Apple Music and Universal Music Group have launched Sound Therapy, a new collection of wellness playlists that blend music with sound science. The playlists aim to help you focus, relax, or sleep using specially tuned versions of familiar tracks.
You’ll find exclusive reworks of songs by Imagine Dragons, Katy Perry, Kacey Musgraves, and others. Each playlist falls into one of three categories: Focus, Relax, and Sleep, and uses specific sound patterns to trigger targeted brain responses.
How Sound Therapy Works
Every track in Sound Therapy uses subtle auditory changes to influence how you feel. For example, the playlists remove vocals or extend instrumental sections to allow sound waves to take center stage. Imagine Dragons, Katy Perry, Kacey Musgraves, and other artists feature reworked versions of their music that maintain the original emotion but now serve a new purpose.
Apple says this project builds on growing interest in music’s role in mental health.
According to Apple’s newsroom, each track uses Universal’s proprietary audio technology and draws from cognitive research. A dreamy edit of Double Rainbow by Katy Perry appears in the Sleep playlist. A stripped-down Imagine Dragons track plays in the Focus category. These aren’t random pairings. Each one was selected and modified to work with the frequencies applied.
Apple Music Expands Wellness Tools
You can find Sound Therapy under curated wellness content on Apple Music. It follows the launch of the Apple Music Chill radio station, which offers genre-spanning tracks for mindfulness and calm. Apple says it plans to work closely with Universal and Sollos to study the effects of music on well-being and expand the use of sound therapy across its services.
This release also reflects a broader strategy. Universal Music’s Sollos venture focuses on the intersection of music and health, and Apple continues to add health-centered features across its platforms.
Both companies see wellness through audio as an area of growth. With Sound Therapy, they’ve taken a step to make that experience part of your daily routine.