Research over recent years has begun to truly explore how listening to music can have such a strong effect on young people’s mental health, where sounds can serve as a conduit to lift mood, help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, and even support sleeping better.  We know that listening to music can reduce levels of cortisol, a stress hormone in the body, and can produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter that influences the reward centers in the brain.  With the average young person now spending 6.5 hours+ a day in front of screens — bombarded by bad news, endless work, and social media platforms all looking to grab attention —there’s a distinct shift underway: a retreat from visual/digital culture into music and sound. This flight into music is being led by millennials/Gen Z: A global Spotify survey[1] of 15- to 37-year-olds found that one of the five defining traits of this young demographic is that they (56 percent reporting) “use audio as an escape from their screens,” and audio is a “huge part of their everyday lives.” Sonos’ global Brilliant Sound Survey[2] showed the many ways all people use music to boost their wellbeing: Roughly 75 percent report they listen to music to reduce stress and that listening to music is key to producing their best work. Another 42% said that podcasts had a relaxing effect.  The Sound of the Next Generation[3] study undertaken by Youth Music and Ipsos Mori also highlights the diverse ways young people engage with and value music. It’s young people’s favorite hobby, equal to gaming and ahead of sport, drama, and dance. Young people are listening to more music than ever before, and they often listen while doing something else – music is the accompanying soundtrack to their lives. It hardly comes as a shock that listening has an impact on our moods and mental health. But given these evidenced benefits of listening to music, why is the mental health sector not integrating more specially curated playlists into community-based mental health interventions for children and young people as a cost-effective mental health care tool, particularly in low-resource, emergency settings, or when children and young people are on the move due environmental disasters, war, or lack of safety and prospects.