how it works

the other ear is an internet radio station for the weird, rare, and beautiful. we dig through archives — field recordings from 1947, cold war number stations, extinct language recordings, sounds from space — and play them alongside live radio from stations who share our sensibility.

no algorithm. no recommendations engine. no tracking. just human-curated strangeness, served at random.

five tabs at the top of the homepage. click one to start listening immediately.

click a station tab to start playing. click the play button in the bottom bar to pause/resume. skip goes to the next track.

your ear code is a short anonymous key like toe-7k3m. it's generated automatically on your first visit. no account, no email, no password.

your ear code remembers your custom stations and personal collection. write it down. type it on another device to restore your data.

you can also type someone else's ear code to load their public collection as a "cassette" — their items appear alongside yours for the session.

a set is a sequence of audio URLs — your personal playlist. go to /sets, paste audio URLs, name your set, and publish. each set gets its own toe-rag code that anyone can use to listen.

visibility: unlisted (only you), shared (with passphrase), or public (anyone can find it).

found something weird? submit it at /petitions. other listeners vote on submissions. the most-voted content gets added to the station.

you can submit: audio sources, DJ sets, images, media links, image collections, and media collections.

social experiments at /labs. 32 experiments across 8 categories — from collaborative noise-making to surrealist playlist games to 30-second confessions that self-destruct.

click any experiment card to open its sandbox. some are interactive now, others are concepts waiting for enough votes.

the room is where you see who's listening. dots on a dark field. no names, no profiles. just presence. your dot brightens the longer you stay.

the room is also the only way to reach the manifesto.

the desktop app adds audiophile-grade DSP, P2P broadcasting, local library scanning, and a 4-channel DJ mixer. download links at /player.

for the headless audio engine, server installs, and developer tools, see /download.

when you broadcast from the app, anyone can tune in using your ear code — from the website or from their own app.

no accounts. no tracking. no ads. no algorithm. no social graph. no likes. no comments. no followers.

just sound. just presence. just an ear code and whatever you discover.

if you can describe us, we have failed.

we're working on making T.O.E. accessible to everyone — screen reader support, keyboard navigation, reduced motion, high contrast, and alternative navigation for different needs.

if you have difficulty using the site, use the feedback form. accessibility issues are prioritized.

use your browser's built-in zoom (Ctrl/Cmd +/-) to adjust text size. the site uses the prefers-reduced-motion media query to respect your system settings.