How youarelistening.to Is Supported and Where It Has Been Featured
youarelistening.to is a listener-supported project that has been blending ambient music with live city sounds since 2011. Its funding comes from subscribers rather than advertising, and its media recognition includes 99% Invisible, Boing Boing, BBC, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. It has also aired monthly on NTS Radio since 2015.
How the Site Is Supported
The site describes itself as listener-supported. That means its continued operation depends on its audience rather than on ads or a parent company.
You can support it by becoming a subscriber. Two options are mentioned:
- Free subscriber — receive updates on new shows.
- Paid subscriber — receive updates and access to archives of more than 150 hours of past shows.
Paid subscriptions are handled through Buttondown, at https://buttondown.com/youarelisteningto/buy. The site does not state a price on the page, so check the Buttondown page for current terms before subscribing.
Subscribing also serves a practical purpose beyond support: the archive access tied to paid subscriptions is the stated way to listen back to past shows.
Where It Has Been Featured
The site lists the following outlets and programs as places it has been "seen and heard":
| Outlet | Type |
|---|---|
| 99% Invisible | Podcast |
| Boing Boing | Blog / publication |
| BBC | Broadcaster |
| The Atlantic | Publication |
| The New York Times | Newspaper |
| NTS Radio | Radio station (monthly since 2015) |
The NTS Radio entry is the most specific: the site says it has been playing there monthly since 2015, which makes it an ongoing broadcast presence rather than a one-time mention.
Staying in Touch and Finding the Music
For updates beyond the subscription, the site points to Bluesky and Instagram.
Almost all of the music played on the site is available from Bandcamp. Each show has playlist icons next to it; clicking those reveals track names and purchase information, so you can go from a broadcast to buying the music directly.
What This Means If You're Deciding Whether to Subscribe
- If you only want to know when new shows appear, the free subscription tier covers that.
- If you want to listen back to the archive — described as 150+ hours — the paid tier is the route the site offers.
- If your main interest is the music itself, you don't need a subscription to identify or buy tracks; the Bandcamp links are exposed per show through the playlist icons.
Because pricing is not published on the main page, treat the Buttondown link as the place to confirm cost and terms rather than assuming any particular amount.