4 ms·

Living close to a noisy road, I play white noise on Spotify every night. Usually though I just go with a playlist or one/few particular tracks running in a loop

by drorco 4y ago

Living close to a noisy road, I play white noise on Spotify every night. Usually though I just go with a playlist or one/few particular tracks running in a loop. Why would anyone go for a podcast rather than a playlist/track? I also wonder if Spotify somehow adjust the earnings of these creators, as obviously I don't actually listen to their white noise for the whole night.

Michelangelo11 4y ago
> Why would anyone go for a podcast rather than a playlist/track? This is the biggest mystery to me too. Why not just use a 10-hour-long (or whatever) YouTube clip?
- MaxGabriel 4y ago
  Unless something has changed, you have to pay for YouTube premium to play audio while the screen is off. YouTube is also a worse choice if you want offline access, such as on an airplane or when camping
  - hardware2win 4y ago
    Try firefox+desktop mode
  - paskozdilar 4y ago
    > you have to pay for YouTube premium to play audio while the screen is off NewPipe (from fdroid repositories) can play audio from YouTube while the screen is off.
    - rajamaka 4y ago
      So can Brave browser
      - paskozdilar 4y ago
        So can any browser if you request desktop site, as mentioned here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31630807 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31630807 This functionality is in no way specific to Brave browser.
  - perryizgr8 4y ago
    You cannot play YouTube on an alexa device either. Spotify has proper integration.
  - solarkraft 4y ago
    YouTube, at least on the web version, also stops playing after half an hour or so in the background.
  - rightbyte 4y ago
    You can do a "request desktop site" on mobile and it plays with the screen is off. uBlock in Firefox mobile for extra benefit.
    - jeromegv 4y ago
      Yes and 95% of users have no idea this feature exists.
    - effingwewt 4y ago
      Firefox mobile actually has an add-on specifically to play youtube and other videos with the screen off. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-background-play-fix/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-backgro...
  - shard 4y ago
    > you have to pay for YouTube premium to play audio while the screen is off There are many sleep videos which have a dark screen for this reason, you can add "dark screen" to the search terms and see the choices. Although it's not quite the same as having the screen off, it's close enough in my experience.
- serial_dev 4y ago
  I'm not a white noise podcast listener, so it's just a guess: Discovering new white noises? Washing machine, hair dryer, forest, see, bar, wind, workplace noises? For work, I could see that I would like to experiment with different variations of white noise sounds, and see which one helps me the most to concentrate. I'll try out this podcast on Monday.
  - mkl 4y ago
    > Discovering new white noises? Washing machine, hair dryer, forest, see, bar, wind, workplace noises? Those are noise, but not white noise. White noise has all frequencies at equal intensity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_noise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_noise This is like how white light has all frequencies of (visible) light. There are other "colours" of noise too, like pink noise and blue noise, that have different mixes of frequencies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_noise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_noise
    - serial_dev 4y ago
      I know it is not technically white noise (it's just relaxing noise, really), but I appreciate your comment, noise colors are a fun subject. My sloppiness came from the fact that, as I have seen, in the YouTube noise video world, 95% of the videos have the "white" label in the title, even if they aren't technically white.
- the_arun 4y ago
  Why not just use an mp3 file? then you don’t need internet as well.
- tzs 4y ago
  I was going to point out that if 10 hours isn't enough, just play it back at 3/4 speed, 1/2 speed or 1/4 speed. White noise should still be white noise at different speeds. But it turns out that slowing down white noise on Google does change it noticeably. Speeding it up does not. Someone smarter than me could probably infer some things about how YouTube implements speed shifting from that.
mongol 4y ago
If the first source of white noise you find is a podcast, does it matter? Personally I have found some good sources at Youtube.
lawlorino 4y ago
> Why would anyone go for a podcast rather than a playlist/track? I'm also curious about this. My guess is the monetisation is different and podcasts are way more lucrative. - tracks are paid by plays straight from Spotify but (I think) podcasts instead rely on advertisements. From the article > Anchor manages the commercial load and pays Moore $12.25 per thousand listens which works out to ~$0.012 per listen And from the top result on Google for "how much does spotify pay per stream" > $0.0033 to $0.0054. That's how much money Spotify paid artists (through their rights holders) per stream in 2021, according to Insider. That means it would take roughly 250 streams for an artist to earn $1. Also maybe the advertising value varies considerably with the number of podcast listeners and the specific advertisers partnered with, whereas the track stream amounts are probably pretty static.
- hahajk 4y ago
  My guess would be that ads are incompatible with white noise use cases. If the white noise “podcast” inserted ads, I would guess that people would find a different place to get white noise.
  - PebblesRox 4y ago
    From the article, some are subscription, some play ads at the beginning, and the last creator featured has chosen not to include ads even though he knows he's leaving money on the table in doing so. "Moore and his white noise team... offer a subscription plan. But most people listen to the free, ad-supported version. Because Moore doesn’t want to interrupt the calming aura of his show, he opts to include only pre-roll ads." "Reed, who is something of a white noise purist, knows he could make good money with advertisements. But he doesn’t include them because he worries the sound of commerce would disturb his audience’s restful slumber. 'It’s embarrassing to say how much money I would be making,' he said."
    - paskozdilar 4y ago
      I love this kind of passion, when people do things the right way, completely ignoring the advertising devil's offers - "look at all the riches I will give to you, if you only allow advertisement". Some things simply don't have a pricetag. Without people like this, world would be a dystopia a long time ago.
ricardobeat 4y ago
It's an interesting question. Obviously creators will favor podcasts since it allows them to shove ads back in, even for Spotify paid subscribers. But why people chose that over playlists is a mystery.
aerovistae 4y ago
"obviously" -- speaking as someone who has run a box fan from sleep til waking every night for over 15 years, I would not say that is obvious at all. I don't need it to fall asleep, but I need it to stay asleep.
gondo 4y ago
Searching for "white noise" on Spotify returns podcast as a "Top result". It is simply the first click. Might explain why someone goes for a podcast.
- macNchz 4y ago
  Spotify clearly has set internal goals around podcast adoption and has been pushing them on users for a while (I assume because of the extra margin of playing ads to “ad free” premium subscribers), so it makes sense they’d get some kind of a boost in the results.
  - wussboy 4y ago
    Yup. Having people listen to a white noise generator as a "podcast" rather than a "playlist" certainly improves their "Look how well our podcasts are doing!" numbers. Taylor Swift's next album will probably be released as a podcast...
  - jtbayly 4y ago
    This is a major part of why I cancelled my Spotify subscription.
bambax 4y ago
> Why would anyone go for a podcast rather than a playlist/track? I'm not sure but I think tracks have a length limit, and not podcasts. If you want a track that lasts 8 hours as some of these do, then podcasts are the only option.

by drorco 4y ago

Michelangelo11 4y ago

> Why would anyone go for a podcast rather than a playlist/track? This is the biggest mystery to me too. Why not just use a 10-hour-long (or whatever) YouTube clip?

MaxGabriel 4y ago
Unless something has changed, you have to pay for YouTube premium to play audio while the screen is off. YouTube is also a worse choice if you want offline access, such as on an airplane or when camping
- hardware2win 4y ago
  Try firefox+desktop mode
- paskozdilar 4y ago
  > you have to pay for YouTube premium to play audio while the screen is off NewPipe (from fdroid repositories) can play audio from YouTube while the screen is off.
  - rajamaka 4y ago
    So can Brave browser
    - paskozdilar 4y ago
      So can any browser if you request desktop site, as mentioned here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31630807 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31630807 This functionality is in no way specific to Brave browser.
- perryizgr8 4y ago
  You cannot play YouTube on an alexa device either. Spotify has proper integration.
- solarkraft 4y ago
  YouTube, at least on the web version, also stops playing after half an hour or so in the background.
- rightbyte 4y ago
  You can do a "request desktop site" on mobile and it plays with the screen is off. uBlock in Firefox mobile for extra benefit.
  - jeromegv 4y ago
    Yes and 95% of users have no idea this feature exists.
  - effingwewt 4y ago
    Firefox mobile actually has an add-on specifically to play youtube and other videos with the screen off. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-background-play-fix/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-backgro...
- shard 4y ago
  > you have to pay for YouTube premium to play audio while the screen is off There are many sleep videos which have a dark screen for this reason, you can add "dark screen" to the search terms and see the choices. Although it's not quite the same as having the screen off, it's close enough in my experience.
serial_dev 4y ago
I'm not a white noise podcast listener, so it's just a guess: Discovering new white noises? Washing machine, hair dryer, forest, see, bar, wind, workplace noises? For work, I could see that I would like to experiment with different variations of white noise sounds, and see which one helps me the most to concentrate. I'll try out this podcast on Monday.
- mkl 4y ago
  > Discovering new white noises? Washing machine, hair dryer, forest, see, bar, wind, workplace noises? Those are noise, but not white noise. White noise has all frequencies at equal intensity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_noise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_noise This is like how white light has all frequencies of (visible) light. There are other "colours" of noise too, like pink noise and blue noise, that have different mixes of frequencies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_noise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_noise
  - serial_dev 4y ago
    I know it is not technically white noise (it's just relaxing noise, really), but I appreciate your comment, noise colors are a fun subject. My sloppiness came from the fact that, as I have seen, in the YouTube noise video world, 95% of the videos have the "white" label in the title, even if they aren't technically white.
the_arun 4y ago
Why not just use an mp3 file? then you don’t need internet as well.
tzs 4y ago
I was going to point out that if 10 hours isn't enough, just play it back at 3/4 speed, 1/2 speed or 1/4 speed. White noise should still be white noise at different speeds. But it turns out that slowing down white noise on Google does change it noticeably. Speeding it up does not. Someone smarter than me could probably infer some things about how YouTube implements speed shifting from that.

mongol 4y ago

If the first source of white noise you find is a podcast, does it matter? Personally I have found some good sources at Youtube.

lawlorino 4y ago

> Why would anyone go for a podcast rather than a playlist/track? I'm also curious about this. My guess is the monetisation is different and podcasts are way more lucrative. - tracks are paid by plays straight from Spotify but (I think) podcasts instead rely on advertisements. From the article > Anchor manages the commercial load and pays Moore $12.25 per thousand listens which works out to ~$0.012 per listen And from the top result on Google for "how much does spotify pay per stream" > $0.0033 to $0.0054. That's how much money Spotify paid artists (through their rights holders) per stream in 2021, according to Insider. That means it would take roughly 250 streams for an artist to earn $1. Also maybe the advertising value varies considerably with the number of podcast listeners and the specific advertisers partnered with, whereas the track stream amounts are probably pretty static.

hahajk 4y ago
My guess would be that ads are incompatible with white noise use cases. If the white noise “podcast” inserted ads, I would guess that people would find a different place to get white noise.
- PebblesRox 4y ago
  From the article, some are subscription, some play ads at the beginning, and the last creator featured has chosen not to include ads even though he knows he's leaving money on the table in doing so. "Moore and his white noise team... offer a subscription plan. But most people listen to the free, ad-supported version. Because Moore doesn’t want to interrupt the calming aura of his show, he opts to include only pre-roll ads." "Reed, who is something of a white noise purist, knows he could make good money with advertisements. But he doesn’t include them because he worries the sound of commerce would disturb his audience’s restful slumber. 'It’s embarrassing to say how much money I would be making,' he said."
  - paskozdilar 4y ago
    I love this kind of passion, when people do things the right way, completely ignoring the advertising devil's offers - "look at all the riches I will give to you, if you only allow advertisement". Some things simply don't have a pricetag. Without people like this, world would be a dystopia a long time ago.

ricardobeat 4y ago

It's an interesting question. Obviously creators will favor podcasts since it allows them to shove ads back in, even for Spotify paid subscribers. But why people chose that over playlists is a mystery.

aerovistae 4y ago

"obviously" -- speaking as someone who has run a box fan from sleep til waking every night for over 15 years, I would not say that is obvious at all. I don't need it to fall asleep, but I need it to stay asleep.

gondo 4y ago

Searching for "white noise" on Spotify returns podcast as a "Top result". It is simply the first click. Might explain why someone goes for a podcast.

macNchz 4y ago
Spotify clearly has set internal goals around podcast adoption and has been pushing them on users for a while (I assume because of the extra margin of playing ads to “ad free” premium subscribers), so it makes sense they’d get some kind of a boost in the results.
- wussboy 4y ago
  Yup. Having people listen to a white noise generator as a "podcast" rather than a "playlist" certainly improves their "Look how well our podcasts are doing!" numbers. Taylor Swift's next album will probably be released as a podcast...
- jtbayly 4y ago
  This is a major part of why I cancelled my Spotify subscription.

bambax 4y ago

> Why would anyone go for a podcast rather than a playlist/track? I'm not sure but I think tracks have a length limit, and not podcasts. If you want a track that lasts 8 hours as some of these do, then podcasts are the only option.