Mostly music with no lyrics. That’s key.<p>I’m currently enjoying brain.fm set to 30 minutes and synced with a 30 minute pomodoro timer. I enjoyed the trial enough to purchase a lifetime membership (using a discount code) as I feel much more productive, especially when combined with some Bose noise-cancelling headphones. I’ve spent more money on less productive things so I figured “why the hell not?”. It may just pay for itself.<p>If not brain.fm, then I’d prefer to listen to movie soundtracks, such as Another Earth, I Origins, Manglehorn, or The Wilderness.<p>Some artists I’ve enjoyed while coding:<p>Piano: Ludovico Einaudi, Dirk Maassen, Johann Johannssen, Olafur Arnolds, Joep Beving<p>Electronic: Tricky, Moderat (particularly the instrumental album).<p>Heavy Rock: Earthless, Russian Circles<p>Post Rock: Sigur Ros, Explosions in the Sky, This Will Destroy You
I listen to New Retro Wave and outrunner almost exclusively.<p>I have also found that video game soundtrack remixes can help to preserve focus as well.
For me, the only genre that reliably works is "minimal" music, like stuff by Steve Reich[1] or Gas[2]. My definition of this genre would be music with no lyrics that has highly repetitive structures (differentiating it from "ambient" music, which I find too sleepy to be invigorating).<p>[1]: Music for 18 Musicians <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXJWO2FQ16c" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXJWO2FQ16c</a><p>[2]: Koenigsforst <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehNGoyMf9kU" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehNGoyMf9kU</a>
I did an entire project listening to the Steely Dan box set in constant repeat. Something about the precision and clarity of the studio work does it for me. I’ll still fire it up when I need to slam something out.
Mostly ProgMetal/Djent. Some artists inspire me a lot while coding:<p><pre><code> - Plini
- Intervals
- David Maxim Micic
- Arch Echo
- Animals as Leaders
- Polyphia
- Scale the Summit
- Angel Vivaldi
- ... etc – a.k.a. their related artists
</code></pre>
There's also this album I used to listen to while reading Blood Meridian and nowadays while coding:<p><pre><code> - Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method by Earth
</code></pre>
Hope they inspire you too ;-)
Posted in HN a few weeks ago [0], Someone wrote a pretty good article on the tricks they use to be more productive developers. At the end, they cover music genres.<p>From personal experience, I agree with everything he says. Music with less or no lyrics keeps me focused more on coding. When a song starts playing with lyrics that I enjoy, it distracts me from what I am working on. I particularly enjoy Lo-Fi Hip Hop[1], because there typically are not very many lyrics in the music and it typically has white noise in the background to help reduce distracting noises.<p>[0] - <a href="https://raddevon.com/articles/focus-for-better-work-life-balance-as-a-web-developer/" rel="nofollow">https://raddevon.com/articles/focus-for-better-work-life-bal...</a><p>[1] - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlKlmgksvgQ" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlKlmgksvgQ</a>
Ambient, lo-fi, chillstep and garage is the best. I love these so much that I produce music for coding myself.
These are my best playslists <a href="https://open.spotify.com/user/1167646885/playlist/0adabJ0Yu4hRQ50cakvNNg?si=Jq1ls_FDR3GeNY9uoIpi1Q" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/user/1167646885/playlist/0adabJ0Yu4...</a>
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/user/1167646885/playlist/04uAJE4hhKVupggI29x2xy?si=1e3UgpPHSS6zuR61cA0Z3g" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/user/1167646885/playlist/04uAJE4hhK...</a><p>And my own EP
<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/40Td5u6cbC8iApy1VMopCu?si=uqvnTZvwTp2rtMotXKHOiw" rel="nofollow">https://open.spotify.com/album/40Td5u6cbC8iApy1VMopCu?si=uqv...</a>
Check out <a href="http://www.focusatwill.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.focusatwill.com</a> - music designed / curated by neuroscientists for focus
It depends on the day, but for some reason when I really got to get stuff done, I listen to the theme for Ghostbusters II on repeat all day, Bobby Brown's "Control." I wonder if my coworkers hear me listening to the theme from Ghostbusters II all day on repeat and think I'm weird, but I get so much done with Ghostbusters II theme song. I get too hot to handle, too cold to hold.
Anything with a decent tempo (except for Dance Music - too much thoomp thoomp) that is decent but that I don't know the words to. The important part is not knowing the words. If you know the words it can pull you out of the zone without you realizing. As for type I have no specific type, I'm all over the place, just as long as it follows the above criteria.
The Dwarf Fortress background music.<p>Game music (mostly) is designed for a related purpose - setting a mood whilst also encouraging you to focus on the task at hand (whether it's shooting aliens or squashing bugs). Film scores are similar.
For coding, it’s usually classic music (no lyrics) but while researching, I’ll put on techno. No matter the genre though, I will use MusicChoice which is the streaming service that comes with my cable tv subscription.
The Social Network Soundtrack
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yydZbVoCbn0" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yydZbVoCbn0</a>
Any music that blocks me from external noise but at the same time doesn't distract me.
Anything without lyrics is best but I have found Classical Piano works the best for me.
I listen to old french house classics. It's an odd choice and occasionally the lyrics or samples distract me, but I figure the potential for distraction is always there and I'd rather be yanked from concentration into my most pleasant memories.<p>I also like some trance music or instrumental movie scores if they're chill enough.<p>But it kinda depends on what kind of code im writing. If I'm knee deep in the guts of some poor program with disassembly and an exploit and pointers floating in my head, I have a pair of those bose noise canceling that I can wear for complete silence.<p>I don't think music is necessarily a good frame for productive coding. At least not on its own. When I sit down with an intention, I'm just hearing ambient office noise until something a bit more interesting catches my attention, I kinda feel that urge to put my seatbelt on, Spotify is just a reflex, and I'll get to debugging or whatever I'm doing.<p>I know some guys who have like playlists or whatever queued up for work, but that's not really how I work. Hell, I know another guy in my department who wears noise canceling headphones all day every day. That's just how he likes it.
Mostly soft music without lyrics.<p>- Luv letter / Flower Dance
- Sakuya2/3
- REBORN -Dr.ミンチに会いましょ
- 失, 焚梦 |A Chinese musician 十指流玉
- A Little Story
(etc...)<p>some Japanese Team Shanghai Alice soft musics