[walnutclosefarm]

I get why people might want white noise in their earbuds, but why would you want to stream it? You can easily download a multi-hour recording of, say, a waterfall, and just play it from your device.

And who in heck would listen to white noise with ads? Wouldn't the ads completely destroy the intended effect of the noise?

This is a phenomenon I really don't understand.

[Cthulhu_]

Convenience, "it's there". Tons of people use youtube to listen to music even though there's dedicated music apps. Loads more people consume Reddit via computer voices reading them out on Tiktok while a random recording of a GTA race or Subway Surfers plays. Others watch Tiktok videos on Reddit.

I don't have an answer, but I'm fine with not understanding. Let people have things for their own reasons.

[userbinator]

Tons of people use youtube to listen to music even though there's dedicated music apps.

I do that too, like a radio, but I recognise that music is far more "contentful" (for lack of a better word) than white noise variants, the latter of which can easily be generated locally on-demand for as long as you want.

[mahathu]

For reference: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwBEqV9OBTe/

[copperx]

> I don't have an answer, but I'm fine with not understanding. Let people have things for their own reasons.

This way of thinking creates things such as Electron.

[t-writescode]

The thing that powers one of the most popular work chat apps and one of the most popular code editors?

The thing that reduces context switching for developers? The thing that has increased the number of apps that would have been websites during the dark times?

[deanCommie]

I can offer a couple of explanations.

1) UX is better through a streaming client. It'll be named cleanly, it'll have a nice thumbnail. Whereas a downloaded file would be named white_noise_128bit_v3.mp3 and would be in a Downloads folder with 10,000 screenshots and memes, and every time you try to open it you have to find it.

2) All-in integration with everything in one client: Here's my white noise in my history next to my favourite banger, next to my last podcast. Tonight, as I go to bed I decide I want to listen to....one of those. They're all there in one place.

3) Discoverability UX. Go to Streamer app. Search White Noise. Press Play. Done.

vs.

Go to Browser. Search White Noise. Scroll through pages of results of links about white noise, articles, listicles. Search again for White Noise Mp3 Download. Click top result. Get inundated with ads and links that LOOK like they should be a download, but actually take you to an ad network. Finally find the download link. It opens in an in- browser player instead of a download. Give up.

It's honestly to the point that most of our parents or grandparents can't even get there.

4) Oh also repeat the same but for audio players. Are there good local audio players? That aren't inundated with ads? And each with worse playback UX than Spotify/etc? Most phones now come pre-loaded with Spotify or YoutubeMusic or AppleMusic. Good luck figuring out what is a good local audio player.

[keymasta]

On point 4) I would say that there are good local audio players. A good audio player should support most file formats. Definitely the ones that are "findable", mp3, flac, ape, ogg, etc. Bonus points if it supports full-album flac with cue describing seperate tracks. For some reason "certain" sources like to distribute like this. On windows I use foobar2000[0], on mac Cog[1], and on linux honestly most players support standard features. If you're on an os that is more functionally compromised like Android, iOS, etc., you can always use VLC[2]. Note that the flac+cue thing doesn't always work properly and on foobar you have to find and install an extension to get it to work. Foobar is really nice as it support batch processing nicely. Also about the flac+cue thing, in foobar you can easily convert to separate tracks. It also runs fairly well in wine.

[0] https://www.foobar2000.org/download

[1] https://cogx.org/download.php

[2] https://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[copperx]

You do know that white noise can be generated really easily, right?

Tap on white noise app, press play.

You don't have to worry about having downloading the track so it's available when you hop on a plane, or having internet, or using mobile data.

Plus, most white apps have an equalizer to tailor the spectrum and several noise generators. You might like brown noise more in certain situations.

[deanCommie]

i do know that. I was responding to OP as to why people stream white noise, instead of downloading it.

I have a toddler, I'm well aware of white noise apps.

I'm still explaining why it's logical for people who think of white noise as audio to seek it in their music streaming app rather than getting Yet Another Single Use App, or dealing with downloads.

[Wowfunhappy]

> You can easily download a multi-hour recording of, say, a waterfall, and just play it from your device.

That's the thing, you can't, not easily. On mobile—especially iOS—it's frustratingly difficult to transfer and use normal files without an associated app.

[rchaud]

Sounds like what it was like to use an iPad to organize files, before the Files app in 2017(!)

On Android, I use a YT client app to download a 320kbps M4A of the white noise file, and then play it on anything I want...music app, podcast app, audiobook app...they all work, just like they would on a computer

[Wowfunhappy]

The Files app is on iPhone too to be fair, but I find it very limited. Probably much more straightforward to use Spotify.

[mhh__]

You literally (unless they've changed it?) cannot edit a file extension on an iPad

[Gigachad]

I just went and checked. By default extensions are hidden and can't be changed. If you hit the menu thing and select "Show all extensions" you can now edit file extensions.

Seems appropriate to me. Changing a files extension is pretty unusual and will break things in ways users don't understand. But if you do know what you are doing, it took me 20 seconds to work out how to do it without reading a manual.

[mhh__]

You definitely couldn't do it when I saved my file as .vkm

[prmoustache]

Isn't there a generic music app?

I mean can't people just sync music to their iphone like they were doing with ipods in the past?

[Wowfunhappy]

On iOS, the "generic" music app became Apple Music. It is possible to use a local library but I suspect many/most people don't even know that, Apple really pushes you towards their subscription streaming service.

[krisoft]

> I get why people might want white noise in their earbuds, but why would you want to stream it?

Most likely because they already use spotify. They are familiar with the interface and is their go to spot when they want to listen to something. So when they want to listen to white noise they use what they already know.

[alexchantavy]

Convenience of just going to the Spotify app and not needing to think about finding/vetting another app or source. I don’t know many people outside of HN-types who download instead of stream media anymore.

[pnt12]

Streaking versus downloading is a technical detail. For a user, the only difference is that downloading cna be done in advance, when you expect crappy or expensive internet connection.

But, additionally: Spotify has a client cache, so it's not always streaming - though it may be intended for a couple of albums or play lists regularly accessed, not hours of podcast content.

[Stephen_0xFF]

If there’s content I want to watch, I’ll check each streaming service. I’ll even buy or rent it if I can watch it on demand. If I really want the content that’s not easily accessible then I’ll resort to torrenting. It’s convenience more than anything. Most people I know who are not tech savvy don’t even open the files app on iOS. I doubt they think about downloading a 5hr white noise file.

[superkuh]

I feel the same way about music. Why bother deleting it after you've downloaded it only to download it again later and do the same thing. And with ads? Yuck. It's a system only a lawyer could love.

[lnxg33k1]

I actually have used white noise sometimes, and it also used my data, and I was absolutely unaware of white noise generators, so I guess one possible answer to your question is people like me :(

[copperx]

> This is a phenomenon I really don't understand.

It's status signaling.

Anybody can send pseudorandom numbers to their audio device, but some people are rich enough to do it on a thousand dollar device, using a paid subscription to download megabytes of pseudorandom data over mobile data, storing it on expensive flash to achieve the same result.

Don't judge it through a rational lens. It's primitive status signaling.

[rchaud]

I don't think that's it. If this conversation was being had a decade ago, more people would be saying "download an MP3, keep it forever".

The younger generation grew up with Spotify having everything available for a subscription. We grew up with OG Napster, which really did have everything.