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Background Noises Made With Love

If the Internet were a busy town, myNoise would be its quiet public park. People come here to sit and relax. Unlike a city park though, there is no public funding: this friendly website is entirely supported by people like you!

Help me cover the costs of myNoise and in return, you will receive a lifetime all-access membership to this website.

Scratch my back, and I'll keep scratching yours!

Nowadays, more and more services are available with a subscription only. Not on myNoise: if a monthly subscription is not suitable for you, a onetime donation is amazing too. Every donation is rewarded with a lifetime privileged access to this website*.

Recurring $5 /month
One time $10 ... $30

Monthly donations help me create a predictable income and make it easier to figure out the expenses I can afford in the long term. Recurring donations reduce my stress, but shouldn't increase yours: you can stop donating at any point in time, and keep your privileged access forever.

Privileges are:

 • access to all generators • for the free visitor, the main index page only lists a selection of our best sounds
 • instant access to the myNoise community page, offering you a lot - A LOT - of new sound combinations!
 • Animation Control, Slider Randomizations and Tape Speed Control on each sound generator page
 • guided meditations in the Meditation Room
 • the Super Generators and their ability to play multiple sounds simultaneously or sequentially
 • the Magic Generators and their ability to surprise you, always
 • the ability to tag your favorites generators on the index page
 • the ability to post, vote and comment on the myNoise community page
 • the fallback network, should you have problems accessing the website from our Content Delivery Network
 • cloud storage (transfer your settings from one computer to another)
 • multiple calibration curves (via cloud storage)
 • mp3 downloads • the actual number of downloads allowed will depend on your donation level
 • a free token to The White Noise Playlist
 • a free access to Calmy Leon
 • an access to our private discussion board on Slack • for monthly donors only
 • easter eggs and undocumented surprises...

*Lifetime privileged access is granted to the website only. Mobile apps are managed independently and do not make part of your website membership.

A word from the creator of myNoise

Stephane PigeonHello, my name is Stéphane Pigeon, the creator of myNoise and the only person behind this website. I'm the one recording the sounds, creating the soundscapes, coding the audio engine, developing the website, and answering your emails when you seek support. I put a lot of effort into bringing you this amazing online sound experience, and work hard to create sounds that can help you live better.

Maintaining this resource is expensive. Not only because delivering sounds in high quality audio uses considerable bandwidth that I am charged for, but mostly because recording and producing these sounds, as well as maintaining the website, comes at a high cost.

People often tell me that I should charge for the use of this website, but my vision has always been to make it free and accessible to everyone. This is why I opted for the donation model. Not only does my revenue come from the satisfied customers I have helped — which is rewarding — but everyone contributes to their own wealth; something very dear to me in this world of increasing inequalities.

The problem is that few people donate. About half of half of a percent of my visitors. I guess people don't know how the site operates. So, if you enjoy myNoise and you would like to help me, please become one of the amazing people who contribute to keep it up and running. It can be one-time or a recurring donation. Every donation is rewarded with lots of lifetime bonuses and you will have my everlasting gratitude.


Recording a subterranean river, 100 ft. below the surface in Slovenia. More pictures here.

Costs Breakdown

Hosting costs are the first expenses that come to mind for a website. Contents are served from a Content Delivery Network (CDN) with servers located all over the world. myNoise handles around 12M pageviews per year and transfers the equivalent of 120TB of audio files. The annual expense is around $6,000.

Carbon footprint compensation directly relates to the amount of traffic driven by the website too. myNoise plants 6,000 trees per year at a cost of $1,750.

Among all expenses, human labor is definitely the highest. Running myNoise is not something I can do in my spare time anymore. Taking care of this website, its coding, sound design and user support need to be viable; otherwise, I will have to find a job elsewhere. I am an electrical engineer, with a PhD in signal processing. In a former life, I worked as a research engineer for the Belgian Defense. In the US, the average salary range for such a position with 25 years of experience, would be around $120,000 per year (gross value). I don't need to earn that much with myNoise! Half of that amount seems a decent wage to me, covering my family of five needs. Note: I am living in Belgium, a country famous for its beer, chocolate and... tax levels! Among OCDE countries, Belgium has the highest tax wedge at 51.5% in 2020: divide by two to convert gross amounts to net.

And then, there are some other necessary costs, like the purchase or replacement of equipment that is essential to the project : computers, audio recorders, microphones, licensing fees, etc. This budget is mostly used for maintaining the equipment I already own. Around $5,000 per year.

All summed up, the operating cost of myNoise is $72,000 /year, or $6,000 /month.

Drop Cache When donations exceed this level, I can envisage extras. I enjoy planning sampling sessions abroad once or twice a year. Extras allow me to purchase new equipment too. They might not be essential to the normal operation of myNoise but contribute to the variety and quality of sounds offered by the website.

Drop cache recordings are a good example of what extras allow me to do. Would I leave a recorder and microphones unattended outside for a day, in varied weather conditions, to record natural sounds if this was the only piece of kit I own? Probably not. However, if can financially cover the possible lost of that equipment, then yes, I will take the risk of a potential damage to have a chance of recording unique sounds.

I am a perfectionist. Working with the right tools is something makes me happier at work. When support exceeds the vital needs of this project, I can upgrade my working environment and deliver a better job.