Apple Sound Therapy – Image Credit: Apple
Sound Therapy is Apple Music’s new audio wellness collection with special sound waves, aimed at helping users focus, relax, and sleep.
Music is often used to help people relax or to focus, providing an auditory backdrop for listeners that can make them feel better in some situations. In an extension of the concept, Apple Music is going further by making the music even more beneficial.
Working with Universal Music Group’s audio technology, Sound Therapy is an audio wellness collection exclusive to the streaming service. Rather than simply being a playlist of tracks that users associate with relaxation or focus, the project uses special versions of existing tracks that seamlessly include special sound waves without disrupting the artist’s vision.
Based on the science-led Sollos Initiative, and using psychoacoustics and cognitive science, the UMG sound waves are intended to enhance a user’s daily routine. Auditory beats and colored noise are introduced, such as gamma waves and white noise for improving a person’s focus on the Focus playlist.
The Relax playlist contains tracks with added theta waves. Meanwhile delta waves and pink noise are included in the Sleep collection.
The songs in the playlists include popular, well-known tracks from major artists. The list of artists include Katy Perry, Imagine Dragons, Kacey Musgraves, AURORA, and Jeremy Zucker, among others.
The initiative is an extension of existing playlists, such as personalized mood playlists and the Apple Music Chill radio station, said Apple Music co-head Rachel Newman. The new initiative with UMB, Newman adds, is an experience that is “grounded in artistry, shaped by innovation, and designed to support wellness.”
Apple’s auditory wellness has also previously stretched itself in non-music directions. In iOS 15, Background Sounds allowed users to listen to rain, a stream, and other noises, to avoid silence.
