Common Music Group has been on the forefront of the convergence of the music and wellness industries over the previous few years.
In 2021, UMG struck a partnership with $34 million-backed MedRhythms for its music for use to deal with neurologic harm.
In 2022, Common turned the unique launch associate for an AI-driven music app known as Vera that supplied entry to UMG’s music catalog for folks with dementia.
In September final yr, the corporate introduced a “music-centric” wellness app named Sollos, which, in accordance with UMG, makes use of “cognitive science and proprietary audio expertise to assist focus, leisure, and sleep.”
Additionally in 2023, Common teamed up with generative AI sound wellness startup Endel to create what they name “AI-powered, artist-driven useful music” (e.g. music for sleep, operating, leisure and so forth).
And now, MBW has unearthed a current patent software from Common that describes expertise that might considerably influence the wellness house.
The submitting, titled, ‘Producing tonally appropriate, synchronized neural beats for digital audio recordsdata‘ describes what UMG calls “new and progressive programs and strategies for producing and including neural beats to current audio tracks”.
As defined by Common within the software, neural beats, performed at sure frequencies, might “embody any audio beat designed to supply or encourage a desired psychological state in a consumer”.
Such “desired psychological states” might embody “neural entrainment, improved focus, a calmer temper, leisure, or another desired psychological state”.
Neural entrainment happens when your mind waves sync up with a repeating sample, for instance a beat in music, which research present can assist to enhance your focus, reminiscence and creativity and scale back stress.
Common notes that neural beats might embody both monaural or binaural beats “that mix a decrease beat frequency with the next service frequency”.
In response to the patent submitting, the ‘beat frequency’ “could also be chosen primarily based on a desired psychological state (e.g., the place completely different frequencies foster several types of psychological states in people)” and “the beat frequency could also be at a decrease frequency than people can detect and/or could also be on the decrease vary of human listening to”.
The appliance seems to have been submitted by Common Worldwide Music B.V. in a number of markets, together with america, Canada, and Australia. The appliance is pending in all three markets and particulars of the submitting have been most just lately printed in Australia in April.
The inventor of Common’s neural beats expertise is Elio Quinton, who, in accordance with LinkedIn, is VP of Synthetic Intelligence at Common Music Group.
Quinton’s bio on GitHub states that he based and led Common’s Music & Audio Machine Studying Lab (MAML), which is claimed to be the first-ever Machine Studying R&D group within the report trade.
In response to the patent software, the tech works by analyzing “the pitch traits of a digital audio file over time.”
This data might then be used to pick out “a service frequency” for a neural beat to be added to an audio file.
The submitting explains: “For instance, dominant pitch courses could also be extracted from the chromagram options at varied timestamps throughout the digital audio file and the dominant pitch courses could also be used to pick out service frequencies for the neural beat on the varied timestamps”.
Common’s patent software, which you’ll be able to learn in full right here, explains additional that the neural beat might then “be synthesized primarily based on the beat frequency and the chosen service frequencies and saved for later use”.
It provides that “in sure cases, a mixed audio monitor could also be generated that mixes the digital audio file with the neural beat” and “in different cases, the neural beat could also be saved in affiliation with the digital audio file”.
The submitting continues: “Moreover, in sure cases, the neural beat and/or mixed audio monitor could also be generated in actual time as a consumer machine streams the digital audio file, similar to by a server from which the digital audio file is streamed or by a consumer machine receiving the streamed digital audio file.
“The neural beat might then be performed alongside the digital audio file (e.g., as separate audio recordsdata performed concurrently and/or as a single audio file) by way of the consumer machine.”
The patent explains that the “positions for the rhythmic beats throughout the digital audio file could also be estimated utilizing a machine studying mannequin, similar to a pre-trained community configured to detect rhythmic beats inside audio recordsdata”.
On the root of Common’s invention is a method to mechanically generate and add neural beats to current music.
By doing so, Common says that customers of the tech can “hearken to their most popular tracks or music genres whereas additionally experiencing the advantages of neural entrainment, leisure, and/or improved focus supplied by neural beats”.
Might that imply that Common is planning so as to add binaural or monaural beats to standard music (e.g. from the likes of Billie Eilish or the Weeknd) for wellness functions? If that’s the plan, it will be a game-changing growth on this house.
A variety of the binaural beats playlists which are accessible on Spotify at current seem like full of useful (and sometimes droning) tracks particularly produced for leisure, focus or sleep, and so forth.
In response to Common’s submitting: “Not all customers get pleasure from listening to audio tracks that solely comprise neural beats, and will discover them boring or distracting, limiting the results of neural entrainment.
“Moreover, the restricted availability of current audio tracks that embody embedded monaural beats might not attraction to all customers. Sure programs might mechanically generate music that comes with monaural beats to stop customers from having to hearken to the identical monitor a number of occasions.”
“There exists a must mechanically add neural beats to current audio tracks such that customers might hearken to their most popular tracks or music genres whereas additionally experiencing the advantages of neural entrainment, leisure, and/or improved focus supplied by neural beats.”
Common Music patent software
The submitting provides: “Nonetheless, such programs nonetheless can not right for the chance {that a} consumer will need to hearken to a particular monitor or style that has not been beforehand mixed with neural beats.
“Subsequently, there exists a must mechanically add neural beats to current audio tracks such that customers might hearken to their most popular tracks or music genres whereas additionally experiencing the advantages of neural entrainment, leisure, and/or improved focus supplied by neural beats.”
A ultimate considered this patent software is that this expertise might be utilized in UMG’s forthcoming “music-centric wellness app” Sollos, which the corporate stated in September “makes use of cognitive science and proprietary audio expertise to assist focus, leisure and sleep”.
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