NEW YORK and SANTA MONICA — Tuned, an online hearing health company, and MusiCares®, the leading music charity supporting the health and welfare of the music community through preventive, emergency, and recovery programs, today announced a partnership that will bring comprehensive hearing care to MusiCares’ clients across the U.S.
Tuned and MusiCares Partnership
Music industry professionals are a uniquely vulnerable population, with hearing loss having an impact on quality of life, communication, work ability, and in turn employability. Musicians are almost four times more likely to suffer noise-induced hearing loss and 57% more likely to suffer from tinnitus than the general population, while the reported incidence of music induced hearing disorders within the broader music industry varies widely from 30% to 74%.
Music creators rely on their ability to hear sounds clearly for their career, this creates an additional and unique set of challenges that the average person doesn’t experience. The music community’s heightened awareness of sound leads to a more intrusive impact on their wellbeing.
MusiCares safeguards the well-being of all those in the music community by providing a safety net of critical health and welfare services. As part of its health services offerings, MusiCares will now offer hearing care through Tuned, connecting music people with credentialed audiologist consultation via an easy-to-use, clinically-validated platform. Many of Tuned’s audiologists have backgrounds in music and are uniquely qualified to understand the emotional and varied impact hearing issues can have on music people.
“For many in the music industry, hearing loss is a side-effect of years of recording, touring, performing or otherwise participating in live music. Protecting hearing and preventing further loss is not just critical for those in the industry to continue doing their jobs, but also important for overall health. We’re so happy to partner with Tuned to be able to help increase access to important care for everyone in the music industry and bring awareness to this crucial issue.”
—Laura Segura, Executive Director of MusiCares
Music industry professionals are generally reluctant to discuss the topic of hearing loss. For those in the industry, hearing loss can yield career-ending side effects due to high sound level exposure. There is an element of shame and embarrassment associated with tinnitus and other hearing disorders. Those impacted can feel as if they may be performing worse than their peers in the industry, or doubt their own skill. Some also feel that their job could be at risk if others found out about their hearing loss.
“Access to hearing care needs to become a standard component of healthcare, with regular audiology consultations available for everyone, especially those whose livelihoods depend on their hearing,” said Danny Aronson, CEO and co-founder of Tuned. “This partnership with MusiCares allows us to reach a disproportionately impacted community where hearing health should be among the top priority in care.”
Prolonged exposure to loud sounds including music is harmful to hearing. Music-induced hearing loss (MIHL) is a common phenomenon among those who frequently listen to or play music, which results from exposure to high levels of music over prolonged periods of time.
Through the Tuned platform, MusiCares clients can gain access to the hearing care they need—with the ability to take an advanced online hearing health screening, consult virtually with a credentialed audiologist, and receive ongoing personalized care and support. MusiCares serves music industry professionals, including musicians, singer/songwriters, engineers, stagehands, managers, tour bus drivers, A&R, agents, make-up artists, live/touring crew, and more.
MusiCares currently provides hearing clinics at various festivals across the country and has for many years. This Tuned partnership expands and enhances these services to communities across the country, making it easy and more convenient to prioritize hearing health, including the addition of a personalized screening and consultation, even while on tour.
Tuned is a digital-first hearing care company. Available as an employer-sponsored benefit, Tuned offers lifelong preventative hearing care and hearing benefits to patients of all ages. The company supports care with comprehensive product options for hearing health, freeing employers from the need to evaluate thousands of headset and software combinations. Today, 1.4 million people can access Tuned through employer benefits and marketplaces. Tuned is a private company headquartered in New York City, with audiologists across the United States and worldwide. For more information visit: https://www.tunedcare.com
MusiCares helps the humans behind music because music gives so much to the world. Offering preventive, emergency, and recovery programs, MusiCares is a safety net supporting the health and welfare of the music community. Founded by the Recording Academy in 1989 as a U.S. based, independent 501(c)(3) charity, MusiCares safeguards the well-being of all music people through direct financial grant programs, networks of support resources, and tailored crisis relief efforts. For more information please visit: www.musicares.org
Source: Tuned, MusiCares
