FAQs about our
Playlist Maker
Why we created the Playlist Maker?
There is growing evidence that music can bring back treasured memories and improve quality of life and well-being for people living with memory loss and dementia. Our charity wants to help families affected by dementia discover the benefits of personalised music. Thanks to our generous supporters, in partnership with our developers, DabApps, we have built this Playlist Maker to help everyone create a personalised playlist in about 15 minutes for themselves or a loved one living with dementia. We want to keep improving our tool, so if you would like to share any feedback on how we can do so, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and help us get as many people as possible discover the benefits of personalised music.
Frequently Asked Questions:
You can use the Playlist Maker to create a playlist for yourself or a loved one with dementia. By providing us with feedback, you can help us improve the experience and understand what difference music can make. To use the Playlist Maker is simple:
- Complete questionnaire – Open the Playlist Maker App (https://app.musicformymind.com/), where 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 need to complete a simple questionnaire about backround and musical preferences. Please answer to the best of your knowledge and, if possible, do consult your loved one and enjoy a fun discussion about their teenage years.
- Generate playlist – Based on your answers, a personalised playlist of up to 30 songs will automatically be generated. You can preview all songs and remove any you don’t recognise.
- Listen to the songs – You will be able to listen to the songs directly using YouTube or Spotify (Spotify is a digital music streaming platform). We have detailed instructions on how to use or set up both of these platforms. Please contact us if you require any help to access your playlist.
After generating the personalised playlist, we would appreciate your thoughts by completing a short, online feedback form asking how you found using the Playlist Maker. We would also be interested to hear what effect the music has had on you or your loved one, once you have had the chance to listen to the playlist.
Your help in testing and improving our tool 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 or your loved one will have a free personalised playlist. We hope that listening to music will help improve your quality of life and well-being and that you will enjoy the experience of listening to the music.
Only the time involved in using the Playlist Maker (such as filling out the music questionnaire and activating the playlist) and completing 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 use our Playlist Maker 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.
If you don’t have a Spotify account but decide to create one, in order to enjoy the music, Spotify offers you a one-month free trial when you sign up. Once that expires, you will still be able to access and listen to the personalised playlists. 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 Playlist Maker 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 Programme Manager, Dimana Georgieva, by emailing dimana@musicformymind.com.