EP/79: PRESCRIBING MUSIC
If Music is Medicine, What’s Your Prescription?
LISTEN ON: APPLE SPOTIFY STITCHER
If administered correctly, can music be used as medicine? We reached out to a fascinating company called MediMusic for some answers. MediMusic creates individualized playlists that reduce heart rate and influence the Vagus nerve to stimulate a positive physio-endocrine response. The software uses algorithms to automatically create playlists based on a range of academic data on how people consume music –like age, gender and nationality – that prompt a positive physiological and emotional response.
Joining us today is Gary Jones, the CEO and Co-founder of MediMusic. Gary is an award-winning entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in music and content management. Previously, he worked on projects with Sony, Intel, Yahoo, PRS and News International. Gary Jones’s own musical journey began when his uncle bought him a plastic guitar for his 13th birthday in the mid-1970s. Inspired by his musical family, he taught himself how to play, started a school band and began putting gigs and events on in his local area. He joins us from Hull, England.
About GARY
Gary Jones is the CEO and Co-founder of MediMusic. He is an award-winning Entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in music and content management. Previously, he worked on projects with Sony, Intel, Yahoo, PRS, and News International.
Gary Jones’s own musical journey began when his uncle bought him a plastic guitar for his 13th birthday in the mid-1970s. Inspired by his musical family, he taught himself how to play, started a school band and began putting gigs and events on in his local area.
He later went down to London to manage a band, and so began a 30-year career in the music business that saw him run a label in the US and contribute to numerous B2B and consumer titles including Reader’s Digest, Music Business International, Moneywise and the Times Educational Supplement. He also launched his own business publishing specialist photography books and magazines.
Towards the late 1990s, he began to focus on the creation of content management systems, co-founding an e-commerce IT website, developing SMS products and providing mobile and wireless consultancy services for multinational clients.
In 2013, he was offered the position of senior partner manager at Omnifone, a global B2B cloud music platform provider, running Sony’s Music Unlimited streaming service across 19 territories. It was there that he met Professor Mark Sandler, head of digital music at Queen Mary University of London, where researchers had invented algorithms that, when exposed to a piece of music, extract its digital DNA, such as its tempo, timbre or key.
“Confucius, Einstein and Martin Luther King have all extolled the benefits of music to health, and the science is solid,” says Gary. “There have been 25,000 papers published during 40 years of research. So, it struck me if I could combine that with my knowledge of music and licensing, and my technical experience in terms of building content management and content delivery platforms, I might be able to create a service that mimics the human brain’s response to music.”
Learn more about MediMusic at: medimusic.co/ and connect with Gary on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jonesgaryprofile/