This spring, Virginia Beach-based startup Secret Chord Laboratories will launch dopr, its long-awaited neuroscience-powered software platform that predicts how an audience will respond to music.
The launch is a big step for the company, founded in 2018 by a team of music industry executives, software engineers and, most importantly, neuroscientists.
It’s neuroscience — particularly the way the AI platform incorporates lessons of music neuroscience — that gives dopr its secret sauce, said CEO and co-founder David Rosen.
“What we’re able to do, and what dopr provides, is insights into your music that are grounded in the neuroscience of music enjoyment and music perception,” he said.
So for those of us without a Ph.D., what can neuroscience teach about why some songs rule the charts, while others never reach the radio?
Think about successful musical artists, Rosen, who has a doctorate in cognitive neuroscience, said. Elvis, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Taylor Swift. These artists sound “wildly different” from one another, he said, but the reason they’ve all had top-performing songs? The element of surprise.
“Basically, our brains respond, unconsciously, to a certain level of surprise in music,” he said. He likes to give the example of the “big power shift” before the third chorus of Whitney Houston’s performance of “I Will Always Love You.”
Simply put, our brains like to be surprised to a certain extent when listening to music, which might explain why you press skip on some songs and repeat on others.
Gaining insights into song reception has huge potential for an industry always looking for the next big hit. For its dopr launch, Secret Chord is targeting one key music industry segment to start, Rosen said.
The tool will be made available to independent sector music creators and their teams, who can upload music and get a sense of how songs will resonate. The goal, Rosen said in an email, is to "democratize music."
While the spring launch is focused on a select audience, Rosen said Secret Chord is having conversations about additional potential use cases. Recently, they’ve fielded inquiries about using dopr for musical catalogue valuation.
The team is also talking with the advertising industry to understand how dopr can influence decisions about the music used in advertisements.
In the future, Rosen said, his vision for dopr is to have it “facilitate creativity at the highest levels of mass consumption of music” by helping artists improve melodic surprise, as well as surprise across other musical aspects like harmony and rhythm.
As it nears launch, Secret Chord is also applying for a National Science Foundation grant. It’s also in the midst of a $2 million fundraising round, with $1 million already raised. The goal, Rosen said, is “to establish our software as the most accurate way to forecast the future value of music.”
This story was edited to reflect recent updates in Secret Chord's go-to-market strategy.
