Warner Music Group has partnered with Hull’s MediMusic to trial “music as medicine,” particularly for those living with dementia.
The global music entertainment company has joined forces with the Hull start-up to see if it can relieve pain, anxiety and stress.
MediMusic will now conduct research testing in several closed “Randomised Controlled Trials” in both the US and UK. This will mean delivering playlists from WMG’s music catalogue to patients and sample groups and observing how they respond in real-time.
“This partnership with WMG is hugely important in helping us on our global mission to prescribe music and medicine to ease anxiety, pain and stress,” explained Gary Jones, CEO and co-founder of MediMusic.
“We’ve always known music is good for our soul. But there are thousands of medical papers and studies that prove music can also improve our health. Together with WMG’s catalogue of music, we can gather more data to improve our technology so that music can be used as medicine to help people around the world.”
The Hull tech company uses its proprietary algorithms extract the relevant features from the digital DNA of a piece of music, resulting in a fingerprint for healthcare use. Using Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and the data about the patient, MediMusic then automatically creates personalised 20-minute playlists and plays the music through a streaming device called the MediBeat and a pair of headphones.
The playlist running order is designed to reduce heart rate and stress hormones like cortisol and promote relaxation through hormones like dopamine and oxytocin.
This is monitored in real-time and if a listener’s heart rate does not respond as expected, MediMusic’s ‘Digital Drip’ uses Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to swap out playlist tracks to find something more suitable.
“At WMG, we are focused on finding new ways for our artists and music to be used for good, to benefit society, and to empower an ecosystem of partners with similar goals,” said Michael Baines, VP Digital Strategy and Business Development.
“Together with MediMusic, we’re thrilled to explore the transformative healing power of music in their “music as medicine” trials — we are just beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible.”
