Collaboration Alert: Amazon Music & Endel Bring Soothing Sounds
Harnessing the power of sound, Endel is the first generative AI company to produce a playlist for Amazon Music
Amazon Music has a playlist that may be music to the ears of those who struggle with stress and sleep.
Endel, a sound wellness company that employs generative AI and neuroscience, has partnered with Amazon Music to provide wellness playlists designed to reduce stress, improve sleep, and increase productivity.
It is the first collaboration of its kind for Amazon Music, with the new sleep playlist, “Sleep Science,” recently launching on the music platform.
With sleep fitness gaining traction and numerous wearables focusing on the quality and length of catching Zs, Endel has focused on gently easing a listener to sleep – which many people struggle with. In fact, the sound wellness company points out that with anxiety and depression rates at an all-time high, two-thirds of adults are failing to receive the recommended eight hours of sleep each night.
Enter the eight-hour “Sleep Science” playlist by Endel, designed to put listeners in a deep and restorative sleep and begins with an Amazon Original track by Kx5 (Kaskade and deadmau5), which was produced using the track “Escape.”
The first track, as described by Oleg Stavitsky, CEO and co-founder of Endel, is a sleep version of the hit dance festival song that was morphed into a sleep track using Endel Pacific, the sound wellness company’s patented technology. Endel Pacific, an AI-engine, creates tracks that follow natural sleep phases, meant to prepare the brain for sleep and then ensuring the listener falls into a restful sleep – and stays snoozing.
The sound features synths and vocals and was processed to create a high-quality, relaxing soundscape that activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
The sound wellness company has also collaborated with musician James Blake last year to create an ambient soundscape experience, “Wind Down.”
Endel, which began as an artists’ collective, operates on the premise that we are not evolving quickly enough for the world we live in, and that our bodies and minds are unfit for the current environment.
“Generative AI is a hot topic now, but we’ve been applying this technology for years, in radical ways designed to expand music’s possibilities and formats, and to transform how we interact with sound,” Stavitsky says. “Working with Amazon Music demonstrates how valuable an artful application of AI can be to large music business players and how engaging the sonic results can be for listeners.”
Stavitsky, who told TechCrunch in 2021 that he considers himself an ambient-music nerd, explained that while he enjoys listening to vinyl, the experience of listening to records would be disrupted by having to tend to the vinyl player. He dreamed of something more perpetual, and he wanted to merge neuroscience into the experience as well, with personalization. Stavitsky also shared that he was a big fan of Brian Eno, known as the ‘father of ambient music,” who also believes in the concept of eternal music.
The Berlin-based sound wellness company has attracted investors Major Lazer’s Jillionaire, Amazon Alexa Fund, and Avex, and announced a $15M Series B last year, led by Waverley Capital (investors in Headspace, Wondery, FuboTV, Roku), and True Ventures (investors in Fitbit, Peloton, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Ring).
