Non-profit · Web platform and iOS app
Earth.fm
A non-profit library of immersive nature sounds, recorded in the field all over the world and given away free, so that more people spend time listening to places worth protecting.
About the project
Earth.fm collects long-form field recordings, real places captured by named recordists rather than looped stock audio, and puts them on a map you can explore. Listeners filter by mood, duration, predominant sound, habitat and recordist, which makes the same library useful whether somebody arrives wanting to sleep, to focus, or to hear what a specific ecosystem sounds like.
Around the library sits the rest of a working non-profit: a submissions route so recordists can contribute, a podcast, a newsletter, and a donation flow that funds the running costs. The project treats attention as the point rather than the product, so there is no advertising and nothing is gated.
What we did
DPRR builds and runs Earth.fm end to end, on the web and on iOS, and keeps developing it as the library grows.
The work spans the recording library and its metadata model, the map-based browser and the filtering that sits on top of it, the audio player, the recordist submission route, and the donation flow that keeps the project funded.
- The recording library — Ingest, metadata and the taxonomy behind mood, habitat, duration and recordist.
- Map-based discovery — The geographic browser and the filtering layer over it.
- Playback — The long-form audio player across web and mobile, including background listening on iOS.
- Contribution and funding — The recordist submission route and the Stripe-backed donation flow.
- The iOS app — Shipped in July 2024 and still on a regular release cycle.
How it is built
The site is a Gatsby static build served from Netlify, with WordPress behind it as a headless content source and Stripe handling donations. Doing the heavy lifting at build time keeps the site fast and cheap to run, which matters for a non-profit paying its own hosting.
- Gatsby 5.16.1
- Static build on Netlify
- Headless WordPress for content
- Stripe for donations
- Native iOS app
The app
| Name | Nature Sounds : Earth FM |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Digital Partnership for Regeneration and Reconnection MTU |
| Current version | 1.16.0 |
| First released | 31 July 2024 |
| Last updated | 16 June 2026 |
| App Store rating | 4.9 from 29 ratings |
| Minimum OS | iOS 15.1 |
| Download size | 85 MB |
| Category | Music, Health & Fitness |
| Languages | English |
| Price | Free |
App Store details as published on 18 August 2026.
Where it stands
- 23.6KGoogle search clicks
- 2.69MSearch impressions
- 8.1Average position
Google Search Console, the three months to 14 August 2026. These count Google search only, so direct visits, referrals, social and email are all excluded, and the real total is higher than what is shown here.