Be careful. Music engages your creative hemisphere. This doesn't matter much if what you're doing is a simple, repetitive task. But if you're trying to design or program, it might kill your ability to "think outside the box" and invent creative solutions.
In my case, listening to music while programming has a very pronounced effect: I will spend 30 minutes crafting a function that will do something. The function will eventually work. And then I will stop listening to music and several minutes later notice that the function was entirely unnecessary, because I can make an architectural or data structure change instead and avoid writing the function altogether. This is something I am unable to do while listening to music.
Once I noticed this, I started being careful: I'd listen to music while configuring routers, but not when planning and designing the changes. You get the idea.
So, before you start listening to music while working, I'd advise you to check if your brain works the same way (the effect might not be exactly the same for everyone).
These days I mostly use natural sounds (the Naturespace app for iOS is great) and good headphones to mute background noise.
I prefer silence, but since the open-plan fad holds sway here, I've found rain to be the most effective substitute. The best rain track I've found so far is 57 at http://archive.org/details/Sounds_of_Nature_Collection
I strongly agree with this. Even if it's only ambient music (mentioned here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5872706), I still use it only for situations involving mundane things like documentation. Otherwise I greatly prefer silence.
My SO though, is exactly the opposite. She just can't get any work done in silence, and needs relatively fast music with vocals. Although it does need to be music that she's already familiar with, otherwise she gets distracted by having to listen to the lyrics.
For me, the key is to not listen to new music whilst trying to do creative work. If I'm listening to an album that I have been listening to for the last 6 months, it can be the perfect foil to the incredibly noisy open plan offices I have worked in for the last 15 years of my career (managers, for goodness sake please stop making open plan offices!)
Nothing beats the overriding hum of a server room though - Pure white noise at loud enough volumes that you can't talk easily with other people. Stick some ear plugs in to dampen the volume a little, and you're set to go.
my brian works the other way around:
i cant be creative in silence. I need to listen to music but the music has to be without vocals. if there are vocals that i understand i to much focus on the vocals.
I talked about some other Coders about that. About 20 People.
The strange thing was that 7 need music that pump them up like rock or something like that. 7 need relaxing/chillout music( iam in that group) and 6 of them need silence.
So i think there is no general way of what you can listen or not to.
Most pop or classical music demands your attention; you'll pay good money to go to a concert where you sit in a chair and pay attention for a prolonged period. Dance/trance/techno provides high energy as a driver of activity, not a focus; you'll go to an event (dance) to focus on the activity, with the music as background motivation. Hence I listen to trance podcasts, getting the push and occupying a busy-but-unrelated-to-programming part of my brain, while also drowning out background noise (factory, sales guy on phone at next desk, ...).
I think it depends on the type of music you listen to. For example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uCL1_YcRwk is always able to get me to stop thinking about other things and concentrate on the task at hand. I notice I do much, much better on exams when I listen to music (esp. jazz) while I'm studying; perhaps it blocks out all other thoughts, focusing my attention on the core material that is really required for maximum productivity and retention.
>Be careful. Music engages your creative hemisphere. This doesn't matter much if what you're doing is a simple, repetitive task. But if you're trying to design or program, it might kill your ability to "think outside the box" and invent creative solutions.
Studies might suggest so, but irl programmings have been creating very cool stuff with music blazing from the speakers.
I've noticed the same effect but kind of the other way around. When I'm doing programming that requires thinking outside the box and creativity, music is ANNOYING and disruptive.
I love listening to music while pixel juggling UI's or fixing bugs but as soon as I start working on a scheduling algorithm or something similar I have to turn the music off.
Personally, I frequently switch between music and silence. Putting on some music stokes my motivation and productivity, getting me started on a task. As soon as I hit a problem that requires more brainpower, I hit pause to let myself think—just like turning down the music in your car so you can parallel park.
I am curious why something engaging your creative brain would prevent you from being creative - I would think it would do the opposite? *edit: Did you mean to say it "can kill your ability to think outside the box"?
Another good one is soundtracks - personally I like futuristic stuff (Deus Ex: HR soundtrack, or Mass Effect, or Person of Interest), as they are designed not to detract from the point of focus.
Lastly, luvstep/liquid dubstep type things are quite vapid but listen-able.
> I've always found myself to be most productive when listening to repetitive electronic music - it motivates but also doesn't distract you too much.
Yup, goa-trance for me :)
Music with a lot of lyrics is most distracting to me, though I've found it also depends on the particular way the vocals are mixed/mastered, on some albums they're much harder to ignore than others. Lyrics in my native tongue (Dutch) are hardest to ignore, but even music in a foreign language I don't understand at all (say, the xxx rottweiler hundar, Icelandic hiphop) is more distracting than something (almost) purely instrumental.
"... two out of three of people like to listen to music while they work, study or read but it’s difficult to find and manage music that consistently works well for this purpose."
Precisely! I like to listen to ambient music when working and constantly trying to find new music for this purpose is quite a hassle.
last.fm is great for this. Type in an artist/genre you like and for the next few hours while you work, you will discover plenty of new ones as their radio service works by molding a 'radio service' to your taste.
To concentrate, I use computer game soundtracks (e.g. from Humble Bundle; particularly the one with Eufloria and Waking Mars), and to drown out voices of coworkers whose volume dial got lost in the laundry, text-heavy music in a language I don't understand (alternating between Czech hip-hop and Finnish hummpa).
I regularly the Fez soundtrack by Disasterpeace, and musicforprogramming();[0] has quite a few ones (esp. 06 and 08) that "just work" with my brain and make me zoom right into the zone in seconds. Also, This Binary Universe by BT.
On the advice of coffitivity, I've turned to human environments for ambient noise. I've been blessed with library access to the BBC sound effects library. http://www.sound-ideas.com/sound-effects/bbc-41-60-cds-sound... Some are the typical sfx fare, but the latter half is of city streets from around the world.
Wow. This seems like a great and interesting product...
But it also seems like the kind of thing any programmer with a decent music collection could throw together as an MVP in a couple of weekends (ignoring music distribution rights, of course).
But it's got quite the large team of people behind it -- I'm very curious to see if this can monetize well. It just seems like such a "niche" product -- like it should be just another channel on Pandora, instead of a whole company in its own right. Seeing that margins on music streaming are generally already so low, I wish I could see their monetization strategy...
Once upon a time Red Alert (1), one of first RTS games, won Game Music of the Year award from multiple magazines.
I was initially a bit puzzled by it: there's nothing in the music that immediately jumps at you as great. It's nice, it resembles Nine Inch Nails in some places, that's it. But then I noticed I can listen to it for extended lengths of time without problem. It's relatively subtle, and it grows on you. It doesn't resemble the "epic" movie-style soundtracks that are so common these days.
And I guess that's the point... ? Game music, especially in replayable games like RTS, need to be good in the long run or it inevitably ends up being turned off in game settings. "Epic" music makes good first impression, and in trailers, but it's short-sighted in the long run.
I'm arguing along these lines on Age of Wonders 3 forums (upcoming fantasy TBS game similar to Heroes of Might and Magic), but without success.
The SimCity4 soundtrack is really awesome for just hacking away at things. I think that the Red Alert soundtrack is one of the best "get shit done" albums I've had in my box for a while, even with the amazingly cheesy synths and 90s style. The Descent and System Shock 2 soundtracks were very much in this vein (SS1 was procedurally generated, so it's hit or miss).
I think the big trick is that game music is meant to get you thinking and active, but not distract you.
Doesn't work for me, i can't concentrate with this music..
I'm not sure if this will even work for a broader range or people because music is so much subjective..
For me it totally depends on the mood what music i can work best with, but usually it's some electronic house music where i can concentrate best.
This was created using paulstretch [1], a program to transform normal audio using extreme stretches. I've tried it on a few songs I liked and it does really an excellent jobs of creating extremely fluid ambiances.
The triple parentheses on the first video is a nod to Sunn O))) [2], an American drone / noise / ambient metal band which features super long songs with droning saturated guitars (playing on vintage cranked up to 11 Sunn Model T amps) and usually no drums. One of my favorite songs from them and perhaps one of the best introduction to their music for the non-initiated is titled Alice [3], though perhaps it's not as representative of their music as, say, Ra at Dusk [4]. (Sunn O))) was heavily influenced by the pioneer drone metal band Earth, and their mindblowing album Earth²: special low frequency version [5]).
To each his/her own music needed to concentrate.
The ambient sounds help me to get stuff done in the mornings, as a wake up :)
During long coding-nights I'd rather go for Tech-house livesets that can be found all over soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/tags/tech-house
I think this is one of the few perks not beeing a English native speaker: I do understand lyrics if I concentrate but otherwise I hear the voice just as another instrument.
So I can listen to nearly any music for progrmaming. One of my favourites is Origin - Antithesis. But really everything works.
I'm a big fan of electronic music and the craft of DJing, and my favorite type of music to listen to while coding is UK Bass and its various subgenres. For this, I get my fix from the online "pirate-style" radio station, http://sub.fm, which has live DJs and an IRC chatroom where you can chat with the DJ and other fans. It's really great.
Note that this type of music is different from more mainstream (and American) dubstep—it has a deeper, more ambient quality to it. Great coding music.
Recently, I've also discovered a similar radio station for ambient music: http://stillstream.com/
Link was posted on here a while back but is still the go to solution for me. Pretty well curated list of trance style stuff. Also has a fast and slow option.
Comprised of classical music scores from some of the best movies, it creates the perfect ambience for coding, which stays out of your way, yet soothes and calms you while enhancing your productivity. Can't get enough of this mix.
I've had really good luck with certain kinds of minimalist music. In particular, Simeon Ten Holt's "Canto Ostinato" seems to actively help me focus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDCsOL2vBJc
Most performances are well over an hour, so a nice little side benefit is that you don't have to spend much time picking and changing music.
I like the idea but right now I have no connectivity on this app.
So far I've been using raining.fm because chamber music sometimes slows down and quiets so I can hear my co-workers.
My goal is to shut out what everyone is saying, but not the fact that they're talking. So far raining.fm has been perfect, but the only small downside is that when you take the headphones off it feels like you stepped out of a space shuttle or something.
[+] [-] jwr|12 years ago|reply
In my case, listening to music while programming has a very pronounced effect: I will spend 30 minutes crafting a function that will do something. The function will eventually work. And then I will stop listening to music and several minutes later notice that the function was entirely unnecessary, because I can make an architectural or data structure change instead and avoid writing the function altogether. This is something I am unable to do while listening to music.
Once I noticed this, I started being careful: I'd listen to music while configuring routers, but not when planning and designing the changes. You get the idea.
So, before you start listening to music while working, I'd advise you to check if your brain works the same way (the effect might not be exactly the same for everyone).
These days I mostly use natural sounds (the Naturespace app for iOS is great) and good headphones to mute background noise.
[+] [-] kps|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shrikant|12 years ago|reply
My SO though, is exactly the opposite. She just can't get any work done in silence, and needs relatively fast music with vocals. Although it does need to be music that she's already familiar with, otherwise she gets distracted by having to listen to the lyrics.
[+] [-] throwaway183|12 years ago|reply
Do you have a source for this?
[+] [-] antimagic|12 years ago|reply
Nothing beats the overriding hum of a server room though - Pure white noise at loud enough volumes that you can't talk easily with other people. Stick some ear plugs in to dampen the volume a little, and you're set to go.
[+] [-] lampe3|12 years ago|reply
I talked about some other Coders about that. About 20 People. The strange thing was that 7 need music that pump them up like rock or something like that. 7 need relaxing/chillout music( iam in that group) and 6 of them need silence.
So i think there is no general way of what you can listen or not to.
[+] [-] ctdonath|12 years ago|reply
Most pop or classical music demands your attention; you'll pay good money to go to a concert where you sit in a chair and pay attention for a prolonged period. Dance/trance/techno provides high energy as a driver of activity, not a focus; you'll go to an event (dance) to focus on the activity, with the music as background motivation. Hence I listen to trance podcasts, getting the push and occupying a busy-but-unrelated-to-programming part of my brain, while also drowning out background noise (factory, sales guy on phone at next desk, ...).
[+] [-] kunai|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WA|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] coldtea|12 years ago|reply
Studies might suggest so, but irl programmings have been creating very cool stuff with music blazing from the speakers.
From Notch to JZW.
[+] [-] Ensorceled|12 years ago|reply
I love listening to music while pixel juggling UI's or fixing bugs but as soon as I start working on a scheduling algorithm or something similar I have to turn the music off.
[+] [-] kvcrawford|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] methodin|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] biswajitsharma|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LatvjuAvs|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] antihero|12 years ago|reply
Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUAAVUKk6Fc - it's rather seedy and excellent in it's own right. Two Lone Swordsmen is okay, too.
Another good one is soundtracks - personally I like futuristic stuff (Deus Ex: HR soundtrack, or Mass Effect, or Person of Interest), as they are designed not to detract from the point of focus.
Lastly, luvstep/liquid dubstep type things are quite vapid but listen-able.
[+] [-] tripzilch|12 years ago|reply
Yup, goa-trance for me :)
Music with a lot of lyrics is most distracting to me, though I've found it also depends on the particular way the vocals are mixed/mastered, on some albums they're much harder to ignore than others. Lyrics in my native tongue (Dutch) are hardest to ignore, but even music in a foreign language I don't understand at all (say, the xxx rottweiler hundar, Icelandic hiphop) is more distracting than something (almost) purely instrumental.
[+] [-] noiv|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] simeng|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pyre|12 years ago|reply
Another electronic / soundtrack that I have spent a lot of time with is the Tron Legacy soundtrack.
[+] [-] mhartl|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pepr|12 years ago|reply
Precisely! I like to listen to ambient music when working and constantly trying to find new music for this purpose is quite a hassle.
[+] [-] rjd|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] induscreep|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bonjourmr|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rednukleus|12 years ago|reply
EDIT: Thanks for all the suggestions!
[+] [-] sliverstorm|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] limmeau|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lloeki|12 years ago|reply
[0]: http://musicforprogramming.net/?c=manifesto
[+] [-] rmrfrmrf|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Nzen|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] soitgoes|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] crazygringo|12 years ago|reply
But it also seems like the kind of thing any programmer with a decent music collection could throw together as an MVP in a couple of weekends (ignoring music distribution rights, of course).
But it's got quite the large team of people behind it -- I'm very curious to see if this can monetize well. It just seems like such a "niche" product -- like it should be just another channel on Pandora, instead of a whole company in its own right. Seeing that margins on music streaming are generally already so low, I wish I could see their monetization strategy...
[+] [-] p0nce|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] boothead|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] b0rsuk|12 years ago|reply
I was initially a bit puzzled by it: there's nothing in the music that immediately jumps at you as great. It's nice, it resembles Nine Inch Nails in some places, that's it. But then I noticed I can listen to it for extended lengths of time without problem. It's relatively subtle, and it grows on you. It doesn't resemble the "epic" movie-style soundtracks that are so common these days.
And I guess that's the point... ? Game music, especially in replayable games like RTS, need to be good in the long run or it inevitably ends up being turned off in game settings. "Epic" music makes good first impression, and in trailers, but it's short-sighted in the long run.
I'm arguing along these lines on Age of Wonders 3 forums (upcoming fantasy TBS game similar to Heroes of Might and Magic), but without success.
[+] [-] pyre|12 years ago|reply
http://dustincurtis.com/how-mr-q-manufactured-emotion.html
[+] [-] angersock|12 years ago|reply
I think the big trick is that game music is meant to get you thinking and active, but not distract you.
[+] [-] buster|12 years ago|reply
For me it totally depends on the mood what music i can work best with, but usually it's some electronic house music where i can concentrate best.
[+] [-] michaelgrafl|12 years ago|reply
Someone should assemble a collection of lame pop music that sounds awesome when piped through Paul's Stretch.
Would listen.
[+] [-] epsylon|12 years ago|reply
This was created using paulstretch [1], a program to transform normal audio using extreme stretches. I've tried it on a few songs I liked and it does really an excellent jobs of creating extremely fluid ambiances.
The triple parentheses on the first video is a nod to Sunn O))) [2], an American drone / noise / ambient metal band which features super long songs with droning saturated guitars (playing on vintage cranked up to 11 Sunn Model T amps) and usually no drums. One of my favorite songs from them and perhaps one of the best introduction to their music for the non-initiated is titled Alice [3], though perhaps it's not as representative of their music as, say, Ra at Dusk [4]. (Sunn O))) was heavily influenced by the pioneer drone metal band Earth, and their mindblowing album Earth²: special low frequency version [5]).
[1] http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunn_%28band%29
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Djdi6z0m8
[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buA_xDQQg74
[5] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls1OYn_xGzM
[+] [-] jechen|12 years ago|reply
Yes! This is exactly the kind of music service I've been looking for when I'm working.
[+] [-] jrnkntl|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brusch|12 years ago|reply
So I can listen to nearly any music for progrmaming. One of my favourites is Origin - Antithesis. But really everything works.
[+] [-] kvcrawford|12 years ago|reply
Note that this type of music is different from more mainstream (and American) dubstep—it has a deeper, more ambient quality to it. Great coding music.
Recently, I've also discovered a similar radio station for ambient music: http://stillstream.com/
[+] [-] frankydp|12 years ago|reply
Link was posted on here a while back but is still the go to solution for me. Pretty well curated list of trance style stuff. Also has a fast and slow option.
[+] [-] khalidmbajwa|12 years ago|reply
Comprised of classical music scores from some of the best movies, it creates the perfect ambience for coding, which stays out of your way, yet soothes and calms you while enhancing your productivity. Can't get enough of this mix.
[+] [-] ashutoshm|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eggsyntax|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] INTPenis|12 years ago|reply
So far I've been using raining.fm because chamber music sometimes slows down and quiets so I can hear my co-workers.
My goal is to shut out what everyone is saying, but not the fact that they're talking. So far raining.fm has been perfect, but the only small downside is that when you take the headphones off it feels like you stepped out of a space shuttle or something.