Spotify Partners With the Calm App to Offer Stress Relief and Sleep Tools

This article originally appeared on Yoga Journal

If you're one of Spotify's more than 500 million users, chances are you already rely on it to tune out the rest of the world. But a recent partnership between the music-streaming platform and the Calm app may actually help you tune into yourself.

The content-sharing agreement was announced last week in a press release by Calm. “Through our partnership with Calm, Spotify audiences can find and access more podcasts that nurture mindfulness and well-being, right where they're already listening,” said Bryan Thoensen, Senior Director and Head of Content Partnerships for Spotify.

The playlists currently available include Calm for Beginners, Calm for Stress & Anxiety, and Calm for Meditation, which feature four- to six-minute meditations and mindfulness reminders as well as two-minute breathing exercises, all intended to help halt the spiral of a stress response. There’s also Calm for Sleep, which includes dozens of celebrity-narrated sleep stories. In the words of one narrator, "nothing much happens” during the stories, which is by design to help your thoughts quiet.

Select podcast-style content from Calm is also streamable, including Daily Move, a mindful movement practice with yoga teacher Mel Mah, and Daily Jay, which features everyday inspiration and meditation with former Buddhist monk Jay Shetty. Both are sevenish minutes long.

Not all of the Calm audio on Spotify is accessible by all users. Under an initiative launched by Spotify in 2021, partner companies can share varying amounts of content at different subscription levels. A Calm subscription is required for some exclusive content. New users can start a free trial at calm.com/spotify. Calm Premium subscribers can link their accounts to Spotify.

The meditation industry has continued to expand in recent years, although meditation apps have struggled since their pandemic peak. Calm, which has inspired more than 100 million downloads, has reportedly experienced a less extreme decline than other leading apps.

Although some may find it tricky to seek stress relief from a device that tempts you with untold distractions, consider maintaining your focus just another part of your mindfulness practice.

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