Original studyFrontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2026Read the paper →
Listening to music with carefully blended pulsing tones may help some people feel less anxious immediately afterwards. Two online experiments found greater reductions in reported anxiety than listening to the same music alone, although making the pulses more prominent appeared to work against relaxation.
The study, published on 4 November 2026 in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, examined monaural beats embedded in music during 25 minutes of listening. Researchers working at Sollos Labs within Universal Music Group compared different beat levels before testing a selected mix across four musical tracks.
Monaural beats are physical pulses created by combining two tones with slightly different frequencies before they reach the ear. They differ from binaural beats, which involve presenting a different tone to each ear and depend on the brain combining those separate inputs.
Participants were US adults recruited online who scored within a moderate range for trait anxiety, meaning their general tendency to feel anxious. They were not recruited as a sample with clinically diagnosed anxiety disorders, and the main outcome measured how anxious they felt at that moment.
The first experiment analysed 207 people assigned to music alone or music containing low, moderate, or high beat levels. For the moderate mix, the reduction on the State Anxiety Inventory was 4.56 points greater than for music alone, while the low mix produced a similar additional reduction of 4.59 points.
More prominent beats did not produce greater benefits. The highest beat level performed 4.20 points worse than music alone on the change in anxiety scores, with average anxiety rising slightly rather than falling in that group.
The second experiment analysed 259 people listening to one of four tracks, either with the moderate beat mix or without beats. Averaged across those tracks, the beat mix produced an additional 4.32 point reduction in anxiety, and also improved ratings of positive mood more than music alone.
Neither experiment found evidence that adding beats changed alertness more than music alone. The findings concern differences in questionnaire scores immediately after listening, not proof of lasting relief or effective treatment for an anxiety disorder.
Large exclusions also limit confidence in how well the findings apply outside the experiments. Of 400 randomised participants in each study, 193 were excluded from the first analysis and 141 from the second, mainly because of headphone, attention, or volume checks.
Brain activity was not recorded, so the experiments cannot show whether the beats synchronised neural activity or explain why anxiety scores changed. Testing four selected tracks also does not establish that the approach works across musical genres, listening devices, or everyday environments.
Universal Music Group funded the research, paying participant and recruitment platform costs, and all four authors were employees of its Sollos Labs research team. Independent replication, longer observation periods, and studies involving clinical populations would be needed before treating these results as evidence for a healthcare intervention.
