Could listening to Apple Music help treat speech disorders such as speech sound disorder (SSD), which make it difficult for people to make certain speech sounds?

That's the purpose of a series of new "Saylists," which are custom playlists made up of popular songs that feature difficult-to-say sounds. The idea is that, by featuring catchy songs with these speech sounds, listeners may be prompted to sing along. That, in turn, can help them overcome vocal challenges through repetition.

Forget Playlists, These Are "Saylists"

"Saylists are a collection of playlists that each focus on a different sound," notes Apple. "By choosing one and singing along, you can practice a sound you have trouble with in a way that's fun and, most importantly, not boring."

Saylists include songs from popular artists including Ed Sheeran, Madonna, Coldplay, Rita Ora, Rihanna, Adele, David Bowie, Justin Bieber, Beyoncé, George Michael, Kylie Minogue, and many others. There are 10 Saylists available on the service, covering "ch," "s," "k," "l," "d," "f," "t," "r," and "g" sounds. All songs are currently English language.

The easiest way to access them is to type "Saylists" into the search bar. Saylists range from twelve songs to 20 songs, and will play through or act like any other playlist---meaning that you can download the playlists for offline listening. Some songs appear on multiple Saylists.

The new feature was developed by Apple in conjunction with Rothco, part of Accenture Interactive, and Warner Music. ZDNet notes that Rothco started by building an algorithm able to single out the specific speech sounds in songs. Apple Music then used this algorithm to find appropriate tracks in its roughly 70 million track catalog. After this, songs were selected by Warner Music, and speech and language therapist Anna Biavati-Smith to create the completed Saylists.

Available on Apple Music

"Our goal was to help redefine the long and often painstaking journey that young people with atypical speech can experience," said Rothco chief creative officer Alan Kelly.

"Several members of our team who worked on Saylists themselves grew up with SSDs, so it's a personal project as well. We recognized that there is one place where many people enjoy the rhythmic repetition of words and sounds---in music. It was crucial that we could analyze as many songs as possible to present children with something engaging. Pairing this with Warner's curation meant we could be certain the songs in the Saylists will appeal to many different young people."

Saylists are available exclusively on Apple Music. If they work as well as planned, however, hopefully in the future a similar approach could be adopted by other rival music streamers.