UMG Announces Wellness App and Partnership With Ariana Huffington’s Anti-Burnout Tool
Written by djfrosty on September 20, 2023
Universal Music Group announced a new wellness app and a partnership with Ariana Huffington‘s Thrive Global on Tuesday during its first-ever Music + Health conference. Held at the One Hotel in West Hollywood, the event featured keynote remarks from Huffington and UMG chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge, plus panels and conversations deep-diving the therapeutic and medical benefits of music.
During the event, UMG said it is working on a forthcoming, music-centric wellness app called Sollos that will deploy “cognitive science and proprietary audio technology to support focus.” As Music Business Worldwide spotted, the label group submitted a trademark application for the brand in late August, however no additional information on the app has been released.
UMG also announced a new partnership with Thrive Global that will see UMG become the exclusive music partner for their Thrive Reset stress management tool. Huffington launched Thrive in 2016 as part of her years-long campaign to stamp out “burnout” and to help companies improve the well-being of workers through science-based actions. The Thrive Reset app uses music and breathing exercises to help users reduce stress in 60-second bursts.
“Universal’s catalog will make Thrive Resets more engaging, personalized and joyful to drive even greater behavior change through our platform, helping people reduce stress and connect each day with what they love about their lives,” said Huffington, who famously installed “sleep pods” — in rooms with names like Napquest — while leading The Huffington Post. “As we learned today from neuroscientists, historians, doctors and entrepreneurs, we’re just getting started with all of the ways we can leverage music, both for preventive health and to augment medical treatment, and I am looking forward to using today’s conference to accelerate this growing movement of music and health.”
On the licensing front, UMG announced it would provide selections from its vast catalog to digital therapeutic company soundBrilliance for use in closed clinical trials. According to the label, these trials will use music, psychology & measurement techniques “to create tools & exercises which empower people to better self-manage the fundamentals of health.”
The day featured a Zoom chat with music producer Rick Rubin on the topics of creativity, music and wellbeing, plus panel discussions featuring Dr. Lisa Miller, Dr. Daniel Levitin, Dr. Assal Habibi, Jaron Lanier and neurosurgeon and scholar Dr. Ali Rezai, as well as a presentation from MedRhythms co-founder and CEO Brian Harris. The day ended with a conversation on mental health between Grainge, Huffington and Selena Gomez.
There were also performances by Republic Records’ artist Chelsea Cutler and Decca Records’ Chad Lawson, plus panel appearances from UMG partners including Apple Fitness +, Endel, Music Care, Universal Production Music, Thrive Reset and a Havas Health panel that looked at music’s power to help end the health equity crisis.
“Throughout my life, I have experienced countless examples of how music can change people’s mood, comfort them in times of emotional crisis, or even help them physically,” Grainge said. “At Universal, I wanted this powerful relationship between music and health to not simply be a series of anecdotal observations, I want it to be a key component of our strategy, so we can really put music to work in ways it has never been used before. As a company, we are fundamentally rooted in the belief that music is a powerful force for good, and now we have the science and technology—with AI and therapeutics and more— to help accelerate these developments. It really is one of the most interesting and exciting new frontiers for music.”