Where youarelistening.to Gets Its Music and How to Buy It
Almost all of the music you hear on youarelistening.to is available on Bandcamp, and the site makes it easy to find and purchase: click the playlist icon next to any show to see the track names and purchase information. The site has been blending ambient music with live city sounds since 2011, so the music you're hearing is curated ambient work layered over feeds like LAX air traffic control, the shipping forecast, or Montreal fire department radio.
How the music is presented
Each show on youarelistening.to mixes two elements:
- Ambient music — the primary listening layer
- City and radio sounds — live or recorded feeds such as air traffic control, transit control, or public safety radio
Because the ambient tracks sit underneath the field recordings, identifying a song by ear is difficult. That's why the site attaches a playlist to each show rather than relying on you to recognize tracks in real time.
Finding track names and buying the music
The workflow is short:
- Open a show on youarelistening.to.
- Click the playlist icon next to that show.
- The playlist lists the track names along with purchase info.
- Almost all of that music is available from Bandcamp, where you can buy it directly.
Buying through Bandcamp is the path the site points to, and it's the way to support the artists whose ambient work makes each mix possible.
What you can listen to
The site's show list gives a sense of the range of sound sources paired with music. Examples from the site include:
| Show | Sound source |
|---|---|
| LAX Air Traffic Control | Airport tower radio |
| Shipping Forecast | Maritime weather broadcast |
| Painting with Bob Ross | Instructional TV audio |
| Montreal Fire Department | Emergency radio |
| Los Angeles PD | Police radio |
| Tokyo Haneda ATC | Airport tower radio |
| Maradona NTS Special | NTS Radio special |
| Toronto Transit Control | Transit operations radio |
The mix of ambient music with these feeds is the core of the project, and it has been running in this format since 2011.
Keeping up and listening back
The site is listener-supported. To get updates on new shows and to listen back to 150+ hours of archives, you can become a free or paid subscriber. There is a paid subscription option available through the site's subscription link. Updates and contact also run through Bluesky and Instagram.
If you want to go deeper than the live stream, the archive is the place to start — and the playlist icons remain the fastest route from "what is this track?" to buying it on Bandcamp.