Universal Music Group has been at the forefront of the convergence of the music and wellness industries over the past few years.
In 2021, UMG struck a partnership with $34 million-backed MedRhythms for its music to be used to treat neurologic injury.
In 2022, Universal became the exclusive launch partner for an AI-driven music app called Vera that provided access to UMG’s music catalog for people with dementia.
In September last year, the company announced a “music-centric” wellness app named Sollos, which, according to UMG, uses “cognitive science and proprietary audio technology to support focus, relaxation, and sleep.”
Also in 2023, Universal teamed up with generative AI sound wellness startup Endel to create what they call “AI-powered, artist-driven functional music” (e.g. music for sleep, running, relaxation etc).
And now, MBW has unearthed a recent patent application from Universal that describes technology that could significantly impact the wellness space.
The filing, titled, ‘Generating tonally compatible, synchronized neural beats for digital audio files‘ describes what UMG calls “new and innovative systems and methods for generating and adding neural beats to existing audio tracks”.
As explained by Universal in the application, neural beats, played at certain frequencies, may “include any audio beat designed to produce or encourage a desired mental state in a user”.
Such “desired mental states” may include “neural entrainment, improved focus, a calmer mood, relaxation, or any other desired mental state”.
Neural entrainment occurs when your brain waves sync up with a repeating pattern, for example a beat in music, which studies show can help to improve your focus, memory and creativity and reduce stress.
Neural beats may include either monaural or binaural beats.
The application appears to have been submitted by Universal International Music B.V. in multiple markets, including the United States, Canada, and Australia. The application is pending in all three markets and details of the filing were most recently published in Australia in April.
The inventor of Universal’s neural beats technology is Elio Quinton, who, according to LinkedIn, is VP of Artificial Intelligence at Universal Music Group.
Quinton’s bio on GitHub states that he founded and led Universal’s Music & Audio Machine Learning Lab (MAML), which is claimed to be the first-ever Machine Learning R&D group in the record industry.
According to the patent application, the tech works by analyzing “the pitch characteristics of a digital audio file over time.”
This information may then be used to select “a carrier frequency” for a neural beat to be added to an audio file.
The filing explains: “For example, dominant pitch classes may be extracted from the chromagram features at various timestamps within the digital audio file and the dominant pitch classes may be used to select carrier frequencies for the neural beat at the various timestamps”.
Universal’s patent application, which you can read in full here, explains further that the neural beat may then “be synthesized based on the beat frequency and the selected carrier frequencies and stored for later use”.
It adds that “in certain instances, a combined audio track may be generated that combines the digital audio file with the neural beat” and “in other instances, the neural beat may be stored in association with the digital audio file”.
The filing continues: “Furthermore, in certain instances, the neural beat and/or combined audio track may be generated in real time as a user device streams the digital audio file, such as by a server from which the digital audio file is streamed or by a user device receiving the streamed digital audio file.
“The neural beat may then be played alongside the digital audio file (e.g., as separate audio files played simultaneously and/or as a single audio file) via the user device.”
The patent explains that the “positions for the rhythmic beats within the digital audio file may be estimated using a machine learning model, such as a pre-trained network configured to detect rhythmic beats within audio files”.
At the root of Universal’s invention is a way to automatically generate and add neural beats to existing music.
By doing so, Universal says that users of the tech can “listen to their preferred tracks or music genres while also experiencing the benefits of neural entrainment, relaxation, and/or improved focus provided by neural beats”.
Could that mean that Universal is planning to add binaural or monaural beats to popular music (e.g. from the likes of Billie Eilish or the Weeknd) for wellness purposes? If that is the plan, it would be a game-changing development in this space.
A lot of the binaural beats playlists that are available on Spotify at present appear to be filled with functional (and often droning) tracks specifically produced for relaxation, concentration or sleep, etc.
According to Universal’s filing: “Not all users enjoy listening to audio tracks that only contain neural beats, and may find them boring or distracting, limiting the effects of neural entrainment.
“Furthermore, the limited availability of existing audio tracks that include embedded monaural beats may not appeal to all users. Certain systems may automatically generate music that incorporates monaural beats to prevent users from having to listen to the same track multiple times.”
“There exists a need to automatically add neural beats to existing audio tracks such that users may listen to their preferred tracks or music genres while also experiencing the benefits of neural entrainment, relaxation, and/or improved focus provided by neural beats.”
Universal Music patent application
The filing adds: “However, such systems still cannot correct for the possibility that a user will want to listen to a specific track or genre that has not been previously combined with neural beats.
“Therefore, there exists a need to automatically add neural beats to existing audio tracks such that users may listen to their preferred tracks or music genres while also experiencing the benefits of neural entrainment, relaxation, and/or improved focus provided by neural beats.”
A final thought about this patent application is that this technology could be used in UMG’s forthcoming “music-centric wellness app” Sollos, which the company said in September “uses cognitive science and proprietary audio technology to support focus, relaxation and sleep”.
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