Ever wonder how those 10-hour rain videos are made? Many ‘chill’ YouTube channels are automated. Let’s explore if that matters.

You know those YouTube channels. The ones you put on when you need to focus, relax, or just fill the silence. Maybe it’s a 10-hour loop of gentle rain on a tin roof, a non-stop stream of lo-fi beats with a looping anime character, or just a crackling fireplace.

They’re the perfect background noise for modern life. I use them all the time. I always pictured a dedicated creator behind them—someone who loves ambient sounds, records the rain, or curates the perfect, chill playlist.

But I recently fell down a rabbit hole that made me rethink everything. It turns out, a huge number of these channels aren’t run by a person in the traditional sense. They’re automated.

The Ghost in the Machine

So, what does that even mean?

It means a person might set up a system, but a script or a bot does most of the heavy lifting. These programs can automatically:

• Find royalty-free or public domain audio clips (like rain, café sounds, or simple melodies).
• Pair them with a simple, looping visual—a static image, a basic animation, or a stock video clip.
• Render it all into a super long video (think 8, 10, or even 12 hours).
• Even upload it to YouTube with a pre-written title and description.

One person can potentially generate hundreds of these videos with minimal effort. It’s a content factory, churning out endless streams of “chill.” The goal isn’t necessarily artistic expression; it’s to capture search terms like “rain sounds for sleeping” or “music for studying.” It’s a volume game.

When I first learned this, I felt a little weird. It was like finding out your favorite cozy café is actually a chain restaurant run by a giant corporation. The coffee tastes the same, but the feeling is a little different.

But Does It Really Matter?

I’ve been wrestling with this question. If the entire point of a video is to help me relax or focus, does it matter if it was made by a human or a script?

On one hand, probably not. The rain still sounds like rain. The crackling fire is still cozy. The video delivers on its promise, and I get the benefit. It’s pure utility. If the end product is good, who cares about the process? It’s just a tool I’m using to change my environment.

On the other hand, it feels… different. There’s an unspoken bond we have with creators. We appreciate the time, effort, and intention they put into their work. Finding out that the “creator” is an algorithm feels a little hollow. It shifts the content from being a piece of art, however simple, to being just a product. There’s no story behind it, no person on the other end.

It removes the human element from something we use for a very human purpose—to feel calm, safe, or focused.

A New Kind of Creator

This isn’t just about rain videos. It’s a peek into the future of all content. AI and automation are becoming powerful tools. We’re seeing it with AI-generated art, articles written by algorithms, and music composed by machines.

And maybe that’s okay. Maybe this is just the next evolution of creativity.

Perhaps the “creator” isn’t the one painstakingly animating every frame, but the one clever enough to design the system that does it. It lowers the barrier to entry. You don’t need to be a musician or a video editor to create a channel that helps people. You just need a good idea and the right tools.

I’m still not sure where I land. I’ll probably still put on a 10-hour thunderstorm video to fall asleep. But I’ll look at it differently. I’ll see it less as a handmade craft and more as a clever piece of engineering.

The magic is a little different, but maybe it’s still there.

What do you think? Does knowing your favorite ambient channel is automated change how you feel about it? Does the authenticity of the creator matter when it comes to background noise? It’s a strange new world, and I’m curious to know how other people feel about it.