHS) that showed a positive impact of its curated playlists on dementia patients, and the company is set to conduct additional trials soon”, writes Janko Roettgers. Gary Jones, CEO of MediMusic, also announced on LinkedIn that the company has just cemented its first commercial deal with the NHS, and will announce further details in late Q2.
Music financier and rights management company Cutting Edge Group (CEG) has secured $500m “to invest in creating and buying music rights for films, TV, theatre productions and computer games”, reports the Financial Times. For those of you who follow this space closely, this is a positive story against a backdrop of a market that has become a little jittery after a period of hype around music rights as an asset class for investment. What’s this got to do with health? Well, CEG also owns a catalogue of wellness music, and provides a science-backed music streaming service for spas as part of its Myndstream business. Philip Moross, CEO of Cutting Edge Group, said that they have identified an “opportunity in the global wellness market, which is now projected to grow at 10% per annum to a US$7 trillion market by 2025. This refinancing will enable us to execute our growth strategy to take full advantage of these trends in our usual disciplined way”.
Cheddar interviewed Dr Ramses Alcaide and Adam Molnar about Neurable’s MW75 Neuro headphones. The headphones contain 12 EEG channels with dry fabric EEG sensors which can “track cognitive health and biomarkers”. There’s been steady growth in companies experimenting with EEG, many of which have an audio or musical component. Apple can be included in this group, following the filing last year of a patent for AirPods which measures the electrical activity of a user’s brain.
Renée Fleming’s move from opera singer to an advocate for the arts and health has helped shine a light on the opportunity for music to play a greater role in health and wellbeing. Her substantial new book ‘Music and Mind’ arrived on my doorstep last week, and I’ll admit to having only made it into the first couple of chapters. However, it’s already clear to see that this will serve as an extremely valuable compendium which gathers together the latest thinking from some of the brightest minds in the field as to why music is so important, and the current and future medical and therapeutic applications. Mindy Peterson’s interview with Renée on her podcast Enhance Life With Music provides a great overiew of the themes covered in the book.
Dr Sandra Garrido got in touch to let me know about the research she is leading at Western Sydney University’s MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development and School of Psychology. The team has developed an app called ‘Moody Tunes’ which helps young people find music proven to lift their mood. The app works in the background as an accompaniment to existing streaming services, rather than being a new standalone music offering.
Last week I met with David Berezan, Professor of Electroacoustic Music Composition at the University of Manchester to learn more about the ‘SoundRunner’ project he is leading with sports psychologist Costas Karageorghis. The core concept of SoundRunner is a platform to generate unique compositions through the act of running, which in turn produces positive psychological effects for the runner. This short film is a great overview of this innovative concept, or take a look at their paper to dig into the details further.
Pavle Marinkovic’s excellent newsletter Sound Awarness reports on researchers from the University of Washington who have developed headphones capable of selectively tuning out noises that we don’t want to hear. This ‘semantic hearing’ system works through voice or text input to filter out sounds. Check out this short video which shows the prototype in action.
Keeping with the theme of ‘selective hearing’, the Univesity of Pennsylvania catches up Sonura, winner of the University’s ‘President’s Innovation Prize’ last year. Sonura has “developed a beanie that shields newborns from the harsh noise environments present in neonatal intensive care units”. It’s well worth scrolling down the article to watch the short video about how the beanie blocks loud noises in a hospital, but let’s through the speech sounds from parents.
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Cheers!
Rob