CT Insider: Reggae or lullaby? Stamford startup streams soothing tunes for pets
Could be there’s more than a few dogs in Greenwich that dig lullabies, but you can consider Miles Davis at the head of the pack.
And the dog’s owner Derrick Garnett promises a lot more will follow, as he rolls out his Zoundz Music for Pets app as a streaming service with calming tunes to help people and pets — and their vets — better connect.
The idea for Zoundz Music for Pets came to Garrett two years ago when a Greenwich neighbor, who is a veterinarian, described the difficulties in calming edgy dogs and cats while at the clinic.
A music industry veteran, Garrett mused on the possibilities of creating soothing musical scores for vet clinics to play, as well as pet grooming services and animal shelters. He discovered a body of research on what combinations might work best and reached out to some of those experts.
With the concept in hand, it was an easy leap to realize the service could extend to the home, helping people connect better with their pets. Garrett is leasing space at the Serendipity Labs office in Stamford as he develops Zoundz.
“Pets don’t know if they’re listening to rock or reggae, but there are parameters within music that they respond to such as frequencies, tempo or the key that a song is written in,” Garrett said. “There’s a big misconception for a lot of people who even recognize that music can calm your dog or cat: they immediately think classical. ... There’s certain classical pieces of music that will fall in the parameters of the right key, the right tempo, the right frequency — but it’s hit or miss.”
He has built a catalog of music using freelance musicians that Zoundz streams to an app on a subscription basis, at a cost of a few dollars a month. Music is differentiated for cats and dogs, and categorized across channels designed to encourage specific responses in pets.
Garrett became attuned to the animal kingdom in his youth, first in Hamden where he spent his earliest years, then in Virginia after his father moved the family to establish a working farm. He had a tandem interest in music, playing drums in a rock band with high school friends before gravitating quickly to running the sound board during performances.
He went on to study audio engineering at Full Sail University in Florida, eventually landing a job with the renowned Clinton Recording Studios in New York City. Garrett took an offer to become head engineer for a smaller studio in Mamaroneck, N.Y., then started his own production company called Roundhouse Media that began producing music for major ad campaigns.
His career took a turn while on vacation in Mexico. As Garrett tells it, the resort restaurant was playing a song he deemed pretty lousy, but when he went poolside the ambiance music was far better. The play list was repetitive there and in other parts of the resort. The possibility dawned on him for producing extended musical scores for hotels and resorts to play, with differentiated music for separate areas and vastly expanded play lists. He would eventually adopt the term “music architecture” to describe the service.
“This is way beyond muzak — it’s strategically putting together music based on the audience that the resort is trying to target,” Garrett said. “The different areas, the time of day, even the restaurant looking at the menu — we really took a deep dive. ... That’s when Roundhouse really shifted and we started focusing on resorts.”
Roundhouse continues today, but Garrett is now spending much of his time getting Zoundz off the ground. He is aiming to launch the first full version of Zoundz Music for Pets by November on the App Store and Google Play, with a 15-day free trial. Those who do not subscribe to the full service at that point can still access a single pet music channel for free.
“At the end of the day, it’s our goal to affect cats and dogs in a positive way,” Garrett said. “Music is such a powerful tool. ... Our hope is that Zoundz becomes the genre — that when people think of music to calm pets, that they think of Zoundz.”