(l to r) Thrive Global founder Arianna Huffington, Selena Gomez, and Universal Music Group head Lucian Grainge. Photo Credit: UMG
Four months after inking a partnership deal with relaxation app Endel, Universal Music Group (UMG) has revealed plans to release Sollos, a “music-centric wellness app.”
The major label disclosed the approaching launch of Sollos (and separate deals with companies operating in the health and wellbeing spaces) as part of its first “Music + Health summit.” Held in Los Angeles and organized with Havas Health, the multifaceted event explored “the direct relationships between music and health,” according to the more than 2,000-word recap that UMG forwarded to Digital Music News.
All manner of health and music professionals spoke at the happening, the Big Three label indicated, with The Creative Act: A Way of Being author Rick Rubin having appeared via Zoom to discuss “creativity, music, and wellbeing.”
Meanwhile, Selena Gomez, Universal Music head Lucian Grainge, and Thrive Global founder Arianna Huffington are said to have closed the show with a panel about “music for mental health.”
Before then, though, UMG unveiled the initially mentioned Sollos, described as a platform “that uses cognitive science and proprietary audio technology to support focus, relaxation and sleep.”
Beyond the fact that UMG president of global ecommerce and business development Richelle Parham as well as Sollos’ Emily Ingram (previously a Huffington Post senior product manager) delivered the corresponding introduction presentation, Universal Music didn’t provide an abundance of information about the service.
Additionally, related full-length videos (pertaining to the event or Sollos itself) didn’t appear to have become publicly available at the time of writing.
However, UMG late last month filed for a far-reaching “Sollos” trademark (number 98157194), covering not only “fitness instruction” and “health and wellness training,” but “fan clubs,” the “production of television and radio programs,” the “publication of books and magazines,” “an immersive 3D virtual reality experience in the nature of non-downloadable feature films and videos,” VR games, and much more.
Regarding UMG’s other newly detailed expansions in the (decidedly lucrative) wellness sector, the business has licensed a portion of its catalog to self-described “innovative digital therapeutics company” soundBrilliance, which is now poised to use the involved works “in closed clinical trials for music and health research.”
Said trials will attempt to develop tools and exercises designed to enable patients to “self-manage the fundamentals of health,” referring specifically to things like “quality sleep” and “emotional balance.”
Finally, UMG also revealed it’d “become the exclusive music partner” for Huffington-owned Thrive’s “Reset stress management tool.” The latter, a “60-second stress reduction product featuring music and breathing” within the seven-year-old app, will begin incorporating UMG acts’ work under the tie-up.
