Joe GallopLive Nation has launched an app that aims to “seamlessly incorporate” music into the practice of meditation for touring artists, crew, and fans.
The Mindful Nation app, initially launched only as an internal offering for Live Nation employees, was developed by Niamh McCarthy, a former artist manager who has worked with Madonna and U2.
The app features daily trainer-led classes, on-demand classes for mind, sleep, and day-to-day life, music playlists from artists across several genres, and ‘breathe with the beat’ exercises.
The app can be downloaded on the Apple App Store and offers more than a thousand classes. It features unique ‘sonic beats’ for the app’s meditations curated by producers and independent artists, including Janax Pacha, Mose Musica and Chris IDH.
After experiencing burnout on the road, McCarthy began studying meditation, breathwork, and yoga. She said her aim was to bring mindfulness and meditation to the music business: “The artists on Mindful Nation are vehicles to that higher source which we are bringing into people’s everyday lives through our meditation classes.
“We are all totally overstimulated by the extraordinary amount of data and connectivity that exists in today’s world that we are not equipped to deal with. The classes on the Mindful Nation app are like a timeless album, never out of date. Users can keep going back to these resources, again and again, to support themselves through the highs and lows of life.”
Live Nation CEO and president Michael Rapino said, “The Mindful Nation app brings together meditation and music in a unique way. We first launched Mindful Nation as a programme for our employees, and it’s great to see Niamh now bringing the benefits of mindfulness to touring artists and crew across our industry, as well as music fans.”
Live Nation has provided full-time employees free unlimited access to the Mindful Nation app and mental health care coverage for 18 therapy and coaching sessions per year. It has also invested in mental health programming for the industry, including the Music Industry Therapist Collective and Tour Support.