Pink noise has relatively less high-frequency energy than white noise, giving it a softer, fuller hiss. Unlike music, it has no tune or lyrics to draw your attention. The live pink-noise option in love.fm is low-passed at around four kilohertz to take some brightness out of the sound; it is a listening choice, not a scientifically optimized formula.
Some listeners prefer a steady sound while doing repetitive work or reading in a noisy room. A 2024 meta-analysis found a small benefit from white or pink noise on attention tasks in people with ADHD or attention difficulties, and a small negative effect in people without them. Importantly, twelve included studies used white noise and only one used pink noise. That is not strong evidence for a special pink-noise advantage.
Most participants were children, and laboratory tasks are not the same as studying all afternoon. Try a low volume and judge whether you feel less distracted, rather than expecting the sound to improve performance. Silence may work better. If you use it while resting, remember that evidence for continuous noise as a sleep aid is weak and mixed. Follow our research link for sources, caveats, and a clearer separation between pleasant sound and proven benefit.
What the research says: sources and caveats