When Prescribing Playlists is the New Way to Stay Healthy – Music and Healthcare Revisited

For an inquisitive generation like ours, brainstorming peppy ways of staying healthy is close to the heart. From Zumba, hula hooping, and tai chi to music, modern lifestyles need healthy habits that are fun and quick brain resets. 

Music has long been touted as a healing technique. 

Today, you can find authentic, curated setlists, scores, and motifs that bring music and healthcare closer together than ever before. 

Music and Healthcare – What Science Has to Say

A scholarly research on ‘music and healthcare’ hits over 4 million published studies and lots of famous quotes that further bolster its real-life connection. 

And it is true. Isn’t it? 

How many times has music turned your low moments into highs?

Haven’t audio artists and music curators turned endless special occasions into memorable and joyous moments?

How does music and healthcare work? Listening to music increases the release of dopamine, a chemical in the brain associated with pleasure and reward. This sensation of euphoria and enjoyment and the release of the happy hormones – endorphins. 

The NIH (National Institutes of Health), John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts sponsored a program called Sound Health to enhance research on music's brain effects in 2019. Like that and many others, music-based interventions on Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and chronic pain have been extensively studied. 

Needless to say, human beings are a 'musical species’; even newborns are sensitive to the dynamics of beats, rhythm, and melody, making music in all forms so much more than just an art. 

5 Ways Music and Healthcare Can be the Next Best Option for Your Patients

In 2025, it’s fast becoming a dynamic tool for clinical, emotional, and cognitive healing. From AI-driven playlists to immersive therapy experiences, here’s how healthcare systems and innovators are embedding music into patient care today.

1.Prescriptive Music in Digital Prescriptions

Just like apps are being prescribed by physicians (e.g., FDA-approved digital therapeutics), curated music is now part of digital prescriptions. Clinicians prescribe specific music regimens through healthcare portals or DTx platforms to support sleep, mood, or focus.

2.AI-Curated Music Therapy for Personalized Care

Advancements in AI and biometric tracking allow for real-time analysis of a patient’s emotional and physiological state. Music platforms now create dynamic playlists based on heart rate, mood, and even genetic markers—tailoring soundscapes to reduce stress, anxiety, or even pain levels.

3.Music-Enhanced Virtual Reality (VR) in Therapy

Virtual reality combined with therapeutic music is transforming mental health and pain management. VR platforms use spatial audio and immersive environments to help treat phobias, PTSD, and chronic pain—providing a multi-sensory form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

4.Wearable Devices That Sync Music with Vitals

New-generation wearables don’t just track your vitals—they respond to them. Smart earbuds and haptic wearables deliver therapeutic music that adapts in real time to respiration, blood pressure, or stress markers, supporting cardiac rehab and anxiety management.

5.Community-Based Music Interventions for Preventive Care

Public health campaigns in 2025 are using music to foster community, combat loneliness, and encourage physical activity—especially among aging populations. Local clinics and wellness hubs organize music-led movement classes or group singing for social and emotional well-being.

Music and Healthcare – The Benefits Beyond Imagination

Music playlists can be used to promote better health—and why now is the time for healthcare professionals and companies to pay attention.

1.Music Can be the Shoulder and the Support

Curated playlists are being used to ease symptoms of anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Whether it's calming instrumental sounds to reduce stress or upbeat tracks that trigger dopamine release, music therapy is being integrated into psychological treatment plans. Mental health apps and teletherapy platforms now often feature “emotion-tuned” playlists as adjuncts to care.

2.Music Can Get Immobile You Moving

Music with rhythmic beats is increasingly used in physiotherapy—especially for stroke recovery, Parkinson’s disease, and motor coordination therapies. The phenomenon known as rhythmic auditory stimulation (RAS) helps retrain the brain and improve movement.

3.Music Can Help Sleep and Wake Up Better

Insomnia and disrupted sleep patterns are rampant, and playlists curated with sleep-inducing frequencies (like delta waves) are being “prescribed” through wellness apps and even by sleep clinics. Research supports music’s role in helping people fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.

4.Is Music a Painkiller?

Yes! Chronic pain patients, especially those with fibromyalgia, cancer, or post-operative discomfort, often benefit from music as a non-pharmacologic pain relief strategy. Music helps modulate perception of pain by engaging reward pathways and reducing the need for opioids.

5.Music Can Make Hospitals Feel Less Hospital-ish

Hospitals and dental clinics are curating anxiety-reducing playlists in waiting rooms, MRI suites, or even operating theaters. Music not only distracts but lowers cortisol levels, improving the overall patient experience—a priority in patient-centered care models.

Takeaway

From music therapists in clinical settings to DJs and orchestras, music can be a remedy, a tonic and an alternative path for your brain—through the heart. As mediators between musicians and their audiences, several HealthTech companies, music companies and individual DJs help change the concept of ‘your music’, nightlife and musical events to ideas that are here to make a difference in ‘your audience’s’ lives. 

I welcome all music-savvy professionals and healthcare professionals to find that sweet spot which feels 'music to the ears' and works on healing people from within. Let’s see how we can create this magic together.