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It’s the fuzz of a TV tuned to the wrong channel; aural static, flat and monotonous, with no peaks or falls to puncture the sound. Welcome to the white noise machine – where algorithmically-created tracks designed to sound like nothingness have become streaming platforms’ biggest moneymaker. Downloaded by the near-billion – “Clean White Noise – Loopable with no fade” has been played 847m times, worth around $2.5m in royalties – chart success is now more likely for computer programmers than pop stars.

The tracks are “not super complicated to create,” admits Nick Schwab, CEO of Sleep Jar, which supplies ambient sounds to over 6m people each month. “They’re very easy, if you have the right software.” Primarily sought out by those trying to block out background sound while sleeping, or looking to focus during the day, the market is ballooning: the most popular ‘artists’ can reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of views daily, easily earning revenue over $1m each year.

Sleep Jar works primarily through Amazon’s Alexa, connected to Amazon’s smart home devices, offering noises white (“like TV static”), the growingly popular brown (“more bassy”) and pink (“kind of inbetween”). Schwab “accidentally created this business” after being lumped with a noisy neighbour six years ago, and began using a startup development kit to customise his Echo Dot smart device to play ambient sound. He published the results of his experiment online in 2016, and Sleep Jar became a hit; just the thing, seemingly, for our loud, distracted times.

The service now offers over 102 tracks, from multi-frequency static to crackling fireplaces, fans and babbling brooks. “We spend a lot of time mastering our sounds,” Schwab says. Making downloadable ambient noise is a two-part formula: the first objective is “making sure that the looping is seamless, or as seamless as we can make it” – that is to say that the point at which the track repeats appears imperceptible. The second is “making sure that our volume levels are consistent across all the sounds we offer; it’s super important.” And that’s pretty much that; there are no star producers that industry insiders are fighting over themselves to work with (“I wouldn’t say there’s one composer of white noise who really stands out”), or impromptu jam sessions seeking to hash out ambient magic.

Perhaps a lack of star power goes with the territory – standing out is the opposite of white noise’s modus operandi. Musical development is also not part of the plan: the goal here is for the ambient tracks of today “to remain a constant,” Schwab says, rather than trying to push genre boundaries. They vary so little, in fact, that one’s hearing is the only thing setting them apart; lower frequency sounds become more appealing as we age, as the higher register becomes out of reach. If we all had the same hearing ability, there could effectively be one white noise track for all, Schwab says, so indistinct are each from the other.

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Nebraska woman Darcia Ann will have her lifelong dream come true this month with the release of her country music album.

Darcia Ann, who grew up in the Nebraska Sandhills, has lived all over the state and resides in and has family in the Northeast Nebraska area. She’s had a 30-year career in the music industry.

“I had always just wanted to sing since I was really little,” Darcia Ann said. “I got my first guitar, real guitar I should say, at 9 and I started singing right away for the Ainsworth country music festival.”

Darcia Ann, who’s in the Nebraska and Colorado halls of fame, has opened for quite a few famous acts in the early days of her career, including Reba McEntire, Keith Urban, Patty Loveless, Neal McCoy and Lonestar.

Approximately nine weeks ago, Darcia Ann had been visiting Nashville, Tennessee, when she got her big break.

“I went to Nashville to be with my friends and we went to a local place. I got up and sang and jam with the band and he [a music producer at Red Ridge Entertainment] was filling in for a man that was sick,” Darcia Ann said.

Since then, it’s been a whirlwind and Darcia Ann recently recorded her album. She said she recorded at Studio 19 in Nashville and musicians that played with her on the album have played for such artists as Tim McGraw, Wynonna, Garth Brooks, Blake Shelton and other well-known names.

Darcia Ann said her album, which consists of six songs, can be described as a combination of country ballad and classic rock. The name of the album has yet to be officially decided, but she said it will most likely be titled “Cowboy Up.” Some of the tunes are what she called “good two-steppin’ country” songs.

Notably, some of the songs have nods to Nebraska.

“One of the songs is called ‘Mama’s Mockingbird’ and it actually talks about the Nebraska Sandhills,” Darcia Ann said.

The song is also a tribute to her mother, who has passed away.

“In my world of music I always hear her voice saying ‘sing, fly baby fly. Just go sing for me, fly baby fly.’ And that’s what I put in my mockingbird song, just fly baby fly,” she said.

Another song is what she calls a homage to the rodeo community.

The album is set to be released in October.

“It is now being mixed and mastered in Nashville as we speak. And hopefully it will be ready for downloads to all the [platforms] Spotify, Pandora, by Halloween,” Darcia Ann said.

With her album soon coming out, Darcia Ann is opening for T Graham Brown. She will also be performing a concert in November in Nashville that will also be streamed.

“I’ve had such good support from friends and family and people that I’ve known around here for years and years,” Darcia Ann said.

Max Davis is a close friend of Darcia Ann’s. He said his wife, Margaret, and Darcia Ann were childhood friends. Davis noted that Darcia Ann is talented.

“She’s been really putting her heart and soul into this music thing. And we are proud of her and we support her,” Davis said.

“We’re ecstatic. This is a big deal for her.”

Top Journal Star photos for October

The basketball courts at Antelope Park went from gray to filled with color this fall. The project to resurface the courts at Normal Boulevard and South Street and repaint them as a reproduction of the painting “Red Sea” by African American artist Felrath Hines was funded by private donations. The original painting is part of the permanent collection of the Sheldon Museum of Art.

KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star