A Hull health-tech start-up prescribing music to help ease pain and anxiety has been welcomed into Abbey Road Red - the tech incubation programme at the world-famous London studios.
MediMusic, a groundbreaking company that delivers music chosen using its proprietary algorithms and digital fingerprints, will benefit from a defined development springboard to explore the effect of sound on physiology. It will also bolster relationships with key music and technology industry stakeholders, and provide it with advice from a specialist mentor network.
The C4DI operation, led by Gary Jones, was already enjoying a phenomenal autumn, having secured investment to the tune of £1.2 million and a shortlisting at the Hull Live Business Awards.
It has become the 18th start-up to join the programme, with the innovative platform having been proven to ease stress with dementia patients in an NHS pilot.
Mr Jones, a product entrepreneur with 30 years expertise in content management and music, having worked on projects for Sony, Intel, Yahoo, PRS and News International, has spent seven years developing MediMusic and the MediBeat streaming device.
He said: “We’re thrilled to have the support of Abbey Road Red and its music tech incubator programme to develop our revolutionary innovation of prescribing music as medicine. MediMusic has managed to digitally fingerprint the DNA of music so we can deliver the right songs as medicine to ease anxiety and stress. You could say it’s a musical pharmaceutical. Our initial clinical trials prove it has a very encouraging future in the treatment of patients. Using our technology, doctors, nurses and care home workers will be able to monitor the effect of the music in a clinical environment and see the benefits for themselves.
“Using MediMusic could also reduce the use of drugs in treating anxiety and pain in patients by up to a quarter, thereby saving money for the NHS. We passionately believe dispensing music as medicine is going to revolutionise the treatment of people in pain and stress, and we’re honoured that Abbey Road Red will help us on this journey.”
Currently celebrating its 90th anniversary, Abbey Road Studios - the birthplace of stereo and countless innovations in recording technology - created Abbey Road Red in 2016. Inspired by the original in-house Record Engineering Development department which operated from the 1950s to the 1980s, it is described as an open innovation department designed to support the endeavours of the brightest music tech entrepreneurs, researchers and developers.
Isabel Garvey, managing director of Abbey Road Studios, said: “We identified music for wellness as an area of considerable importance at the 2019 Abbey Road Red Demo Day and have explored it resolutely since then. It’s incredibly exciting to take this to the next level with Gary and the team at MediMusic and explore music as a form of dispensed treatment, just as the sector is starting to show signs of maturity and genuine possibility. We look forward to helping MediMusic make its vision a reality which could positively impact millions of lives while relieving stress on health services.”
Red is to help MediMusic refine and launch its next set of features, including new bio-markers alongside heart rate, machine learning to fine-tune its dataset and improve its automated playlist curation and an enhanced set of proprietary data identifiers to describe the medical effects of songs, which will allow it to tackle new areas of pain reduction..
Karim Fanous, innovation manager at Abbey Road Red added: “Studies have long shown a direct correlation between music and anxiety or stress reduction, as well as the potential for pain reduction. But implementing this research into effective dispensation in a medical context remains a big challenge. In MediMusic we believe we’ve found a music tech start-up which can succeed, supported by early traction in clinical trials, and a founder with anticipative vision who started this journey seven years ago. It’s a very special opportunity to play our part at Red.”
Almost £70 million has been raised by start-ups already involved at Abbey Road, with the collective now valued at £280 million. It has recently experienced its first exit, when a start-up from its second cohort was acquired by Apple.
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