00:00I've been testing Apple Music's new sound therapy playlists and they've
00:06solved my sleep troubles. Let me explain. Apple and Universal Music Group have
00:11teamed up to bring sound therapy to the Apple Music streaming platform and the
00:16new tracks are free for all subscribers. They feature a collection of albums and
00:20playlists that include typical relaxing rain sounds alongside remixes of UMG's
00:26artists music including Glass Animals, Imagine Dragons and Katy Perry. Each
00:31albums goal is to either help you focus, relax or fall asleep. To do this the
00:35song's lyrics have been stripped away leaving just the instrumentals behind.
00:39These singerless tracks are then enhanced by audio engineers and scientists to
00:43include sound wave profiles which are meant to help you achieve your desired
00:47mental state. Now I'm no sound psychologist but I am an Apple Music
00:51subscriber so for the past couple of weeks I've been a guinea pig in my own sound
00:55therapy experiment to see what this new Apple and UMG collab can do for me. So
01:00as I've mentioned already there are three tiers of sound therapy on Apple Music.
01:04The most energetic if you can call it that though it is generally more bombastic
01:09than the other categories is the focus tier. According to Apple's description
01:14this collection of music harnesses the power of gamma auditory beats and white
01:18noise to support concentration and a cognitive performance. A cursory glance at a
01:23few scientific studies suggest the impact of these kinds of auditory stimulants ranges
01:27from zero to minimal on concentration but they were generally very similar to the
01:33lo-fi tunes or instrumental tracks usually from a film or video game that I've relied on
01:38to help me focus while I work or study. So it's not an immediate failure. Though for a short
01:44time I did think it might be a failure as while listening through a focus mix I could clearly
01:48make out a modulating yet distinct white noise hum in the background of tracks. Thankfully
01:54those early distractions from the first time you spot it in the mix do fade away as you
01:59let the music occupy background noise rather than letting it be the focus of your attention.
02:04The hum becomes like breathing. By that I mean if you focus on the white noise hum then
02:09like breathing it becomes way more apparent. Drift into focusing on whatever task you're working
02:14on and the hum becomes part of the beat's soundtrack and becomes as unnoticeable as automatically
02:19drawing in breath. Though much like the focus category I'm not yet convinced that the relaxed
02:24sound therapy is wholly better than the playlists I already rely on. In this tier's description
02:29Apple reveals that relaxed sets have infused the original music with theta auditory beats
02:35which are meant to help you loosen up. There's a particularly fantastic relaxing remix of Heatwaves
02:40by Glass Animals which extends the song to a little under an hour across 19 parts. I've found these
02:46albums are ideal for a post work wind down. I'll stick them on my Sonos speakers and chill out on the
02:52couch to read a book, sit up and construct the Lego Deku tree I've been steadily working my way through
02:58recently or bring some chill vibes to my kitchen while I cook dinner. Much like the focus category it's
03:04excellent background noise though outside of reading I can't listen to words while reading words.
03:10I'm unconvinced it's entirely better than my current selection of podcasts, informative YouTube
03:15videos or whatever dropout show I'm currently binging. At least whatever audio editions Apple
03:21and UMG have made here aren't quite as in your face as with the focus category. However while sound
03:28therapy has left me whelmed in its first two tests the sleep tier tracks have definitely transformed
03:34my bedtime. My fiancé and I like to fall asleep to sound. Unless I'm absolutely exhausted I find
03:40sleeping in a quiet room super off-putting. Unfortunately we usually want to sleep to
03:45different noise. For me it's typically a YouTube video something from Wanova Productions, Last Week
03:51Tonight or Wolfie VGC. Something fun but informative even if that information in Wolfie's case is all about
03:57competitive Pokémon. For my fiancé it's either the next episode in her latest rewatch of a show,
04:03favourites include The Good Place, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Currently Handmaid's Tale, or a compilation
04:08of Dragon's Den clips. That's the UK version of Shark Tank. Playing competing audio at the same time
04:14leaves us both unhappy and we each find the other's videos massively grating. My usual technique is to
04:21wait for her to fall asleep then switch her video choice to one of my own. It's hardly ideal though. Since
04:26testing these sound therapy sleep tracks we've finally found a solution that we both love and we now use it
04:32every night. Again there are a few music remixes, this time enhanced with pink noise to help you drift off,
04:38but playlists tend to be devoted to the sounds of running water or forest breeze, that sort of thing.
04:44Admittedly the pink noise of campfire crackling or rain on a tent isn't anything new in the audio
04:49world. There are countless apps and hours long online videos devoted to relaxing natural noise to
04:55play while you're trying to fall asleep. But this sound therapy has been a game changer because one,
05:00it's free and ad free with our existing subscription and two, it's playable through our Sonos speakers
05:06and controllable with both of our phones. So if one of us wakes up in the night we can easily restart
05:11the playlist without having to climb over the other to grab their phone and rewind the video.
05:16Since using these sound therapy solutions we're usually both out like a light in about 15 minutes.
05:21It's the easiest I've fallen asleep in months and I think I'm feeling a little better rested each
05:27morning to boot. Admittedly I'm not convinced these sound therapy options are yet worthwhile enough
05:32to swap from another music platform to apple music just to gain access to them, but they are handy if
05:38you're looking to get more out of your existing subscription. Even albums in the relax and focus
05:43categories have entered my music rotation despite not being the immediate go-to solution like the
05:48sleep tracks now are. If you want to experience apple music's sound therapy for yourself, subscribers can
05:54easily find the whole collection by tapping on the search icon in their app and then tapping on the
05:58sound therapy box you should see on that page. Let us know in the comments what music you use to focus
06:04or sleep to and we'll see you in the next video!
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