Music is undergoing a sudden wellness transformation and this trend is not about giving up your Bob Dylan, Beatles or Beyoncé; it is about seeing music’s health and wellness potential anew, with far more “wellness music” options: new technologies, new experiments and new experiences.
We all self-medicate through music: We’ve all got our “I’m stressed” or “I need energy” playlists. But most people don’t fully grasp just how much they depend on music to manage their emotions or just how powerful the medical evidence for music therapy is. Studies reveal that not only are humans hardwired for music, but they also agree that no other stimulus positively activates so many regions of the human brain (from the amygdala to the hippocampus) – with unique powers to boost mood and memory. But when you think of formal “music therapy,” it conjures up dowdy, dusty greige offices in some school or medical outbuilding, with patients wearing Soviet-era headphones.
Suddenly, something big is happening. Music as an intentional therapy is being radically reinvented. Music is emerging as one of the hottest trends in wellness, and wellness concepts are shaking up the massive music industry. “Wellness music” is being born, and the trend takes so many forms. Funding for medical studies on music’s impact on the brain is really heating up, with researchers using biofeedback, AI and machine learning to identify how music’s structural properties (such as beat, key, chord progression and timbre) specifically impact biometrics like heart rate, brain waves and sleep patterns – so they can develop music as precision medicine for everything from pain to PTSD.
And while the megatrend of ancient sound therapies (from gong baths to Tibetan singing bowls) will only rise at wellness studios and travel destinations, we’ll see more experimentation with music and acoustic experiences at both mainstream and wellness travel destinations. How about a “deep listening” excursion in the deepest rainforest with an acoustic ecologist?
Given music’s powerful impact on our brains and bodies, it’s extraordinary how little innovation there has been around intentionally designing music and sound experiences that could actively, positively change our mood, health and performance.
Change is here. Music created (and listened to) as intentional medicine will be a big trend in 2020 and beyond. It’s not about giving up your Beatles or Beyoncé fixes solely for biofeedback-based soundscapes – it’s about seeing music’s health and wellness potential anew, with far more “wellness music” options: new technologies, new experiments and new experiences.
Evidence that music is strong medicine
Stringent meta-reviews show music’s eyeopening impact on depression, anxiety and pain – and everything from its power to improve social skills in kids with autism to being a stronghold against Alzheimer’s, as memories of music don’t get lost to the disease. A key, recent focus has been more hospitals around the world using music therapy before surgery, as new studies like one from the University of Pennsylvania reveal that music is as powerful as a sedative in reducing patients’ anxiety.
More research is now untangling the brain mechanisms involved in listening to music and investigating the right dosages: The British Academy of Sound Therapy just found that 78 minutes daily is optimal for improving mental health. And there’s more research into evidence-based acoustic sound design: what frequencies (measured in hertz), decibels, beats, tones, etc. have the most powerful impact, and for what outcomes.
Exhausted by screens, we’re taking sanctuary in sound
With the average person now spending 6.5 hours+ a day in front of screens – bombarded by bad news, endless work, and social media strutting – there’s a distinct shift underway: a retreat from visual/digital culture into music and sound. This flight into music is being led by millennials/Gen Z: A recent global Spotify survey of 15- to 37-year-olds found that one of the five defining traits of this young demographic is that they (56 per cent reporting) “use audio as an escape from their screens,” and audio is a “huge part of their everyday lives.” It’s not just the kids: A recent Sonos global survey showed the many ways all people use music to boost their wellbeing: Roughly 75 per cent report they listen to music to reduce stress, and that listening to music is key to producing their best work.
You see the flight from visual to audio culture – from our exhausted eyes to our newly open ears- in the skyrocketing adoption of podcast-listening: Thirty-six per cent of the world’s population has listened to podcasts in the last month. You see it in new music listening centers, like the rise of cool, new “listening bars” that mix community and cocktails with big vinyl listening libraries, so huge in Toyko at places such as Baobob or Paper Moon, and spreading around the world to places such as Bar Shiru in Oakland, California, or Tokyo Record Bar in New York City. You see it in hot real estate trends, including the rise in “listening rooms,” a home space where meditation can be taken with music.
Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and other streaming sites are increasingly serving up playlists that focus on mood-changing, stress-reducing, help-people-sleep, focus-enhancing, meditative, improve-your-workout music and soundscapes -making wellness music a core homepage channel. There are now endless loops of trance-y and tranquilising music or channels for specific wellbeing intentions, and they boast millions of subscribers. Spotify is spawning “chill playlists” such as “Deep Focus,” “Peaceful Piano” and “Ambient Chill.”
Brand-new apps such as myndstream (from the founders of the entertainment group that made emotional music for shows such as Game of Thrones and House of Cards) create music to specifically drive daily wellbeing goals, with tracks for focus, meditation, movement, relaxation and sleep, that can be accessed on Spotify and Apple Music.
More artists are incorporating experiences that you would find at a wellness resort into their performances: artists such as Erykah Badu and bands such as Sigur Rós are having mass sound baths at their concerts, while Jhene Aiko’s recent concerts included guided meditations, sound baths, mantra-chanting and aromatherapy. The music + wellness festival just continues to surge.
The behemoth music fests such as Latitude or Glastonbury keep adding more wellness areas/experiences, the latter recently featuring everything from indigenous spiritual elders to workshops on ayahuasca. In the future, we will see more live music meditation and full-blown “audio-wellness” festivals, such as Soft Landings planned by Morning Gloryville Founder, Samantha Moyo.
WellMusicTech: A new era of personalised music as precision medicine
New technologies and apps are radically reimagining how music can become a deeply personalised precision medicine. A pioneer, geared toward the healthcare space, has been Project Sync, which worked with top neuroscientists and musicians to develop personalised musical therapeutics for everything from pain management (given the deadly opioid crisis) to improving sleep.
A spinoff from MIT’s Media Lab, Project Sync performed trials on how things such as tone, beat and rhythm exactly impact the brain and body. Purchased by Bose in 2018, a company then making moves in the acoustic healthcare space, it’s unclear for now what Project Sync’s future is. But it’s also clear that companies will step in and solve personalised musical interventions for traditional healthcare.
One of the most fascinating examples of the new “wellness music” is the rising wave of generative music apps and streaming services that create tailor-made, always-adapting soundscapes, using algorithms and your own biofeedback, to improve your wellbeing. Their thesis: You’ve got the healing music in you, and when combined with smart algorithms and AI, these custom sound frequencies can function like an always-there playlist you can turn to if you need to de-stress, focus or sleep.
Berlin-based Endel is the headline-grabbing leader. The app pulls data from your phone (such as weather, time of day and your location) while pulling biometric and psychometric data (from your heart rate to step data, etc.) from your smartwatch to create an endless sonic wellness composition.
The Endel algorithm is based on pentatonic scales (to riff off simple sounds), people’s biological clocks and sound masking (to blanket distracting sounds) – and is informed by the psychological theory of ““Flow” (that state of optimal “being in the zone”) developed by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (with whom Endel collaborated). So whether you’re deadlocked in traffic after an awful workday or heading out to run, Endel kicks off an ambient soundscape that just keeps blossoming as your bio and environmental input provides more data, evolving to help enhance your body and mind. It’s an endless wellness tune that’s never the same twice.
In 2019, Warner Music famously signed Endel-algorithm-generated songs to the first nonhuman record deal. Singer/ producer Chaz Bear, known as Toro Y Moi, collaborated with Endel and Smartwater to create music with Endel’s algorithm and noted: “This is going to be an interesting platform to bring artists into the realm of wellness and bring wellness to the public.” The company (who has attracted big investors such as Amazon’s Alexa Fund and Japan’s Avex Ventures) has ambitious plans to bring Endel soundscapes to all the everyday spaces: your home, hotels (certainly perfect for wellness destinations), retail spaces, galleries, workplaces, etc. and are already in talks with automakers and airlines.
Meditation apps? They’re morphing into wellness music apps
There are thousands of meditation apps, and the market is growing like mad: The top-10 apps saw 40 per cent growth year-over-year, and millions more new users tuned in for some mindfulness, stress-relief and help sleeping within the last year. A clear trend: The newest and most successful meditation apps are fast becoming wellness music apps.
One of the new apps, Wave, foregoes the old whispery, guided meditations for an all-wellness-music platform. The Wave kit combines headphones and a pulse-vibrating foam bolster for a multifrequency meditative experience. Users tune into the music library and, because it’s Bluetooth-enabled, they breathe to the beat of each track. It was specifically targeted at younger demos, and they surveyed consumers on what activities they most turned to for empowerment.
Mega-meditation app Calm (60 million downloads!), which hit US$ 1 billion unicorn status in part because it expanded its focus from meditation to sleep (with its famed celebrity-read “sleep stories”), is evolving into a “wellness music” platform. Calm’s incredibly popular “Sleep” channel features exclusive compositions by alt-rock stars such as Moby, Icelandic band Sigur Rós, Sam Smith and Sabrina Carpenter designed to work as adult lullabies and musical sedatives. In 2020, Calm’s working with artists such as country music star Keith Urban – and with artists across musical genres, from pop to hip-hop – to create creative, long-form “Calm” music of all kinds. Its wellness music tracks have already been streamed 200 million times.
Sanctuaries from noise pollution & forest “listening” will rise in wellness travel
Modern people, most living in loud, concrete cities, may not grasp the profound impact that noise pollution has on their health, and how noise from human encroachment on nature decimates wildlife and ecological systems. Noise pollution is poised to be the next public health issue – living in loud environments lead to more heart disease; high blood pressure; obesity; low birth weight, sleep, mood and focus issues; and cognitive impairment in children. Bruitparif, which monitors noise levels in Paris (in combination with World Health Organisation data), published a report that the average resident of Paris loses “more than three healthy life-years” from ailments caused by noise pollution. Western Europe loses at least “one million healthy years of life.”
And man-made noise, as we invade ever more natural spaces, is a wildlife and ecosystem killer. As Les Blomberg, founder of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse, put it: “What we’re doing to our soundscape is littering it. It’s…acoustical litter—and, if you could see what you hear, it would look like piles of McDonald’s wrappers, just thrown out the window as we go driving down the road.”
As awareness about the disastrous impact of noise pollution on human health and the environment grows, we expect that the protection of natural spaces from noise will need to be put on any sustainability checklist – and that noise-pollution-free natural sanctuaries will become a new integer in wellness travel.
World’s first Wilderness Quiet Park
“Deep listening” in noise-protected nature looks to be a fascinating trend percolating in wellness travel. A striking example: Amazon Awakenings’ “Let it Happen” trip from Explorer X led by Gordon Hempton, an acoustic ecologist known as The Sound Tracker, who has spent 35 years seeking out the Earth’s rarest nature sounds. Hempton, along with the indigenous Cofab tribe, lead travellers on an “interactive sound journey” in the sonically beautiful, pristine Ecuadorean rainforest Zabalo River.
It’s the first place on Earth designated as a “Wilderness Quiet Park” and completely off-limits to noise pollution. Travellers are led in “deep listening exercises” in the rainforest, learn how to recover their lost animal-alert, 360-degree hearing and listen intently to the natural “drumbeats, violins, raindrops and choruses” that fill the air around them.
We need more high-quality research into the impact of specific music/sound experiences on specific issues/goals to make sure all these new wellness music applications actually work – and with grants such as the NIH’s, important research is ahead. And with so many new mental wellbeing tracking apps and solutions powered by emotion-tracking technology exploding the wellness world, we need to regulate who has access to this sensitive data.
With 5G hitting the tipping point in 2020, with its insanely fast wireless speeds and network power, it will make possible the rise of what you could call “wellness sensoriums”: intensely immersive environments (some using 3D and virtual reality) that will mash up evidence- and biofeedback-based music, sound, light and vibrational experiences – whether in our homes or at wellness destinations. At the same time, 5G’s unprecedented ability to suck people into multidimensional multimedia environments will lead to even worse screen addiction and exhaustion. More will flee into sound and music… and they will have so many more healing experiences to flee to.
Source: 2020 Global Wellness Trends
