After spending nearly two years adhering to quarantine rules, pet parents you may have noticed hints of extra grip with your legged or feathered friends. It’s not uncommon for them to follow you around the house, sleep in your bed, or look at you out of love. But now that we’re leaving home for work, errands, vacations, and other activities, separation anxiety can kick in. Music may be the remedy they need.
In addition to being left home alone, pets often find themselves in other situations where relaxing sounds can help. They may have trouble face the fireworks, car trip, thunderstorms, illness, vet visits or grooming sessions. And some animals can be a little hyperactive at times.
While it’s well known that classical music can soothe a wild chest, it’s not the only soundtrack that works. A 2017 study by the University of Glasgow and the Scottish SPCA found evidence of lower stress levels in kennel dogs when listening to reggae or soft rock. Over the years, other studies have looked at how music affects boredom, stress, and emotional responses in felines, dogs, pigs, and other animals. Whether you have a puppy, cat, pig, parakeet or iguana why not set them up with their own music streaming playlist? These apps will turn little Bella or Duke into relaxed musical savants – or ready to party.
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Spotify’s Pet Playlists were launched in 2020, but have you ever taken advantage of this feature? The lists are organized according to your pet’s personality and your personal musical tastes. Choose your pet type, then share your pet’s name and Spotify walks you through a series of questions so its algorithm can tailor a personalized listening experience with music drawn from your own streaming habits.
You can also stream its This is Pets Music playlist – which has 50 tracks – or press play on Pets Music Radio. Each song is intended to help animals relax. Plus, there are full albums dedicated to the genre, and all you have to do is search for something like “puppy music” or “bird music” under the albums and add them to your library. Of course, you can always choose songs for your pet based on their temperament, needs, or species. However, we don’t know if your pet snake would appreciate Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda.
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YouTube is home to millions of hours of free content, and when it comes to streaming music for your cat or dog, there are plenty of options. Tune in for a 24-hour live stream on a channel like Relax My Dog, which streams music along with video to help calm your pup or keep him entertained. If you’d rather skip the live stream, this channel also offers soothing music videos that last eight to 15 hours, or you can choose one of its themed playlists. And there’s a sister channel called Relax My Cat, not to be confused with the hugely popular video game, Stray.
You’ll also find other pet music YouTube channels such as PetTunes or Calm Your Cat, and a few that cater to rabbits, hamsters, and even ferrets. But you can also take the classical music route and play hours of songs by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin or Bach. After scouring YouTube for your picks, you can always create special playlists for your pets or stream music to your TV, iPhone, iPad, or Android.
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Amazon Music offers curated playlists with music that helps your dog or cat relax. You can check out the Calming Music for Dogs playlist, a nearly three-hour session compiled by Amazon staff. The company’s music division prepared a seven-hour collection titled “Classical for Pets” for its line of playlists.
Outside of Amazon Music’s own listing, there are also songs, albums, and artists that fall squarely into the pet music category. Build your own playlist. Browse the tunes of the Pet Care Club or Pet Music Academy which feature bells, pianos and nature sounds for pooches, kittens, birds and more. Or tap into white noise or pink noise if that works better for your dog or cat. If you search Amazon Music by typing in terms like “dog anxiety” or “pet relaxation,” an abundance of songs and albums will pop up for you to tap into a special playlist. You can also take a shortcut by using voice commands with an Alexa-enabled device like Echo to create playlists for your pet.
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Like Spotify and Amazon Music, Apple Music has full albums you can add to your playlists from artists like Pet Music World and Pet Therapy. Most of the pet-centric music on the service is aimed at cats or dogs, but if you want to lean into genres like classical, ambient, Hz, or jazz, it’s all available. on the platform.
Apple Music also has selections of white noise and animal reiki to help your pet feel good. Make your playlists stand out by naming them after your furbaby or your pet’s mood, character, or needs (like sleep).
Services like Tidal and Pandora also let you create playlists or loop pet-themed albums. They each give you the option to collect music based on genre or artist, with the latter allowing you to stream a pet relaxation radio station. No matter where you stream, you can definitely play Beethoven or Beyoncé on repeat. But puppy lullabies, jazz, and nature sounds like falling rain seem to be some of the most popular types of playlist music for our furry or feathered family members.