Quiet Planet

What Quiet Planet does

Quiet Planet is a Washington State-registered provider of professional nature sound libraries, operating as Quiet Planet LLC from Port Townsend. The company sells 17 habitat-specific sound collections recorded over more than three decades by Emmy Award-winning acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton across six continents. Its catalog contains over 7,500 unprocessed field recordings delivered as 24-bit/48kHz WAV files with embedded SoundMiner-compatible metadata covering species identification, geographic location, event descriptions, and usage guidance. Recording is performed with high-end equipment from DPA, Neumann, Sennheiser, Sound Devices, Gitzo, and Domke, and includes binaural capture using a Neumann KU-81i mannequin head system for immersive 3D audio.

The company serves professional media producers across multiple verticals, including film and television production, video game development, museum exhibits, music production, radio and podcasts, mobile wellness applications, websites and installations, and online publications. Named enterprise references include documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and the Smithsonian Institution. Individual sound library collections are priced at $199 under a one-time, perpetual, royalty-free license for single users. Multi-user business, academic, and museum licenses are sold via direct email contact at custom pricing.

The go-to-market motion is predominantly product-led and self-serve through quietplanet.com, with payment processing handled by PayPal and digital file delivery hosted on Amazon S3. Customer acquisition relies on detailed product pages with audio previews and PDF documentation, an email newsletter offering a 10% first-order discount, organic search, and earned media through professional testimonials. Quiet Planet is a closely-held founder-owned business with no external funding, no reported employees, and Gordon Hempton maintaining operational control.

Name

Quiet Planet

Legal name

Quiet Planet LLC

Website

https://quietplanet.com

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Quiet Planet sells 17 habitat-specific nature sound library collections recorded over 30+ years by Emmy-winning acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton, serving film, TV, gaming, museum, and wellness audio producers via direct e-commerce.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Sound Effects Libraries

NAICS

Sound Recording Industries (5122)

akta.pro primary industry

Sample Libraries, Loops & Sound Content Platforms (MPAIAIAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Sample Library & Sound Design Creation (for production use) (MPAIAHAM)

Keywords

• Nature sound libraries
• Field recordings
• Audio post production
• Sound effects licensing
• Geophony recordings

Headquarters

HQ city

Port Townsend

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Individual License Sales: One-time purchase of digital nature sound libraries for single user. Customer receives lifetime license to use recordings in commercial productions with additional audio elements. Sold via website checkout with PayPal payment processing and instant digital download access.
2. Multi-User Business Licenses: Licenses for businesses and organizations with multiple users. Requires direct contact with sales team for pricing and terms. Covers corporations, partnerships, and business entities.
3. Academic Licenses: Specialized license for academic institutions for faculty and student use in educational projects.
4. Museum Licenses: License for natural history museums and business entities producing audio programs consisting substantially of nature audio without music or voice.
5. USB Drive Sales: Physical USB drive option for large collections, providing backup media alongside digital downloads.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Quiet Planet sells professional nature sound libraries consisting of thousands of field-recorded audio files organized into 17 themed collections (e.g., deserts, oceans, jungles, thunderstorms). The libraries are sold as digital downloads or USB drives for use by sound designers, filmmakers, game developers, and museums, with custom licensing available for business use.

Product overview

Quiet Planet is a provider of award-winning nature sound libraries for professional use. The company offers a portfolio of 17 distinct sound library collections recorded by acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton across three decades of field work. Each recording is captured in the field, preserving full dynamic range and spatial depth of real natural environments. The products include habitat-specific collections such as Tropical Forests, Waves, Thunder & Rain, Quietudes, Flowing Water, Hawaii, Deserts, Wetlands, Prairies, Coniferous Forests, Riparian Zones, Deciduous Forests, Ocean Shores, Upwellings, Winds, and Canyons, plus the comprehensive Essentials collection. All recordings are delivered as 24-bit/48kHz WAV files with SoundMiner-compatible metadata. The company provides individual licenses for single users and offers multi-user, academic, and museum licenses for organizations. Recordings are available as digital downloads via Amazon S3 or USB drives, with royalty-free use in commercial productions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Deserts Sound Library
• Oceans Sound Library
• Jungles Sound Library
• Thunderstorms Sound Library
• Nature Sound Library Bundle
• Custom Business Sound Library Licensing

Quantifiable outcome

• One-time purchase provides lifetime license with royalty-free use in commercial productions
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• PayPalcoreTechnology or IntegrationPayment processing partner for secure checkout on quietplanet.com. Handles payment transactions and protects customer payment information. Customers can pay using PayPal accounts or credit cards through PayPal's platform.
• Amazon S3coreTechnology or IntegrationCloud storage infrastructure for secure digital file delivery. Hosts download links for purchased audio files, providing reliable and scalable content delivery for digital products.
• SoundMinercoreTechnology or IntegrationAudio metadata standard compatibility. All Quiet Planet recordings feature SoundMiner-readable metadata including species ID, geographic location, event descriptions, and usage tips for professional audio workflow integration.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Sound Ideas: One of the largest independent sound effects and music library companies globally, offering production music and sound effects collections for film, TV, and gaming. Highly comparable as a direct competitor in production sound libraries, but with a broader, more generalized catalog including human, urban, and machine sounds well beyond nature.
• Splice: Subscription-based marketplace for music and sound samples primarily aimed at music producers. Broader and more music-focused than Quiet Planet, but occupies the same downloadable audio content category with creator-facing licensing.
• BBC Sound Effects: Archival sound effects library with tens of thousands of recordings including extensive nature content. While primarily for personal/educational use, it represents a comparable nature sound library archetype and competes for researchers, educators, and hobbyists.
• Epidemic Sound: Subscription-based music and sound effects platform for content creators. Operates in adjacent audio-for-content space with a more music-focused catalog and SaaS delivery model, but competes for the same creator dollar in YouTube/podcast/social media use cases.

Direct peers

• Pro Sound Effects: Curated sound effects library with a significant nature and ambience category, plus the independently released Hempton-adjacent field-recorded content. Closest direct competitor in the premium nature/field recording segment with professional metadata and similar target customers.
• Boom Library: Premium sound effects studio producing high-end sample libraries for film, games, and trailers, including nature and ambience collections. Direct peer in the pro sound effects space with comparable SoundMiner-compatible metadata and per-collection pricing model.
• Loopmasters: Long-running sample library and loops marketplace serving music producers and sound designers. Comparable in business model (per-collection licensing, royalty-free use) though more oriented to music loops than nature field recordings.

Emerging players

• Spitfire Audio: Premium sample library company known for orchestral and ambient recording libraries (e.g., LABS, Felt Piano, Albion). Comparable in recording-quality-first approach and curated habitat/atmosphere-style collections, though primarily music-production oriented.
• Sonniss GDC Audio Bundle: Publisher of large royalty-free game audio sound effect bundles, including nature and ambient packs. Comparable in delivering large curated audio collections to game developers and sound designers, with annual mega-bundle distribution model.

Others

• A Sound Effect: Marketplace and discovery platform for sound effects libraries, aggregating offerings from independent recordists. Comparable as a discovery channel for nature sound libraries and as a peer revenue source for individual recordists selling field recordings.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/quietplanet
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/quiet-planet

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Quiet Planet