• NoIWontPickaName@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      You mean that magical unlimited thing that just flows freely from the walls?

      People don’t think about the energy wasted to do that

      • khornechips@yiffit.net
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        1 year ago

        It costs fractions of pennies to transfer data across the internet, especially something as small as a white noise audio file.

        • AnonTwo@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Audio size is based on the quality of the recording, not what the recording is.

          If the white noise is for some reason recorded in high quality, it’s going to use as much data as music.

          • Solemn@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 year ago

            Compression algorithms generally rely on sensing patterns in the data to allow you to store just one example of that data and where it repeats, instead of storing it all fully. This is extremely visible in H264 and H265 for video, where the first is easily 1% the size of the raw video data, and the second is easily 1/10th the size of that, since it can detect more patterns to compress.

            White noise means your mp3 is basically the size of the uncompressed data, instead of being 5-25% that size (stat from Wikipedia on compression ratio of mp3). This costs Spotify more for storage and streaming bandwidth.

            • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              It really doesn’t, not at all.

              The paychoacoustic models just do their best for the given Bitstream and it’s not true white noise, just the most audible parts, you end up with the lowest 30 Harmonics or so that it can find (random numbers have a lot of harmonics.

              Brain can’t tell, brain is dumb.

            • efstajas@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              White noise means your mp3 is basically the size of the uncompressed data

              You’re forgetting that mp3 is a very lossy compression algorithm that’ll happily discard much of the frequency spectrum, which in the case of white noise actually would be a pretty significant amount of data.

          • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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            1 year ago

            That’s only true for constant rate compression, not for variable bitrate compression

    • money_loo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I just ask my HomePod to do it.

      I guess that it might be streaming it?

      Which sorta highlights a large portion of the people doing it you’re likely missing: people who don’t even think about it.

      • smeeps@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        I assume the Siri and Google assistant white noise just download the 20 min file when you ask and just repeat that. Whereas an 8h podcast of a 20 minute repeated sound will use 8h of bandwidth

      • June@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I also find it strange that folks stream their white noise. I use a self contained app for that. No streaming necessary so even if I’m out of service I can still use it to sleep.

        • EighthLayer@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          We stream white noise through Spotify because it means it’ll be there on any device that’s Spotify works on. Phones, tablets, smart speakers, TVs, whatever.

        • EssentialCoffee@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          I used to use a self-contained app before I had a Spotify subscription.

          Now I have one less app on my phone as it’s no longer needed. If I really thought I’d need it out of service, I’d just download the playlist temporarily.

      • Matrim@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        We have a white noise machine for my son in his room, but having it handy via Spotify is nice for using it in the car.

    • Polydextrous@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Not to mention, Spotify is putting ads in white noise content? Kinda…destroys the entire concept, no?

      There is so much about this story that makes me hate modern society. How is more of this content still being created? Why are there ads? Spotify can destroy peoples livelihood on a whim?

      Although, I did find the part where someone with podcast “didn’t want to call attention to their show” pretty funny.

        • Polydextrous@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yeah, who says America doesn’t build stuff anymore?! Have you seen our premium content?!

          Lol like I said, modern society is a fuckin joke. At this point I’m rooting for climate change

    • Meho_Nohome@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I didn’t realize that you could stream it. There are tons of apps and downloads that you can use for it. I sleep to white noise cast to my TV from an MP4 that I have on my computer. It does seem like a huge waste of bandwidth.

      • Redditiscancer789@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You know I’d get the whole bandwidth argument IF PEOPLE WERENT PAYING FOR IT VIA THEIR SUB/ADS. Also every argument everyone has presented can be used for actual music too. You can buy the cd/mp3s and play them locally so PlAyInG iT oN sPoTiFy sEeMs lIke A wAsTE oF BaNdWiDtH

        • Meho_Nohome@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          You seem to not have the slightest understanding of what I was referring to. I’ll try to break it down into something easier to understand.

          Imagine that Spotify is a stream (a real stream of water, not an internet stream). To get to the ocean it has to pass through a concrete tunnel. There are millions of little fish that pass through that tunnel all the time. Suddenly several crocodiles decide that they want to pass through at the same time. The tunnel wasn’t designed for crocodiles. Sure, they can get through, but they fill the tunnel and the little fish get bunched up, slow down, and take longer to get to the other side. If you just gave the crocodiles a road to walk down that was over the tunnel, then they could get to the ocean without slowing down the little fish.

          For this analogy, the little fish are songs, the crocodiles are white noise, the tunnel is the internet stream, the road is an FTP server, and the slowing down of the stream is buffering and increased cost.

          You say you’re paying for bandwidth. You’re paying for access. Spotify is paying for the bandwidth, and it increases in cost the more it has to be increased in size to accommodate the service. If the company can reduce the demand on the bandwidth, then they can continue to offer the service without having to increase what you pay, while also using that savings to better their services.

          The biggest issue with streaming services right now is that they are realizing that what they are charging is not covering the expensive cost of the bandwidth they are using. That’s why most of them are increasing what they charge. If Spotify can find a away to eleviate that issue, then that’s a good business practice.

          • Redditiscancer789@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            No I quite understand how bandwidth works, you are paying for it because you’re paying Spotify lol, if Spotify get no monies from ads/subs they have no internet, they have no audio library, they have no technicians, they have no developers, your sub PAYS FOR ALL OF THAT. What even is this word salad of corporate boot licking nonsense? Especially in an age where fiber optics bandwidth is more than enough to push those itty bitty 1s and 0s through their lines to their customers.

            You’re literally trying to argue the same as when Comcast and Time Warner intentionally slowed Netflix and other video games because “bandwidth”. Here’s again the issue, you pay for your internet, you pay for Spotify, which pays for access AND their internet. If Spotify can’t survive then they should raise their prices not try to hide behind “bandwidth” when we ve been streaming god damn audio since the 90s on copper dial up.

            • Meho_Nohome@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              You’ve obviously never tried to stream multiple things from your own server. It’s not as simple as you make it sound. Why do you think nobody can compete with YouTube? It’s because the cost is so expensive to stream. You can post the same videos to an FTP server with no huge bandwidth issue, but streaming takes a lot more.

              Only people with a T1 line could stream in the 90s. Either you’re too young or you’ve forgotten that it wasn’t possible for 99% of people to stream until cable internet started being introduced in the early 2000s.

              • Redditiscancer789@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Lolololololol I’ve had 23 files playing from a Plex server before on my home network. YouTube level? Nope, but what the hell are you talking about? Dailymotion has existed for forever, twitch is a YouTube competitor and has existed forever. you also clearly have forgotten about midi files, those annoying instrumental songs that played on people’s websites? All the rage in the mid 90s. Before you try to condescend you should maybe actually know what you’re talking about.

                https://youtu.be/I0118mIUwkQ

    • Rhotisserie@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I usually only do it when I’m travelling and have to stay at a motel or something. At home I just have a box fan for white noise and air flow.

    • Trashcanman@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’m curious about this too. Maybe they are listening with headphones? I have no idea if they make them like this but it seems like an opportunity for white noise machine makers to just add Bluetooth and they would sell more. Maybe?

      • mindbleach@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        White noise is literally random numbers. Your machine can do it using approximately zero percent of its available resources.

        In a very real sense, any single transistor can do it, and computer engineering is an effort to keep them from doing it.

          • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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            1 year ago

            I’ve never had any of these problems personally. Not that I have anything against white noise machines but that’s why people see them as superfluous. They kind of are.

            But maybe if you have spotty internet that makes sense.

              • OldFartPhil@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                Sometimes I play rain/storm sounds I’ve downloaded from YouTube. Other times I use the iPhone white noise generator. I’ve set up 2 Siri shortcuts (one for sound on and one for sound off), but tapping the back sounds like a good way to do it, too.

              • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
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                1 year ago

                Wow you are right that is hidden. I have an iPhone and had no idea that was there. I’ll have to try it out.

      • jmp242@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        There are apps that can make white noise while using 0 network really. If I was Spotify I’d write a library into the app that detected white noise and stopped streaming, and just turned on the local generator in their app.

        • mindbleach@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’d have a Javascript one-liner producing white noise, except web audio is a Gordian knot of inscrutable identical-sounding types and contexts and maps and whateverthefuck. Documentation reads like they forgot to implement it and hoped nobody would notice.

          How do you generate noise? Well you need a sink. How do I get a sink? Well you need an event. How do you get an event? Well you need a processor. How do you get a processor? Well you need a context. How do you get a context? Well you need a node. How do you get a node? Well you need a sink. I’m going to stab you now. Understandable.

          • mindbleach@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Anyway it’s something like data:text/html,{script} ac = new AudioContext(); wn = ac.createScriptProcessor( 4096, 1, 1 ); wn.onaudioprocess = (e) => e.outputBuffer.getChannelData(0).forEach( (v,i,a) => a[i] = Math.random() ); wn.connect( ac.destination ); {/script} except with whatever dark wizardry makes output reach a speaker.

            Also I’m not sure .forEach works on whichever array-like type was chosen for audio channels. This stupid language has so many incompatible and incomplete array implementations.

            edit: And angle brackets on script and /script, because this stupid website fucked up its Markdown. Preventing random HTML strings in comments: excellent, necessary, obvious; it is not 1999 anymore. Doing so by deleting the entire goddamn thing as if you parsed it before removing it: DEEPLY TROUBLING.

    • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I do!

      Actually not white noise. I find it harsher than brown noise which is more soothing to my ears.

      I use Amazon Prime though. I used to just run an app which generated the noise on my phone. Except that my phone is right next to me on my nightstand. It was annoying because one ear would hear it much louder than the other. So I started using the built in background noises that Amazon offers on my Alexa device which was across the room from the bed.

      Now I agree with you that it seems like it’s a waste of bandwidth. But when I run it at night I’m not really using the internet for anything else. More importantly, if it was a problem for Amazon serving those noises, then let me install an app or something that would simply generate the noises. The mathematical formula to generate the noises with some sine waves is probably like a 1MB of data (if that) and I’d only need it once. But since I don’t think you can just install apps on Alexa devices then too bad for them. I’ll continue doing what I’m doing.

    • BlueMagma@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Edit: I read the article and it’s not the subject I thought it was. I thought it was about artist/band/podcast making silent tracks to put on repeat while you sleep to boost revenue for the artist

      Original comment: I don’t think they all want to listen to white noise, it’s a way to support whichever creator you want to support with your spotify subscription.