How to Use Your Mindspace Player is the official guide to the Mindspace orb player and the My Mindspace hub, sound wellbeing tools created by composer Rob Hulford for Mindspace (mindspace.music), a sound wellbeing platform. The player layers an ambient soundscape with an optional binaural beat, selectable nature sounds, and a separate coloured noise layer. Its controls are: main mix volume, binaural beat frequency and intensity, nature sound mixing with a level for each sound, coloured noise with its own volume and a mono/stereo toggle, a sleep timer, and a screen dimmer for listening in the dark. Users can save a player to favourites, group favourites and mixes into renamable playlists, save a mix of settings, and download audio to their device. My Mindspace is a dedicated page that plays back downloaded favourites, playlists and mixes with no internet connection at all, once it has been visited once while online. Binaural beats are widely searched for their association with focus and calm, restful listening states. Headphones are recommended, as the binaural layer relies on them.

Step 1 of 11

Meet Your Player

Everything happens inside one glowing orb. There is no menu to learn and nothing to set up — press play and the sound begins.

Underneath the orb you will see the track name and, below that, a short line telling you what the track is for. Along the bottom sits a small bar of icons. That bar is where all the controls live, and we will walk through every one of them.

Starting the sound

1. Press the round play button on the right of the icon bar.
2. The sound fades in gently over a couple of seconds. This is deliberate — nothing ever starts abruptly.
3. Press the same button again to pause.

Step 2 of 11

The Control Bar

The bar at the bottom of the orb holds six controls and a play button. Tap any icon and a small panel slides up. Tap the × in that panel, or tap somewhere else on the player, to close it again.

From left to right, here is what each one does:

• Music note — the main mix: the core soundscape volume
• Wavy line — the binaural beat layer
• Rain cloud — the nature sounds mixer, twenty-four sounds you can blend together
• Dotted grid — coloured noise, a separate layer of ten selectable colours
• Clock — the sleep timer
• Sun — screen brightness, for listening in the dark
• Play — start and pause

Step 3 of 11

The Soundscape — Music Note

This is the main mix: the core piece of music underneath everything else, composed for listening rather than for attention. It loops seamlessly, so it can run all night without a join or a gap.

Tap the music note and a vertical slider appears. Drag it up for louder, down for quieter. The number underneath shows the level as a percentage.

Turning it off completely

At the bottom of the same panel is a Mute drone button. Tap it and the music stops while everything else keeps playing. This is useful if you only want rain, coloured noise, or only the binaural layer, with no music underneath.

Step 4 of 11

Binaural Beats — Wavy Line

A binaural beat is made by playing a slightly different tone into each ear. Your ears receive two pitches; together they create a slow, gentle pulse. Binaural beats are widely searched for their association with focus and calm, restful listening states.

Before you start: switch off Spatial Audio

This one catches almost everybody, so it is worth two minutes.

Modern headphones — AirPods especially — often have Spatial Audio switched on by default. It is designed to make music feel like it is coming from around you rather than from inside your head, and for films and music it is lovely. For a binaural beat it is the one thing you must turn off.

The reason is simple. A binaural beat needs your left ear to hear only the left tone and your right ear only the right one. Spatial Audio deliberately blends a little of each side into the other to create its sense of space. The moment it does that, the two tones mix before they reach your ears and the slow pulse is weakened or lost altogether.

Head Tracking is worth turning off too. It moves the sound around as you move your head, which is the last thing you want when you are settling down and turning over in bed.

How to turn it off

On an iPhone or iPad, with your headphones connected: open Control Centre, press and hold the volume slider, then tap Spatial Audio and choose Off. You can also find it in Settings, under Bluetooth, by tapping the small i beside your headphones.

On an Android phone, the same feature goes by different names — look for Dolby Atmos, 360 Audio or 3D audio in your sound settings, or in the app that came with your headphones, and switch it off.

This layer starts switched off. Tap the wavy line to open it.

Choosing a frequency

At the top is a grid of choices, each showing a number in Hz and a band name. Lower numbers pulse more slowly. Tap one to select it — it lights up in its own colour, and the orb changes colour to match.

• 0.5 Hz · Delta — the slowest pulse of the set
• 1 Hz · Delta — the usual starting point
• 1.5 Hz · Delta
• 2 Hz · Delta — the quickest of the four

Delta-range settings are commonly associated in popular wellness culture with winding down and deep rest.

Choosing how strong it is

Beside the tall slider are four words. Tap a word, or drag the slider, to set how prominent the layer is:

• Low — barely there, sitting under the music
• Medium — noticeable but soft
• High — the default, clearly present
• Powerful — the strongest setting

Turning it off again

The button at the bottom of the panel switches the whole layer off. It also tells you which state it is in, so you are never guessing.

Step 5 of 11

Nature Sounds — Rain Cloud

This is where you build your own atmosphere. Rain, waves, rivers, night forests — there are twenty-four to choose from and you can layer as many as you like, each at its own level.

Finding your way around

They are grouped so you are not scrolling past everything to find one sound: Rain, Thunder, Forest sounds, Ocean, Rivers & streams and ASMR. Tap a name to bring it in, and the × beside it to take it out again.

Keeping the ones you use most

Every sound has a small heart beside it. Tap it and that sound also appears under My sounds at the top of the list, so your regulars are the first thing you see rather than something to hunt for.

It stays in its own group as well, so nothing moves around on you. And like your favourites and playlists, your chosen sounds follow you between devices.

Tap the rain cloud to open the list. Sounds are grouped so they are easy to find, with each group in its own colour.

Adding a sound

1. Tap a name in the list. It lights up in its group colour and starts playing.
2. A small slider appears directly underneath it. That slider controls only that sound.
3. Tap another name to add a second sound, and so on.

Removing a sound

Each sound that is playing has a small × on its right. Tap that to remove it. Tapping the name again will not switch it off — that is on purpose, so you cannot lose a mix you have carefully balanced with a stray tap.

The tall slider on the right

That one controls all your nature sounds together, without disturbing the balance you have set between them. Think of the small sliders as the recipe and the tall slider as the serving size.

Step 6 of 11

Coloured Noise — Dotted Grid

A separate, single-layer noise sound, distinct from the nature sounds mixer. Where nature sounds are individual recordings you layer together, coloured noise is one steady texture at a time — choose a colour, set its volume.

Tap the dotted grid icon to open it.

Choosing a colour

Ten colours are available — Orange, Red, Pink, Yellow, Blue, Green, Grey, White, Brown and Black — each with its own character, from brighter and more textured through to deep and enveloping. Tap a name to select it, or tap Off at the top to switch the layer off entirely.

Volume and Stereo

The slider on the right sets this layer's own volume, independently of everything else playing. Underneath it, a Stereo toggle switches the noise between a wide stereo spread and a single centred mono signal.

Step 7 of 11

Sleep Timer and Screen Brightness

The sleep timer — clock icon

Choose how long you want to listen and the player fades itself out and stops. Tap the clock and pick a length from the list. A small countdown appears in the corner of the orb so you can see how long is left. This timer belongs to this one track — My Mindspace has its own separate Session timer, covered in Step 9.

The ending is a slow fade, not an abrupt stop — the point is that it should not wake you.

Screen brightness — sun

A bright screen is the one thing that undoes a good bedtime routine. Tap the sun and a slider appears. Drag it down and the player darkens, right down to almost black.

The track name stays faintly readable rather than disappearing altogether, so if you half open your eyes at three in the morning you can still see what is playing. The control bar is left alone deliberately — nothing is more irritating than hunting for the pause button in the dark.

Can you lock your phone and keep listening?

Yes. Press play, lock your phone and put it down — the sound carries on, and your phone's own lock screen controls will pause and resume it. Nothing to switch on and nothing to set up.

Step 8 of 11

Favourites — The Heart

In the top right corner of every player is a heart. Tap it and a small menu opens with six choices. This is where you keep the players you want to come back to.

Add to Favourites

The first item. Tap it and the heart fills in red. Tap it again to remove. That is the whole thing — one tap to keep a player, one tap to let it go.

My Favourites

Opens your list. Every player you have hearted appears here, whichever player you opened the menu from — it is one shared list, not a list per player. Each row gives you three things:

• × on the left — remove it from your favourites
• The download arrow — save the audio to your device (Step 10)
• The blue play button — jump straight to that player

Add to Playlist and My Playlists

Playlists are for grouping. You might keep one called Bedtime, another called Focus. Tap Add to Playlist, then either pick an existing list or type a name and tap Create.

My Playlists shows them all. Tap a playlist name to open it up and see what is inside.

Renaming a playlist

Next to each playlist name in My Playlists is a small pencil. Tap it, type the new name, then press Return — or tap anywhere else on the screen to save it and close.

Deleting a playlist or a mix

Tap the × once and it turns a warning colour, asking you to confirm. Tap it a second time within a few seconds to actually delete it — tap anything else, or wait, and it quietly reverts, nothing lost. This safety step applies to deleting a whole playlist or a whole mix. Removing a single favourite from a list is instant, since it takes only a moment to heart it again if you change your mind.

Step 9 of 11

Using My Mindspace

My Mindspace is where your whole collection lives. Rather than opening each track's own page, you pick a source at the top, press play, and it works through everything you have saved.

The three tabs

These decide what plays, and each shows only its own collection — a saved mix will not appear under Favourites, and a hearted track will not appear under Mixes unless you have added it to a playlist.

• Favourites — every player you have hearted
• Playlists — choose one from the dropdown to play it
• Mixes — every combination you have saved

The transport

Repeat, previous, play, next and shuffle, exactly as you would expect. Press play and it works through whichever tab you have open, one item after another.

Session and Blend

These apply to the whole listening session rather than one track.

• Session — a sleep timer for everything, from 15 minutes to no limit. Separate from the per-track timer in Step 7.
• Blend — fades one track gently into the next instead of leaving a pause between them. On a computer you can switch this on; on phones and tablets it stays off, because holding two tracks ready at once is more than a phone will allow.

Between one track and the next

Each track fades out at its end and the next begins after a short pause of a few seconds. That pause is deliberate. These pieces are written to loop, so they are composed to run on rather than to finish — the fade gives each one an ending it would not otherwise have.

Step 10 of 11

Across Your Devices

Sign in on your phone, your laptop and your tablet, and the same favourites, playlists and mixes are waiting on each. You do not have to set anything up or press anything to make it happen.

But there is one important thing to understand, and it catches people out.

So a track you saved on your laptop will be listed on your tablet, but to play it there without internet you need to tap download again on the tablet. That is not a fault — music files are large, and browsers have no way to pass them between devices.

How changes are settled

The first time you sign in on a new device, anything already saved there is added to your collection rather than replacing it — so nothing is ever lost by starting to use a second phone or laptop.

After that, your most recent change is the one that sticks. If you rename a playlist on your phone and delete it on your laptop, whichever you did last is what you will see everywhere.

When changes appear

A few seconds after you make a change, not instantly. Your other devices pick it up when you next open the page or switch back to that tab. If a device has been sitting open and untouched, give it a refresh.

Step 11 of 11

Save a Mix and Listen Offline

Once you have built a combination you like — the music at the right level, a binaural setting chosen, two or three nature sounds balanced against each other, perhaps a little coloured noise underneath — you can keep it and bring it back with one tap.

Save This Mix

1. Build the mix you want.
2. Tap the heart, then Save This Mix.
3. Type a name — something you will recognise, like Rainy night.
4. Tap Save.

My Mixes

Opens everything you have saved. Under each name is a short summary of what is in it, so you can tell them apart at a glance. Tap the name and the player rebuilds that mix immediately — the right sounds on, at the right levels.

Adding a mix to a playlist

Next to each mix in My Mixes is a small +. Tap it to add that mix into one of your playlists, alongside your favourites. If you don't have a playlist yet, a name field is right there in the same panel — type one and it's created and the mix is added in a single step. Mixes can be added to any playlist you create, though not directly to Favourites itself, which is reserved for hearted players.

Saving the sound to your device

Every row in My Favourites, My Mixes and any playlist has a small download arrow on the right. Tap it and the music is copied onto the device you are using.

• Download arrow — not saved yet, tap to save
• Spinning circle — saving now
• Green tick — saved, and it will play with no signal

In My Mindspace there is also a Save all for offline listening button, which does the whole list in one go. Underneath, a line tells you how much is stored, so nothing happens behind your back.

Mindspace Offline — for when you have no signal at all

Mindspace Offline is a separate page that plays your saved music with no internet connection whatsoever — on a flight, on the Underground, or anywhere else you would normally lose your music entirely.

You will find it at mindspace.music/apps/mindspace/offline.html

It is a player and nothing more. There is no heart, no renaming, no deleting — it cannot change your collection, only play it.

Before you travel

1. Save what you want to hear, while you still have a connection. Use the download arrows, or Save all for offline listening.
2. Open Mindspace Offline once, while you are still connected. You do not need to play anything — simply opening it is what lets your device remember the page for later.
3. Add it to your home screen if you like. On an iPhone, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. Optional, but it makes your saved music noticeably more reliable and saves typing the address again.

How it tells you what it can play

A band across the page says which situation you are in, and the page behaves accordingly.

• Connected — you can still save more. Download arrows are there to tap.
• No connection — the arrows disappear, because tapping one could only fail. Anything with a green tick still plays as normal.

So whatever you can see, you can use. Nothing on that page will ask you to press something that cannot work.

Troubleshooting

If Something Looks Wrong

Almost everything odd has the same cause and the same fix: your browser is showing you a saved copy of an older version of the page. Try these in order.

1. Refresh properly

Not just a normal reload — a full one, which tells the browser to fetch everything fresh rather than reuse what it kept.

• Mac — hold Shift and press the reload button, or Cmd+Shift+R
• Windows — Ctrl+Shift+R
• iPhone or iPad — pull down on the page to refresh

This alone fixes most things.

2. If a saved track or mix looks wrong, or one you deleted is still there

Clear the stored data for Mindspace only. This does not touch anything else on your device, and it does not delete your collection — that lives on your account, and comes straight back when you sign in.

• iPhone or iPad — Settings, Safari, Advanced, Website Data, search for mindspace, swipe to remove
• Chrome — click the padlock in the address bar, then site settings, then delete data
• Safari on Mac — Safari menu, Settings, Privacy, Manage Website Data, search mindspace, remove

3. You cleared your browser data and everything looks gone

Nothing is lost, but there is an order to getting it back, and it catches people out.

1. Sign in first. Clearing your data signs you out, and while you are signed out the site cannot tell who you are — so your collection looks empty when it is not.
2. Your favourites, playlists and mixes come back on their own, a few seconds after you sign in. They live on your account, not on the device.
3. Your saved music does not come back. Those files were on the device and clearing the data removed them. Tap the download arrows again on whatever you want to listen to offline.

4. An old playlist came back after clearing your data

This is deliberate, and it settles by itself. When you clear your browser data, your device forgets it has been here before — so the next time it connects, Mindspace treats it as a brand new device and adds what is on it to your collection rather than replacing it. That protects you when you sign in on a new phone that already has saves on it. The side effect is that anything still lingering on a freshly cleared device comes back once. Open the page again a moment later and everything will be as it should be.

5. A change on one device is not showing on another

Refresh the second device. Changes take a few seconds to travel and appear when a page is opened or returned to, not while it sits idle. If a tab has been open and untouched for a while, it will not know anything has changed until you refresh it.

6. No sound, or the orb sits there loading

The first play of a track has to fetch the music before it can start, which can take a few seconds on a slow connection — longer on a phone. If it never starts at all, refresh as above.

If you can see the orb moving but hear nothing, check your device is not muted and that the volume control in the player itself is up.

7. Nothing plays with no signal

Two things are needed, and both must happen while you still have a signal: save what you want with the download arrows, and open Mindspace Offline once. Step 11 covers this in full. If the arrows are missing from the offline page, that is because you have no connection — they come back when you do.

Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Do my favourites sync between my phone and my laptop?

Yes. Your favourites, playlists and saved mixes follow you between devices automatically once you are signed in. The downloaded music files do not travel — those stay on whichever device you downloaded them to, and need downloading again on each device you want to listen offline on.

Why is a track listed on my tablet but will not play offline?

Because the list travels between devices and the audio does not. The track is in your collection, but the music file has not been downloaded onto that particular tablet yet. Open the item and tap the download arrow on that device, and it will then play with no connection.

What happens if I change something on two devices at once?

The most recent change is the one that is kept. If you rename a playlist on your phone and delete the same playlist on your laptop, whichever you did last is what you will see everywhere once both devices have refreshed.

Will I lose anything when I sign in on a new device?

No. The first time you sign in somewhere new, anything already saved on that device is added to your collection rather than replacing it. Nothing is removed by starting to use a second phone, tablet or computer.

How do I listen with no internet connection at all?

Two things are needed, and both must be done while you still have a signal. Save what you want with the download arrows, then open the Mindspace Offline page once. That single visit is what lets your device remember the page for later. After that it will open with no connection at all.

Why did my downloads disappear on my iPhone?

Apple's system can clear stored website data if you have not opened a site for roughly a week, to reclaim space. Your favourites, playlists and mixes are unaffected because those live on your account, but the saved music may need downloading again. Opening Mindspace every so often prevents it.

What is the difference between a favourite and a saved mix?

A favourite is a whole player you want to return to. A saved mix remembers one exact combination you built — which sounds were on, at what levels, and which binaural setting — so you can rebuild that precise arrangement with one tap.

Why can I not delete a playlist from My Mindspace?

My Mindspace is for listening. Renaming, deleting and organising all happen in the heart menu on any player page, under My Playlists. Keeping the controls that remove things in one place makes them harder to press by accident.

Do binaural beats work through speakers?

No. A binaural beat depends on each ear receiving a slightly different tone, so headphones are essential. On speakers the two tones blend in the air before reaching you and the effect is lost. Spatial Audio, Head Tracking and Mono Audio must also be switched off, as each blends the channels together.

What is coloured noise for?

Coloured noise is a steady background texture, offered in ten colours from bright to deep. It is widely used in popular wellness culture to mask household or street sound while falling asleep. It sits underneath the music as a separate layer with its own volume.

How many nature sounds can I layer at once?

There are twenty-four, and you can layer as many as you like, each with its own level. A group slider raises or lowers all of them together without disturbing the balance you have set between them.

Why does a track take a few seconds to start the first time?

Each track is built from six separate instrument parts that play in exact time with each other. The first play has to fetch and prepare those before it can begin. Once prepared, starting again is quick.

Can I keep listening when my phone screen locks?

Yes. Press play, lock your phone and put it down — the sound carries on, and your phone's own lock screen controls will pause and resume it. There is nothing to switch on and nothing to set up.

Why does it stop as soon as I lock my iPhone?

The most common reason is Private Browsing. Apple blocks background audio in Private tabs entirely, so nothing will keep playing there whatever settings you use. Open the page in an ordinary Safari tab and it will carry on normally.

How many nature sounds are there and can I save my favourites?

Twenty-four, grouped as Rain, Thunder, Forest sounds, Ocean, Rivers and streams, and ASMR. You can layer as many as you like at once. Tapping the small heart beside a sound adds it to My sounds at the top of the list, and those choices follow you between your devices.

Does downloading a track make it play faster or sound better?

No. Downloading is only for listening without a connection. The work your device does to play a track is the same whether the file came from the internet or from your own device, so downloading everything will not speed anything up.

How do I dim the screen for listening at night?

Tap the sun in the control bar and drag the slider down. The player darkens while the track name stays faintly readable and the controls stay visible. This dims the player itself, separately from your device's own brightness setting.

I cleared my browser data — how do I get everything back?

Sign in first, because while you are signed out the site cannot tell who you are and your collection will look empty. Your favourites, playlists and mixes then come back on their own within a few seconds. Your saved music does not: those files were on the device, so tap the download arrows again on anything you want to hear offline.

Why have the download arrows disappeared on Mindspace Offline?

Because you have no connection. Downloading needs one, so the arrows are hidden rather than offered as something that could only fail. Anything already saved still shows a green tick and plays as normal. The arrows come back as soon as you are connected again.

Can I delete or rename a playlist on Mindspace Offline?

No. Mindspace Offline is a player and nothing else — it cannot change your collection, only play it. Renaming, deleting and organising all happen in the heart menu on any player page.