Universal Music partners with music app for people with dementia

Deals New Digital Offers

By Chris Cooke | Posted on Monday, June 13, 2022

Universal Music last week announced a partnership with music wellness tech company Music Health. The deal sees the former provide its catalog to an app developed by the latter called Vera, which is described as “an intuitive music intervention tool designed for the care of people with dementia”.

The alliance follows Universal UK’s recent support for a new online platform that provides information on the use of music in healthcare. This was announced alongside ‘The Power Of Music’, the recent report by UK Music and Music For Dementia which championed the use of music to improve the lives of people with dementia, depression and other debilitating conditions .

Music Health says its Vera app “analyzes the age of the person with dementia, where they grew up, and how they react to certain music. It uses these criteria to autonomously select the right songs at the right time to effectively manage behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.Vera selects songs from UMG’s unrivaled catalog, the world’s largest, most diverse and culturally rich collection of blues, classical, country, folk, jazz, pop, R&B , reggae, rock n roll, soul and soundtracks”.

When announcing the Universal/Vera partnership, Grace Meadows of Music For Dementia noted that the app responded to searches referenced in the “Power Of Music” report.

She said: “Research shows that music is much more impactful for people with dementia when it has meaning and is associated with moments in someone’s life. In our report, which outlines how we can further harness the power of music to support health and well-being, we highlighted the need for a personalized approach to integrating music into health and social care, and l Vera app helps caregivers do just that. .

Commenting on the partnership on Universal’s side, Michael Nash, Executive Vice President of Digital Strategy at the major, added, “From rigorous workouts to peaceful meditation to restorative sleep cycles, music is deeply integrated into numerous innovations promoting health and well-being”.

“Now scientists are discovering that music is also a powerful tool to help those suffering from the effects of dementia and memory loss,” he continued. “At UMG, we work with a wide range of companies to develop therapeutic applications of music and we are proud to partner with Music Health on Vera to help improve the lives of so many people around the world.”