--- title: "Spotify Annoyed by People Uploading Hours of White Noise" description: "White noise podcasts have found a huge footing on Spotify, amounting to tens of millions of dollars in lost profit." date: "2023-08-18" modified: "2023-08-18" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/spotify-white-noise" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "podcasts" - "spotify" - "the digest" - "white noise" --- # Spotify Annoyed by People Uploading Hours of White Noise ![White noise podcasts have found a huge footing on Spotify, amounting to tens of millions of dollars in lost profit.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Sssshhhh A peculiar type of podcast has found a huge footing on Spotify, amounting to what the platform says totals tens of millions of dollars in lost profit: entire episodes of white noise, seemingly aimed at listeners who are asleep. Some podcasters are making [as much as $18,000 a month]() through ads placed in these episodes of crashing waves or recordings of fans blowing air, [*Bloomberg* reports](). And Spotify recently got wind — if you will — of the trend. According to an internal document obtained by *Bloomberg*, white noise and ambient podcasts are adding up to a stunning 3 million daily consumption hours on the music platform — leading Spotify to wonder if there's a way to direct listeners in a more profitable direction. ## Ambient Noise The problem is that white noise isn't very profitable. Spotify makes the most money by pushing customers to its paid music subscriptions, an important revenue stream for a company that [relies on razor-thin margins](). And the pressure is on, with its ratio of paid-to-free listeners [in free fall](), according to the company's Q1 earning report. Once Spotify started spending time making sense of the data, it concluded that shifting users away from white noise programming could net the company an additional $38 million in profit, according to document obtained by *Bloomberg*. "The proposal in question did not come to fruition — we continue to have white noise podcasts on our platform," a spokesperson told *Bloomberg*. Meanwhile, users have noticed how some of their white noise podcasts have mysteriously vanished. One white noise podcaster also told *Bloomberg* that some of his episodes have disappeared without warning. Apart from a flood of white noise, Spotify has also been dealing with a tsunami of AI-generated music, sometimes with bots [artificially inflating its listener count](). White noise has already stirred considerable controversy in the music industry. Execs at major record labels have complained that tracks by reputable artists are being assigned the same value as those uploading just noise. "It can’t be that an Ed Sheeran stream is worth exactly the same as a stream of rain falling on the roof," Warner Music Group CEO, Robert Kyncl [told *Music Business Worldwide*]() earlier this year. **More on Spotify:** *[Spotify Busts Network of Bots Listening to Bot-Generated Music]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()