In the spirit of World Music Therapy Day on March 1, Tlee Spas + Wellness, a globally recognised spa development firm with a design-savvy, hospitality-driven approach, is proud to celebrate its collaboration with Myndstream in raising awareness around the transformative power of music to create memorable experiences with heightened health and wellbeing benefits

Created as a part of Cutting-Edge Group – the music producers behind Stranger Things, Whiplash, and Bridgerton – Myndstream has developed a proprietary online streaming platform, “The Stream,” which is home to over sixty playlists that enable therapists to turn treatments into multisensory experiences. 

Tlee Spas + Wellness advocates for layering intentional music and sound to elevate traditional modalities. Together, they seek to leverage the power of functional music and sound to enhance health and well-being outcomes.

Spas have become more multidimensional, opening opportunities to explore thoughtful applications of music and sound in spa environments. These applications go beyond the status quo by leaving a lasting impression, turning treatments into multisensory experiences that help to instil transformative outcomes.

Also see: A starting guide on how to care for your crystals

“In addition to being the ultimate icebreaker, music has the power to calm, excite, focus, reset, and embed memories and experiences,” said president and founder of Tlee Spas + Wellness, Tracy Lee, who along with vice president and COO Michael Lahm, is an ambassador of Global Wellness Institute, the leading source for authoritative wellness industry research. “If you are an owner, operator, or brand trying to deliver more thoughtful and impactful guest touchpoints, adding to the therapeutic experience in a spa with intentional music and sound can increase your ROI and encourage guests to come back for more.”

“While the default has been playing music in the background as a generic accompaniment to an experience, our team approaches music and sound as vehicles that enhance spa treatments and effect outcomes tailored to specific needs,” Lee says. “As the spa experience evolves beyond the treatment room to become part of a holistic wellness ecosystem that nurtures the human experience, it would be a missed opportunity not to integrate functional music and sound that guests can access through mind and body and benefit from on an energetic level.”

Backed by science

Studies have shown that music can reduce cortisol levels, decrease heart rate, and lower blood pressure. Through a recent collaborative scientific research effort with SleepScore Labs, Myndstream has found that intentionally designed music for sleep objectively promotes deep sleep, reduces the proportion of the night spent awake, and increases the ability to stay asleep.

Committed to rooting its work in credible research and science, Myndstream works with a dedicated roster of leading wellness music artists and an extensive network of health and well-being experts to create, curate, and design music that can have a positive impact on health and wellbeing. Through The Stream’s curated playlists from award-winning artists, therapists can set the mood of the room or personalize the music to achieve a specific therapeutic outcome, all at the touch of a button. This focus on intentional audio elevates the treatment and transforms the client experience.

Also see: Unfolding the trend of men’s grooming rituals

The concept of healing frequencies in music is gaining traction and sound healing is gaining awareness, with an influx of environments, equipment, and intentional music emerging to reset the brain through acoustic and vibrational therapy. Part of a high-tech recovery circuit involving cryotherapy and infrared, a stacked session that Tlee Spas helped to bring to life at Equinox Hotel Hudson Yards utilises a spa and harmonic resonance table, delivering vibro-acoustical therapy to help guests shift into deep rest mode, improving focus and mental clarity.

“According to the British Academy of Sound, 89 per cent of people believe that music is essential for their health and wellbeing, and 90 per cent of people already use music to help them relax, so there is an expectation of well-designed audio in relaxing wellness environments,” explains Myndstream founder and advisory board member of Global Wellness Institute, Freddie Moross. “While it’s generally accepted that part of the therapeutic value of a spa experience lies in the atmosphere and sense of rest and calm that guests feel as soon as they enter the spa, our goal is to deliver intentionally designed music as a powerful therapeutic tool, not just a pleasant auditory experience.”

TLee Spas + Wellness also brought sound and music to the forefront of the guest experience at the forward-thinking “Savasana Sound Room”, which launched in 2019 at Spa Alkemia at Zadún, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve in San José del Cabo, Mexico. The Savasana Sound Room harnesses the same underlying principles as the Wave Table, but in this case, the whole room is engineered for immersive sound therapy that resonates from the floor and walls throughout the entire body. Designed as a post-treatment experience, the Savasana Sound Room helps guests absorb the benefits of a treatment in an environment that maximizes the healing effects through sound and vibrational therapy. 

Authentic, personalised, and adaptive music experiences

A few transformative trends are set to redefine wellness music in 2024, including authentic audio experiences that reinforce brand identities while reinforcing the integrated and multidimensional aspects of wellness.

“We are at an exciting stage in which functional music and sound are truly amplifying the spa programming that hotel brands are introducing to the world,” says Lee. “In our continued work with Myndstream, we hope to showcase the important intersection between music, health and well-being, soundscaping key areas with intentional content, beyond the default proposition.”

At The Little Nell, Aspen’s only 5-star, 5-diamond ski-in/ski-out hotel, Tlee Spas and Myndstream are developing a distinctive spa offering that aligns sound programming with distinctive menu architecture created around three pathways: recovery and repair from physical activities, training regimes, and rigours of daily life; replenishment and restoration designed to energise, nourish and protect the body from Aspen’s high altitude and harsh environment; and resetting and rebalancing to downshift into a more mellow and mindful state of being from which guests can balance the nervous system and restore the mind/body connection.

Delivered within an intimate setting comprised of a trio of treatment suites that come with private infrared/halotherapy saunas and hydrotherapy steam showers, each pathway encompasses integrated rituals, bodywork, skincare, and quick fixes that address underlying conditions. Timed sound programming will coincide with the duration of service, with each pathway delivering targeted solutions for different lifestyle factors.

Also see: Hypnotherapy to boost productivity and employee wellbeing