11 ms·

How Ambient Chill Became the New Silence

121 points by wyndham 7y ago

pmoriarty 7y ago
"ambient music for shopping spaces, these days, is meant to soothe you or pump you up, and generally nudge your habits toward consumption" Fortunately, we do have some resistance to this in the form of portable music players. I virtually never hear any music at any of the venues or stores I visit, because I'm always listening to my own.
- iamatworknow 7y ago
  Maybe I'm alone here but I almost think this is worse. Granted the manipulative aspect of using specific music to set a mood in public places can be kinda gross, but I don't like that the alternative is that now everyone's in their own bubble and further isolating themselves from the people around them.
  - pmoriarty 7y ago
    In my experience, people are already almost completely isolated even without headphones. With or without headphones, the only strangers who come up and talk to me are people who want something from me, like beggars, people seeking directions, or people trying to sell me something. As someone who's not very social around strangers, I rarely initiate conversations with strangers myself. Listening to my own music just makes getting through the world more pleasant for me. It doesn't make me significantly more isolated.
    - Ancalagon 7y ago
      You and the parent both have excellent points, and I frankly agree with both of you. I think, at least in the US, many public spaces are trending towards isolation of the population. Specifically I'm thinking of gyms (where its no longer OK to interact with someone with headphones on), or bars/clubs where the music is literally so loud you cannot talk to someone standing right next to you. I believe all of this is in some way related to us becoming more lonely/depressed, and of course we self-medicate in the only way we know how: consumption.
      - pixelbash 7y ago
        Funny, I have polar opposite opinions about those examples. I hate loud music in bars because I love to have deep random conversarions, but the last thing I want in the gym is someone talking to me.
      - filoleg 7y ago
        I think all of those have their place. There are loud bars/clubs you go to with your friends at times when you want to let all your energy out and just drink, dance, and listen to music without having to worry about carrying a conversation. There are also quieter and more fit for socializing bars and music venues, where you wanna go to shoot shit with the bartender, have a conversation with your friend you haven't seen in a while, or just relax and talk to people in your neighborhood who tent to visit that place often while chilling with a drink. And I love the fact that in most cities I've lived in within the US, there are plenty of both, because I definitely like to utilize all of those options. More choices is always better. The only example of yours I heavily disagree with is the gym one. It isn't a proper place for socializing imo, assuming you are talking about the weightlifting/cardio stuff. Team sports areas like basketball court or a soccer field (where I see a LOT of socializing happening) are a completely different story, however.
      - Godel_unicode 7y ago
        Alternatively, those are all examples of refusing to allow vaguely annoying extroverts to force their views of how the world should be on everyone around them. I just want to drink/lift/eat, please stop talking to me.
      - partyboat1586 7y ago
        You can talk to people in loud clubs, you just have to shout in their ear. Guys who are trying to pick up girls do it all the time though I've always thought it was too much effort. The smoking area is my favourite place in bars and clubs because people there are more social and no one feels pressured cos they can leave when they finish their cig or stay for another. Shame I quit smoking, there needs to be a healthy alternative that's not vaping. Vaping doesn't work because it has no natural end point.
      - 7y ago
    - hombre_fatal 7y ago
      Here are some initiatives taken by transporation organizations to encourage people to talk to each other, like introducing a "chat carriage" on the train: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/public-transport-chat-train-bus-commute-crossing-divides-loneliness-a8958261.html https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/public-transport-ch... For example: > The results showed that those asked to chat felt far more positive about their journey than those who kept to themselves, and that the longer people talked for the better they felt. A world where the only people who talk to you outside your fortress are beggars, scammers, and salesmen is a sad one. Not to say you're always ready for a conversation with a stranger every time you leave your house, but there is also a chance of serendipity in the most unlikely exchanges. I met a woman I dated for a year at a supermarket. This woman next to me was spending a lot of time comparing fruit, like gently tapping them and squeezing them. She hadn't even put one in her basket yet. I stood across from her and put some plums up to my ears as if to listen to them, mockingly, which started a conversation that we picked up that evening at a bar. It's something I think about when I err on the side of not interacting with those around me since it was a bit out of character for me. It's one of the spices of life.
      - StuffedParrot 7y ago
        The homeless actually make great conversation and it humanizes them. If you don’t give cash, at least don’t alienate them. Granted it can be very emotionally draining.
        cartoonfoxes 7y ago
        I take it you have never been assaulted by an angry drunk before.
        ska 7y ago
        > I take it you have never been assaulted by an angry drunk before. That's a non-sequitur. Regardless, if you are looking to get assaulted by an angry drunk talking to homeless people isn't a very effective method. For best success try pick up bars with an 20-30 year old clientele, or just accost someone on the street who is already visibly drunk and antagonistic; they are (unintuitively?) unlikely to be homeless but will often happily have a go at you.
    - coldtea 7y ago
      >With or without headphones, the only strangers who come up and talk to me are people who want something from me, like beggars, people seeking directions, or people trying to sell me something In the US maybe. In other parts of the world it can be quite different...
  - fudged71 7y ago
    It's actually hilarious when some store employees/managers will desperately try to get your attention even if you're wearing headphones to tell you about their sales. If I want to be left alone then leave me alone! (I only did this once but it was very eye opening)
    - ben-schaaf 7y ago
      I've generally found that when headphones aren't enough to dissuade people from talking to me, I start intently looking at my phone like I'm reading an important email. It works wonders even if the screen is off.
  - leetcrew 7y ago
    "earbuds in" is sort of like a social bloom filter. I'm not terribly social but I've started to try striking up casual conversation in lines and similar situations. most people don't really want to talk, but people wearing earbuds definitely don't want to talk. it's at least a mildly helpful signal.
  - trophycase 7y ago
    No you're not alone. But most people do it because garbage mainstream "inoffensive" music is blasted almost everywhere you go
  - WalterBright 7y ago
    > Granted the manipulative aspect of using specific music to set a mood in public places can be kinda gross I suspect many malls are pumping potpourri scent into the HVAC system. It pervades the malls.
  - Macha 7y ago
    https://wanna-joke.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/funny-people-looking-cellphone-newspaper.jpg https://wanna-joke.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/funny-peop... I think the picture makes the point on its own, but at the risk of being accused of Reddit style image replies: Prior to phones, people weren't automatically any more social with random strangers than they had to be.
    - Godel_unicode 7y ago
      The reason people don't like these replies is not that they're "Reddit style" but rather that they're very low information. How do we know that the "oh wait" picture is actually representative?
- ourmandave 7y ago
  Walmart plays music depending on the demographic that shopping at a particular time of day (thanks to their endless analytics). I've gone there at times I wouldn't normally, like Sunday at 6 AM because I put it off and need something now, and it's like I'm on the wrong radio station. So if you're ever at a Walmart and don't like the music, you're just not shopping at the right time apparently.
  - Scoundreller 7y ago
    Once went to a new Walmart after it opened before they had the sound system set up and boy was it eerie.
- hiccuphippo 7y ago
  Soon they'll brand wearing headphones as adblocking and ask you to remove them or leave their store.
philwelch 7y ago
Despite this trend, maybe it’s just me but I have never actually experienced elevator music. As in music playing in a literal elevator. Sometimes there’s a TV with weather reports and sports scores and “fun facts” that pop up but no music.
- shantly 7y ago
  I recall multi-floor department stores employing actual elevator music in their elevators 20+ years ago. Haven't been on an elevator in one recently, so can't comment on whether they still do it.
  - creaghpatr 7y ago
    Elevators have gotten really fast now, it probably made sense for 70+ story buildings where you might be on the elevator for more than 60 seconds back in the day but many modern elevators are going 10 floors/sec at their max speed.
    - yellowapple 7y ago
      10 floors per second? Assuming 1 floor = 1 story = 3.3 meters, that's highway speeds. Really fast indeed.
      - mattkrause 7y ago
        They're not quite highway speed, but still pretty crazy: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-surprisingly-cutthroat-race-to-build-the-worlds-fastest-elevator/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-surpri... Peak speed: 18 m/s (40 mph)
- weaksauce 7y ago
  the last time i heard elevator music was many, many years ago. seems like it was a thing in the 80s-early 90s department stores.
brontide 7y ago
…startup Mutebox The anti-jukebox that lets you mute restaurants' ambient music to bring back the vitality of your surroundings. For when your favorite cafe is playing experimental electronic music and you really came for the sound of espresso machines and light background noise while you crank out that TPS report. Or, the jukebox that exclusively plays John Cage's 4'33". [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4′33″ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4′33″
- pazimzadeh 7y ago
  So, the AirPods Pro with "transparency mode?"
  - yathern 7y ago
    No - that will not mute music around you, but allow you to hear it through the headphones.
- wffurr 7y ago
  Like a noise canceling speaker I could place on the table to eliminate the music from that area?
  - Scoundreller 7y ago
    The problem with that is the time differences between when things hit your ears, the speaker and the source. I suppose it could work if your ears are always in a known place. That’s why we can only make noise cancelling headphones.
- Hello71 7y ago
  this already exists. it's called Muzo, and ElectroBOOM reviewed it as an obvious scam.
  - mordechai9000 7y ago
    I was curious if this was possible, and I did some quick research. From what I gathered, it's just not practical. There are a multitude of mutually interfering sources and reflective surfaces in a noisy real world environment. You just can't plop a mic down - or an array of mics - and cancel the audio it receives. You have to put the mic and the cancelling audio as close to the ear as possible, and isolate the listener as much as you can. Which we already have, in noise cancelling headphones.
telotortium 7y ago
> THE LOGICAL ENDPOINT of the demand for mood-based content might be something that’s not created by a human musician, but by an algorithm. Some players in the music industry are betting on this. Earlier this year, Warner Brothers Music partnered with Endel, a company founded in Berlin that creates customized “soundscapes,” mostly for individual consumers. Endel’s songs aren’t really songs; they’re endless sonic ecosystems of sorts, for activities such as focusing on work or sleeping. http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
egypturnash 7y ago
Lately I've been spending a lot of my working-with-a-laptop-at-a-cafe time at places that have outdoor seating. And another chunk of that time has been sitting outside at a very nice park I live nearby. There is no music except for occasional snatches of it from passing cars. Instead there is the wind in the trees, various birds having their conversations, and perhaps kids playing if I'm near the playground. It's really kind of wonderful. I find myself thinking that a cafe whose playlist is nothing but natural ambient sounds - maybe you walk in and the playlist is "jungle fauna", or "rainstorm", or "tranquil beach" - would be really cool, but I also know that running a small cafe is a ton of work and a great way to probably lose a ton of money. Maybe I'll suggest that at one of the cafes I work inside of on a regular basis.
- m463 7y ago
  The rainforest cafe does jungle and even an occasional thunderstorm. It's quite successful too. (There's one right outside disneyland in Los Angeles)
- DEADBEEFC0FFEE 7y ago
  I went through a period of listening to natural sounds, rivers, forests, rain, thunder, waves, etc. It's surprisingly easy to detect loops and repeats. There are some nice apps for blending sounds. Seems like a good space for ML to play, producing unique, but authentic feeling sounds.
  - thepaulstella 7y ago
    I do enjoy myNoise, but I find their mobile apps to be usability headaches a lot of the time.
    - frosted-flakes 7y ago
      Just use the website. Add it to the home screen (on Android) and it functions like an app. The only downside is that it requires Internet to load the noise generator. Stephane Pigeon of myNoise.net made the website himself, but hired out the app development.
oykot 7y ago
Next time youre in a casino pay attention to the carefully curated lyrics of the overhead music they play
- bonestamp2 7y ago
  In the meantime, can you give us any hints?
a_t48 7y ago
I thought this was going to be about ambient electronic music, which is something totally different. Genre naming is fun. :) Still a worthwhile article to me.
tomc1985 7y ago
I hate this. If the commercial world has any say we will not have quiet anywhere, ever. Silence is so wonderful, why must we fill it up with noise?
- dorchadas 7y ago
  I was reading The Nature Fix earlier this year and they mentioned there's very few places left in America where you can actually be free from human-made noise at daybreak. It was quite sad, and, as you mentioned, it's only going to get worse. I quite miss quiet, and wish more people felt the same way. Instead, it seems many hate quiet.
SignalsFromBob 7y ago
I look forward to the day that society treats combating noise pollution with the same level of seriousness as combating other types of pollution. It appears that day is still far off.
- johnchristopher 7y ago
  Things are slowly moving at the European level but some initiatives were recently taken. See https://ec.europa.eu/environment/noise/directive_en.htm https://ec.europa.eu/environment/noise/directive_en.htm and https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/75/air-and-noise-pollution https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/75/air-an...
- baroffoos 7y ago
  > same level of seriousness as combating other types of pollution. So not very seriously at all?
- timthorn 7y ago
  There's such a pressure group in the UK: https://pipedown.org.uk/ https://pipedown.org.uk/
mancerayder 7y ago
I have tinnitus because I've spent the last two decades playing music through headphones to block out conversations and often music at work and in my commute. I'm still equally distracted/disturbed by other people's noise as day one.
- eikenberry 7y ago
  You had your ear wax checked? I thought I had tinnitus for years, then one time when getting checked on for a nasal infection the nurse commented on how waxy my ear was and asked if I'd like it removed. I thought sure and wow... my tinnitus immediately and completely went away. Just saying, get that checked if you have tinnitus. Turns out ear wax build-up is a major cause of it (it pushes against the ear drums).
  - taylortrusty 7y ago
    This same thing happened to me. Nurse commented on my ear wax and upon removing I felt so much better (and had no more ringing).
    - coldtea 7y ago
      Why the buildup? I've used q-tips every 3-4 days since a child and never had any ear wax buildup problems...
      - triceratops 7y ago
        Q-tips aren't supposed to be used for cleaning wax out of ears. That's not what they're for, and the manufacturer and much of the medical establishment actively advises against it.
        coldtea 7y ago
        >Q-tips aren't supposed to be used for cleaning wax out of ears. Well, they've worked just fine for me and millions of others (it's their most popular use). That said, there are indeed accidents from misuse. Not sure what other people buy them for in the billions and have them at every bathroom. Cleaning vinyl records and nails?
taurath 7y ago
What I can’t stand is the lyric heavy “upbeat” music in grocery stores, even when it’s absolutely dreary out or late at night. I’m sure some folks like it. Maybe I should grocery shop with earbuds.
- jpindar 7y ago
  I do grocery shop with earbuds sometimes, because the store near me plays nothing but cheezy old love songs. I mean literally every song is a 'romantic' one. I'm not against all old pop music but that's just too much.

121 points by wyndham 7y ago

"ambient music for shopping spaces, these days, is meant to soothe you or pump you up, and generally nudge your habits toward consumption" Fortunately, we do have some resistance to this in the form of portable music players. I virtually never hear any music at any of the venues or stores I visit, because I'm always listening to my own.

iamatworknow 7y ago
Maybe I'm alone here but I almost think this is worse. Granted the manipulative aspect of using specific music to set a mood in public places can be kinda gross, but I don't like that the alternative is that now everyone's in their own bubble and further isolating themselves from the people around them.
- pmoriarty 7y ago
  In my experience, people are already almost completely isolated even without headphones. With or without headphones, the only strangers who come up and talk to me are people who want something from me, like beggars, people seeking directions, or people trying to sell me something. As someone who's not very social around strangers, I rarely initiate conversations with strangers myself. Listening to my own music just makes getting through the world more pleasant for me. It doesn't make me significantly more isolated.
  - Ancalagon 7y ago
    You and the parent both have excellent points, and I frankly agree with both of you. I think, at least in the US, many public spaces are trending towards isolation of the population. Specifically I'm thinking of gyms (where its no longer OK to interact with someone with headphones on), or bars/clubs where the music is literally so loud you cannot talk to someone standing right next to you. I believe all of this is in some way related to us becoming more lonely/depressed, and of course we self-medicate in the only way we know how: consumption.
    - pixelbash 7y ago
      Funny, I have polar opposite opinions about those examples. I hate loud music in bars because I love to have deep random conversarions, but the last thing I want in the gym is someone talking to me.
    - filoleg 7y ago
      I think all of those have their place. There are loud bars/clubs you go to with your friends at times when you want to let all your energy out and just drink, dance, and listen to music without having to worry about carrying a conversation. There are also quieter and more fit for socializing bars and music venues, where you wanna go to shoot shit with the bartender, have a conversation with your friend you haven't seen in a while, or just relax and talk to people in your neighborhood who tent to visit that place often while chilling with a drink. And I love the fact that in most cities I've lived in within the US, there are plenty of both, because I definitely like to utilize all of those options. More choices is always better. The only example of yours I heavily disagree with is the gym one. It isn't a proper place for socializing imo, assuming you are talking about the weightlifting/cardio stuff. Team sports areas like basketball court or a soccer field (where I see a LOT of socializing happening) are a completely different story, however.
    - Godel_unicode 7y ago
      Alternatively, those are all examples of refusing to allow vaguely annoying extroverts to force their views of how the world should be on everyone around them. I just want to drink/lift/eat, please stop talking to me.
    - partyboat1586 7y ago
      You can talk to people in loud clubs, you just have to shout in their ear. Guys who are trying to pick up girls do it all the time though I've always thought it was too much effort. The smoking area is my favourite place in bars and clubs because people there are more social and no one feels pressured cos they can leave when they finish their cig or stay for another. Shame I quit smoking, there needs to be a healthy alternative that's not vaping. Vaping doesn't work because it has no natural end point.
    - 7y ago
  - hombre_fatal 7y ago
    Here are some initiatives taken by transporation organizations to encourage people to talk to each other, like introducing a "chat carriage" on the train: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/public-transport-chat-train-bus-commute-crossing-divides-loneliness-a8958261.html https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/public-transport-ch... For example: > The results showed that those asked to chat felt far more positive about their journey than those who kept to themselves, and that the longer people talked for the better they felt. A world where the only people who talk to you outside your fortress are beggars, scammers, and salesmen is a sad one. Not to say you're always ready for a conversation with a stranger every time you leave your house, but there is also a chance of serendipity in the most unlikely exchanges. I met a woman I dated for a year at a supermarket. This woman next to me was spending a lot of time comparing fruit, like gently tapping them and squeezing them. She hadn't even put one in her basket yet. I stood across from her and put some plums up to my ears as if to listen to them, mockingly, which started a conversation that we picked up that evening at a bar. It's something I think about when I err on the side of not interacting with those around me since it was a bit out of character for me. It's one of the spices of life.
    - StuffedParrot 7y ago
      The homeless actually make great conversation and it humanizes them. If you don’t give cash, at least don’t alienate them. Granted it can be very emotionally draining.
      - cartoonfoxes 7y ago
        I take it you have never been assaulted by an angry drunk before.
        ska 7y ago
        > I take it you have never been assaulted by an angry drunk before. That's a non-sequitur. Regardless, if you are looking to get assaulted by an angry drunk talking to homeless people isn't a very effective method. For best success try pick up bars with an 20-30 year old clientele, or just accost someone on the street who is already visibly drunk and antagonistic; they are (unintuitively?) unlikely to be homeless but will often happily have a go at you.
  - coldtea 7y ago
    >With or without headphones, the only strangers who come up and talk to me are people who want something from me, like beggars, people seeking directions, or people trying to sell me something In the US maybe. In other parts of the world it can be quite different...
- fudged71 7y ago
  It's actually hilarious when some store employees/managers will desperately try to get your attention even if you're wearing headphones to tell you about their sales. If I want to be left alone then leave me alone! (I only did this once but it was very eye opening)
  - ben-schaaf 7y ago
    I've generally found that when headphones aren't enough to dissuade people from talking to me, I start intently looking at my phone like I'm reading an important email. It works wonders even if the screen is off.
- leetcrew 7y ago
  "earbuds in" is sort of like a social bloom filter. I'm not terribly social but I've started to try striking up casual conversation in lines and similar situations. most people don't really want to talk, but people wearing earbuds definitely don't want to talk. it's at least a mildly helpful signal.
- trophycase 7y ago
  No you're not alone. But most people do it because garbage mainstream "inoffensive" music is blasted almost everywhere you go
- WalterBright 7y ago
  > Granted the manipulative aspect of using specific music to set a mood in public places can be kinda gross I suspect many malls are pumping potpourri scent into the HVAC system. It pervades the malls.
- Macha 7y ago
  https://wanna-joke.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/funny-people-looking-cellphone-newspaper.jpg https://wanna-joke.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/funny-peop... I think the picture makes the point on its own, but at the risk of being accused of Reddit style image replies: Prior to phones, people weren't automatically any more social with random strangers than they had to be.
  - Godel_unicode 7y ago
    The reason people don't like these replies is not that they're "Reddit style" but rather that they're very low information. How do we know that the "oh wait" picture is actually representative?
ourmandave 7y ago
Walmart plays music depending on the demographic that shopping at a particular time of day (thanks to their endless analytics). I've gone there at times I wouldn't normally, like Sunday at 6 AM because I put it off and need something now, and it's like I'm on the wrong radio station. So if you're ever at a Walmart and don't like the music, you're just not shopping at the right time apparently.
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  Once went to a new Walmart after it opened before they had the sound system set up and boy was it eerie.
hiccuphippo 7y ago
Soon they'll brand wearing headphones as adblocking and ask you to remove them or leave their store.

philwelch 7y ago

Despite this trend, maybe it’s just me but I have never actually experienced elevator music. As in music playing in a literal elevator. Sometimes there’s a TV with weather reports and sports scores and “fun facts” that pop up but no music.

shantly 7y ago
I recall multi-floor department stores employing actual elevator music in their elevators 20+ years ago. Haven't been on an elevator in one recently, so can't comment on whether they still do it.
- creaghpatr 7y ago
  Elevators have gotten really fast now, it probably made sense for 70+ story buildings where you might be on the elevator for more than 60 seconds back in the day but many modern elevators are going 10 floors/sec at their max speed.
  - yellowapple 7y ago
    10 floors per second? Assuming 1 floor = 1 story = 3.3 meters, that's highway speeds. Really fast indeed.
    - mattkrause 7y ago
      They're not quite highway speed, but still pretty crazy: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-surprisingly-cutthroat-race-to-build-the-worlds-fastest-elevator/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-surpri... Peak speed: 18 m/s (40 mph)
weaksauce 7y ago
the last time i heard elevator music was many, many years ago. seems like it was a thing in the 80s-early 90s department stores.

brontide 7y ago

…startup Mutebox The anti-jukebox that lets you mute restaurants' ambient music to bring back the vitality of your surroundings. For when your favorite cafe is playing experimental electronic music and you really came for the sound of espresso machines and light background noise while you crank out that TPS report. Or, the jukebox that exclusively plays John Cage's 4'33". [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4′33″ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4′33″

pazimzadeh 7y ago
So, the AirPods Pro with "transparency mode?"
- yathern 7y ago
  No - that will not mute music around you, but allow you to hear it through the headphones.
wffurr 7y ago
Like a noise canceling speaker I could place on the table to eliminate the music from that area?
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  The problem with that is the time differences between when things hit your ears, the speaker and the source. I suppose it could work if your ears are always in a known place. That’s why we can only make noise cancelling headphones.
Hello71 7y ago
this already exists. it's called Muzo, and ElectroBOOM reviewed it as an obvious scam.
- mordechai9000 7y ago
  I was curious if this was possible, and I did some quick research. From what I gathered, it's just not practical. There are a multitude of mutually interfering sources and reflective surfaces in a noisy real world environment. You just can't plop a mic down - or an array of mics - and cancel the audio it receives. You have to put the mic and the cancelling audio as close to the ear as possible, and isolate the listener as much as you can. Which we already have, in noise cancelling headphones.

telotortium 7y ago

> THE LOGICAL ENDPOINT of the demand for mood-based content might be something that’s not created by a human musician, but by an algorithm. Some players in the music industry are betting on this. Earlier this year, Warner Brothers Music partnered with Endel, a company founded in Berlin that creates customized “soundscapes,” mostly for individual consumers. Endel’s songs aren’t really songs; they’re endless sonic ecosystems of sorts, for activities such as focusing on work or sleeping. http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html

egypturnash 7y ago

Lately I've been spending a lot of my working-with-a-laptop-at-a-cafe time at places that have outdoor seating. And another chunk of that time has been sitting outside at a very nice park I live nearby. There is no music except for occasional snatches of it from passing cars. Instead there is the wind in the trees, various birds having their conversations, and perhaps kids playing if I'm near the playground. It's really kind of wonderful. I find myself thinking that a cafe whose playlist is nothing but natural ambient sounds - maybe you walk in and the playlist is "jungle fauna", or "rainstorm", or "tranquil beach" - would be really cool, but I also know that running a small cafe is a ton of work and a great way to probably lose a ton of money. Maybe I'll suggest that at one of the cafes I work inside of on a regular basis.

m463 7y ago
The rainforest cafe does jungle and even an occasional thunderstorm. It's quite successful too. (There's one right outside disneyland in Los Angeles)
DEADBEEFC0FFEE 7y ago
I went through a period of listening to natural sounds, rivers, forests, rain, thunder, waves, etc. It's surprisingly easy to detect loops and repeats. There are some nice apps for blending sounds. Seems like a good space for ML to play, producing unique, but authentic feeling sounds.
- thepaulstella 7y ago
  I do enjoy myNoise, but I find their mobile apps to be usability headaches a lot of the time.
  - frosted-flakes 7y ago
    Just use the website. Add it to the home screen (on Android) and it functions like an app. The only downside is that it requires Internet to load the noise generator. Stephane Pigeon of myNoise.net made the website himself, but hired out the app development.

oykot 7y ago

Next time youre in a casino pay attention to the carefully curated lyrics of the overhead music they play

bonestamp2 7y ago
In the meantime, can you give us any hints?

a_t48 7y ago

I thought this was going to be about ambient electronic music, which is something totally different. Genre naming is fun. :) Still a worthwhile article to me.

tomc1985 7y ago

I hate this. If the commercial world has any say we will not have quiet anywhere, ever. Silence is so wonderful, why must we fill it up with noise?

dorchadas 7y ago
I was reading The Nature Fix earlier this year and they mentioned there's very few places left in America where you can actually be free from human-made noise at daybreak. It was quite sad, and, as you mentioned, it's only going to get worse. I quite miss quiet, and wish more people felt the same way. Instead, it seems many hate quiet.

SignalsFromBob 7y ago

I look forward to the day that society treats combating noise pollution with the same level of seriousness as combating other types of pollution. It appears that day is still far off.

johnchristopher 7y ago
Things are slowly moving at the European level but some initiatives were recently taken. See https://ec.europa.eu/environment/noise/directive_en.htm https://ec.europa.eu/environment/noise/directive_en.htm and https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/75/air-and-noise-pollution https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/75/air-an...
baroffoos 7y ago
> same level of seriousness as combating other types of pollution. So not very seriously at all?
timthorn 7y ago
There's such a pressure group in the UK: https://pipedown.org.uk/ https://pipedown.org.uk/

mancerayder 7y ago

I have tinnitus because I've spent the last two decades playing music through headphones to block out conversations and often music at work and in my commute. I'm still equally distracted/disturbed by other people's noise as day one.

eikenberry 7y ago
You had your ear wax checked? I thought I had tinnitus for years, then one time when getting checked on for a nasal infection the nurse commented on how waxy my ear was and asked if I'd like it removed. I thought sure and wow... my tinnitus immediately and completely went away. Just saying, get that checked if you have tinnitus. Turns out ear wax build-up is a major cause of it (it pushes against the ear drums).
- taylortrusty 7y ago
  This same thing happened to me. Nurse commented on my ear wax and upon removing I felt so much better (and had no more ringing).
  - coldtea 7y ago
    Why the buildup? I've used q-tips every 3-4 days since a child and never had any ear wax buildup problems...
    - triceratops 7y ago
      Q-tips aren't supposed to be used for cleaning wax out of ears. That's not what they're for, and the manufacturer and much of the medical establishment actively advises against it.
      - coldtea 7y ago
        >Q-tips aren't supposed to be used for cleaning wax out of ears. Well, they've worked just fine for me and millions of others (it's their most popular use). That said, there are indeed accidents from misuse. Not sure what other people buy them for in the billions and have them at every bathroom. Cleaning vinyl records and nails?

taurath 7y ago

What I can’t stand is the lyric heavy “upbeat” music in grocery stores, even when it’s absolutely dreary out or late at night. I’m sure some folks like it. Maybe I should grocery shop with earbuds.

jpindar 7y ago
I do grocery shop with earbuds sometimes, because the store near me plays nothing but cheezy old love songs. I mean literally every song is a 'romantic' one. I'm not against all old pop music but that's just too much.