You can use the App to create a playlist for a loved one with dementia and your feedback will help us improve the experience and understand better what difference the music makes for your family.

• Sign up and use of the App

Once you sign up to the App (you can do so here: https://app.musicformymind.com/), you will be asked to provide some basic contact information and confirm you and your loved one agree to participate in the project. You will then be presented with a simple music preferences questionnaire, with questions about the background and musical preferences of your loved one living with dementia. Please answer to the best of your knowledge and, if possible, please consult your loved one and enjoy a fun discussion about their teenage years. 

• Playlist creation

Once you have finished the questionnaire, the App will generate a personalised playlist of 30 songs, based on your responses. You will be able to play the songs directly using a Spotify account if you already have one (Spotify is a digital music streaming platform).  If you don’t already have a Spotify account, you can find step-by-step instructions on how to create one here.  If using Spotify is not feasible in your circumstances, please contact us to discuss other options.

• Feedback questionnaires

After generating the personalised playlist, we will send you a short, online feedback form asking how you found using the App and if you have any ideas for how we can improve it. Once your loved one has had the chance to listen to their playlist a few times, we will send you a different feedback questionnaire, on your perceptions of the effects of the music listening on the person living with memory loss or dementia and your relationship with them.

Your help in testing and improving our App is essential, in order to release it more widely, bring music to even more people who need it and help make the case for greater use of personalised music in the care of people living with dementia.

All you need to be able to take part is an internet connected computer, tablet or smart phone.

You will have a free personalised playlist created for your loved one with dementia or recent memory loss. We hope that listening to music will help improve their quality of life and well-being and that you will enjoy the experience of listening to the music together.

Only the time involved in using the App (filling out the music questionnaire and activating the playlist) and the subsequent feedback forms.

If any of the music selected is difficult for your relative or friend to listen to, we recommend that you skip that song and remove it from the playlist (you can find instructions for how to do that within Spotify here).

No, that is completely up to you. You can sign up and then decide not to continue at any time, without giving a reason. If you decide to withdraw, you will still keep the playlist you created.

You will still be able to access and listen to the personalised playlists, after the free month of Premium Spotify subscription expires. You can do so in any of the following ways:

• Reactivate your Premium Spotify subscription if you wish to do so (this costs £9.99 per month). Read our instructions on how you can do that.
• Continue using the free version of your Spotify account – it doesn’t require any payment; adverts will be played at intervals between the songs.
• Request that our team transfer the personalised playlist in YouTube, where you can listen to the songs on any internet connected device.

Yes. All your personal information is kept confidential and stored securely. It will only be shared with people beyond the Music for my Mind team with your explicit permission. The personal information you provide will be securely destroyed after 10 years.

The feedback you provide will be analysed by our team to identify ways in which the App can be improved and to generate indicative statistics on the apparent impacts of personalised music listening on the well-being of people living with dementia and, by extension, you, their relative, friend or carer.

You can contact Music for my Mind’s Project Assistant, Dimana Georgieva, by emailing dimana@musicformymind.com.