White noise is hugely popular on streaming audio and video platforms. — AFP Relaxnews
Like other forms of information and entertainment, podcasts are subject to the latest trends. One current audio trend is that of “white noise”, the soothing sounds said to help students concentrate when they’re studying or help parents get babies to sleep more quickly. White noise podcasts are enjoying phenomenal success on online music platforms but not everyone is happy about that.
One of these unhappy parties is Spotify. The world leader in music streaming has reportedly been considering the possibility of banning, or at least restricting, white noise podcasts on its platform, according to information from Bloomberg. This extreme measure would have enabled the company to increase its annual profits by €35mil (RM176.65mil), given the popularity of this type of online content. And there’s a reason it’s so popular: white noise generates a large number of listens on platforms such as Spotify, Amazon Music and YouTube due to its alleged anti-stress benefits.
The hum of a vacuum cleaner, the splash of rain, the whirr of a fan... White noise refers to sounds in which all the frequencies audible to the human ear (from 20 Hz to 20 kHz) are present at the same time and at the same intensity. This superposition of sound waves saturates our auditory receptors, masking other surrounding sounds, or at least mitigating them.
This is why white noise is often presented as a powerful aid for sleep and concentration. However, its therapeutic benefits are still the subject of debate within the scientific community. In 2021, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania even claimed in an article published in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews that they could disturb the quality of our sleep over the long term.
A popularity not to everyone's liking
But that hasn't exactly dissuaded listeners from turning to this sonic comforter. White noise is some of the most popular content on online music services, and one of them, entitled "Clean White Noise - Loopable with no fade," has even exceeded one billion listens on Spotify. Overall, white noise and ambient podcasts account for three million hours of daily listening on the platform headed by Daniel Ek, according to Bloomberg.
This popularity irks the community of artists who struggle to get listens – and therefore fair remuneration – on Spotify as well as the Swedish giant itself. The company has reportedly invested a billion dollars in the podcast industry since 2019, including US$230mil (RM1.06bil) to acquire podcast studio Gimlet Media, and almost US$200mil (RM929.60mil) for The Ringer. This colossal investment has yet to really bear fruit: in June, the Swedish group’s executives stated that the podcast business is set to become profitable within one to two years.
Meanwhile, creators of podcasts devoted to white noise are earning up to US$18,000 (RM83,664) a month from advertisements in their programs, as revealed by Bloomberg in 2022. Surprisingly, Spotify and its competitors have not yet entered this segment of the podcast market, nor do they appear to have any intention of doing so. The Swedish giant has, however, declared that it will continue to host this kind of content on its platform in the future, although it has been thinking internally about banning them – good news for independent creators of white noise podcasts and their millions of listeners. – AFP Relaxnews
