Lo-fi beats to quarantine to are booming on YouTube

YouTube’s lo-fi hip-hop community has for years offered a place to virtually gather, do homework, and find comfort in the random messages of strangers that populate in live chats. Now, as we’re all stuck inside due to the pandemic, those streams have become more popular than ever — not just as background music, but as ways to find community in a difficult time.

Over the past month, viewership of lo-fi live streams has grown rapidly. The lo-fi channel Nickolaas has seen a “significant rise in views” since the pandemic started, says channel operator Nick Stafford. The channel, with just over 32,000 followers, is designed around late-night vibes and conversations. Watching it feels like visiting an old-school Tumblr blog, but with an...

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