Topic
Music, Health and Science
Research on music and the brain, and music used for health and wellbeing. 5 conversations with founders, investors and experts, newest first.
Episodes (5)
Freddie Moross, founder of Myndstream, explains how owning music assets powers functional soundtracks for spas, hotels and wellness spaces.
Ryan Schmidt of Foundation explains why artists need business knowledge alongside talent, and how two-to-five-minute lessons help close that gap.
Dr. Tom Fritz of Jymmin explains how agency, cross-cultural music making, and human connection can keep live music relevant as AI grows.
Neuroscientist Tom Fritz of the Max Planck Institute explains why the brain treats AI and human music alike, and why listeners still crave live performance.
Christiana Sudano, founder of Do Less Management, explains how she connects Nordic artists to LA and Nashville and why managers now handle artist development.
Questions these episodes answer
Why does Myndstream own its music instead of licensing from other rights holders?
Moross says Myndstream's whole model depends on owning its music catalog rather than licensing tracks from others. Owning the assets shapes how the company can price its software affordably and gives it a lean cost structure it could not run if it had to clear commercial licenses for every track it plays.
What problem did Myndstream find in spas before it built anything?
Spas were often still running CD players bought fifteen years earlier, or staff used free Spotify or YouTube accounts that let an ad interrupt a paid treatment. Moross says that guest experience, being advertised to in the middle of a massage, is what convinced him music needed a dedicated commercial solution.
How does Myndstream make the same brand sound different across hotel locations?
Myndstream treats the soundtrack as part of a hotel's brand rather than generic background music, so a chain can make one property sound geographically and culturally different from another while staying commercially licensed and on-brand. Moross says this branding layer also opens paid pre and post-treatment rituals as an upsell.
Why do wellness travelers matter commercially to hotels and spas?
Moross cites Global Wellness Institute figures putting the wellness industry at $6.8 trillion, and says wellness travelers in hospitality spend 40 percent more than other guests. He frames wellness customers as people investing with intention, which is the commercial case hotels and spas need beyond guest experience alone.
What advice does Freddie Moross give founders building in wellness music?
Asked where the next opportunity sits in wellness music, Moross says he would avoid generative music because volume is not the industry's real problem, there is already plenty of music available. He would focus instead on distribution, on getting the right music to the right listeners once that infrastructure exists.
What is the biggest knowledge gap that hurts independent artists?
Schmidt says it's not any single bad deal but a general lack of business knowledge, since many artists assume they can hand full responsibility for understanding contracts and royalties to a manager, label or lawyer, which leaves them unable to catch problems in their own deals.
What's the biggest misconception artists have about signing a record deal?
Schmidt says many artists think signing a deal means the label will do all the work from there, when really the day you sign is just the day you enter the major leagues and have to work harder than ever, since you're still the one steering your own career.
How does Foundation fit music business lessons around an artist's schedule?
The app is built as two to five minute lessons an artist can take between takes at a recording session, so learning the business does not compete with time spent actually making music, and Schmidt says there is no end point since the industry keeps changing.
Why did a clip of Seth MacFarlane singing on a Logic song convert to streams while other viral clips don't?
Schmidt says the clip worked because the music itself was the reason it went viral, so viewers went straight to Spotify to hear more. He contrasts this with clips where his own music played only as background to an unrelated joke, which got millions of views but almost no streams.
Why does Ryan Schmidt say artists shouldn't rely only on social media algorithms for their audience?
He says any algorithm-based platform only lends you an audience you don't actually own, and that platform could disappear tomorrow, so artists should convert followers into an owned channel like an email list or texting club they can always reach directly.
What did Tom Fritz's experiments with the Mafa show about musical understanding?
His work in northern Cameroon showed that cultural experience shapes music, but the most universal element is making music together. Two people from different cultures can still have a musical dialogue, and the situations they create together give the music its meaning.
From: How Neuroscience Explains the Human Connection with Music
Why does agency matter in music?
Agency is important at many levels, from being a DJ to playing an instrument, and even passive listening can trigger it. Sometimes the illusion of agency is enough, for example when a runner synchronizes with the beat, and it can produce positive physiological and cognitive effects.
From: How Neuroscience Explains the Human Connection with Music