Brain.fm holds patents on key processes for creating functional music, including technology to elicit strong neural phase locking—allowing populations of neurons to engage in various kinds of coordinated activity. This makes our music unique, purpose-built to steer you into a desired mental state.
We use a proprietary system to reduce salience, allowing the music to sit comfortably in the background. This approach is drastically different from most music in the world, which is designed to grab your attention. Instead, our process ensures that attention-grabbing elements are subdued or removed.
We collaborate with academic institutions to run experiments. We look at the effects of our technology on the brain, using fMRI and EEG, and also run large-scale behavioral tests, measuring performance on simple games. Our experiments always include a control condition (‘placebo’) of the same underlying music without Brain.fm technology applied, so we can be sure our tech is what makes the difference.
Unlike ‘muzak’ systems that generate infinite quantities of mediocre music, our in-house composers make real music with human warmth. These musicians are enabled with patented tools and techniques that apply the science to the music.
Binaural beats produce weak or absent neural synchrony while modulation applied directly in each stereo channel (rather than arising from different signals to the two ears) has much stronger effects on brain activity. We use this (‘non-binaural’) modulation, but this is just one of many techniques to help people reach mental states. Other examples: our sleep music uses 3D effects to produce relaxing motion (‘rocking’), and our focus music removes sound events that would grab your attention (‘salience reduction’).