Questions about Background Noises

Background Noises is a background sound app for iPhone, iPad and Android, with a web player at bgnoises.com, made by Third Space LLC: eight music stations, four nature sounds, four noise colors and 10 frequency tones, with no voiceovers, guided sessions or ads. Free plays a 60-second sample of everything; Premium, $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year on the web, plays it all for hours, with a sleep timer. On a phone's home screen it is called BG Noise.

Third Space LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company, which made it. Background Noises plays music and sound streamed by eleMusic, a separate service. eleMusic Inc. runs that service for Third Space, which is why the site says Powered by eleMusic. About Background Noises.

In the web player at bgnoises.com, and in the apps for iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets. Your account and plan work in all of them. About the apps.

Yes. Free plays a 60-second sample of everything and needs no card.

No. In the web player and the apps you can start without one. To keep a plan on each of your devices, sign in with Apple, Google or an email address and password.

Music (eight instrumental stations: Calm, Ambient, Soft Piano, Classical, Acoustic Guitar, Light Jazz, Tropical and Elevator Music), Nature (River, Rain, Fire and Forest), Noise (Brown Noise, Grey Noise, Pink Noise and White Noise) and Tones (10 tones from 174 Hz to 963 Hz). Every sound, explained.

Yes, four: River, Rain, Fire and Forest. River, Rain and Fire are steady textures; Forest is distant birdsong with quiet pauses between calls. On Premium they play for hours. Rain, River and Forest have their own pages.

Yes: eight stations of instrumental music, Calm, Ambient, Soft Piano, Classical, Acoustic Guitar, Light Jazz, Tropical and Elevator Music, with no vocals and no ads. A station plays one track after another, for hours without repeating on Premium. What each station sounds like.

Binaural beats, the journeys and the Beat Builder are paused for now. The nearest sound is a steady tone under Tones, which plays on a speaker as well as headphones. Binaural beats.

They are not part of Background Noises any more. Nature now has River, Rain, Fire and Forest, and Music has eight stations, one of them called Ambient. What comes closest to the ocean and to thunder.

On Premium, a noise color or a tone plays for up to 12 hours, and a station keeps going, one track after another. The sleep timer stops it after 15, 30 or 45 minutes, or 1, 1.5, 2, 4 or 8 hours. Free plays the 60-second sample.

A set of nine tones from 174 to 963 Hz with traditional meanings attached. Background Noises plays all nine plus 432 Hz as steady tones, named by their pitch only. The 10 tones.

No. Noise colors, tones, music and nature play on headphones or a speaker.

About 60 MB an hour while a sound streams, on Wi-Fi or mobile data.

Free costs nothing. Premium, the one paid plan, is $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year on the web. In the apps, the App Store or Google Play sets the price in your currency and shows it before you buy. In the App Store, the paid plan may also be listed as Essentials; every Essentials plan includes everything Premium does. Plans and prices.

Premium plays the eight music and four nature stations, the noise colors and the tones, for hours. There are no credits and no packs.

A new web plan starts with a 7-day free trial, once per account, and a card is required. Nothing is due at checkout. Unless you cancel before the trial ends, the card is charged the plan price when it ends.

Background Noises no longer uses credits. Credits you bought before and had not used are kept on your account, where they cannot be spent. We refund the ones bought on the web or on Google Play on request; for ones bought in the App Store, Apple decides refunds, so ask Apple. To ask us for one, write to joshua@thirdspaced.com from the email address on your account.

If you already pay for Essentials, you keep the price you pay, and your plan now includes everything Premium does. If you subscribed before.

For a web plan, yes: open Manage billing in the web player to move between monthly and yearly billing. The change may be prorated, as Manage billing shows before you confirm. For a plan bought in an app, change it in your Apple or Google subscription settings.

Yes, when you sign in to the web player with the same account. A web plan works in the apps the same way.

Cancel anytime in the App Store, in Google Play or on the web. On the web, use Manage billing in the web player, or write to joshua@thirdspaced.com; cancelling takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for. For a plan bought in an app, use your Apple Account or Google Play subscription settings.

Your account and the ways you sign in, any plan you pay for, whether the earlier service recorded you as agreeing to marketing email (its terms counted creating an account as agreeing) and the credits you bought and had not used (kept on your account, and refunded on request; in the App Store, Apple decides) carried over. The copy also brought along your saved Beat Builder presets, which stay with your account although nothing uses them while the Beat Builder is paused; and the credits you did not buy, which cannot be used. The tracks you made in the old app were not copied. You may need to sign in once.

Background Noises is a product of Third Space LLC. Web plans are sold by Third Space LLC, so receipts and invoices carry its name. On card statements, web plan charges read BACKGROUND NOISES, except the first charge after a trial, which reads BACKGROUND* TRIAL OVER.

In the web player, choose Download my data in Settings. Or write to privacy@thirdspaced.com from the email address on your account and we will send it. The Privacy Policy explains what we keep.

In Settings, the gear on the main screen of the app or the web player, or by email. Delete your account lists the steps and what is removed.

Background Noises is not a medical device. Its sounds are for general listening and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or medical condition.

No. The updated apps read nothing from Apple Health or any other health app, and write nothing to it. Until an iPhone or iPad install takes the latest update, the earlier version may still write your listening sessions to Apple Health as mindful minutes, if you allowed it. If you let an earlier version of the iPhone and iPad app use Apple Health, the Health app may still list that access; the updated app does not use it, and you can remove it in the Health app's settings.

No ads and no advertising trackers. The Privacy Policy lists what we collect and why.

Each category says how it is made: Music: Original, generated and mastered by eleMusic; Nature: Assembled and mastered by eleMusic from generated sound effects; Noise: Synthesized by eleMusic; Tones: Synthesized by eleMusic. Synthesized means calculated by eleMusic's signal processing software from mathematical signals, the way a synthesizer makes a tone. Generated means made with generative AI models, including models from third parties, then selected, checked and mastered by eleMusic. Binaural beats, the journeys and the Beat Builder are paused for now. Where a category is generated with AI models, this answer, How the sound is made and the Terms of Service say so in plain words, and we never describe that audio as made by people. How the sound is made.