When this was posted 2 weeks ago, I tried to step up and do the hosting with Amazon's Cloudfront. 72 hours and 3TB later, I sadly acknowledged that I didn't have the checkbook size to properly meet the download needs.<p>Since then, @datassette has moved hosting to Dreamhost and they're truly sticking by their unlimited bandwidth policy. So as much as we typically like to point out when DH is down or messes up, I think they deserve some public acknowledgement for doing something right.
My favorite programming music:<p><pre><code> Any of Brian Eno's ambient stuff
The Field - From Here We Go Sublime
The Field - Looping State of Mind
Luomo - Vocalcity
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise
Burial - Untrue</code></pre>
My current coding playlist is:<p>* Moon OST - Clint Mansell<p>* Donnie Darko OST - Mansell<p>* Inception OST - Hans Zimmer<p>* The Social Network OST - Reznor<p>* Simple Things - Zero 7<p>* Melody AM - Royskopp<p>* Abroreal - The Flashbulb (a lot of his stuff is good)
I've experimented with different types of music while working/coding, and I've found the perfect thing that works well for me, which is <i>soundtracks from RTS games</i>. They're instrumental, vaguely electronic, and specifically designed to fade into the background and create a general sense of urgency and focus.<p>If you are a big Starcraft player for example, playing the background music from Starcraft can create a sort of Pavlovian Response, telling your brain "You are sitting at a computer carrying out a difficult task which takes a good deal of focus and mental exertion. This activity is fun and rewarding, and it is urgent that you do it as well and as quickly as possible."<p>Give it a try.<p>tl;dr Soundtracks from RTS games
For classical I like Bach symphonies.<p>But usually, I find myself incredibly productive when I listen to house music. My recent discovery has been Maceo Plex and the album "Life Index".<p>Maceo Plex merges the tracks into a continuous mix, roughly 128bpm, and once you skip track 1 (a dialogue), the music flows smoothly for a good 90 minutes.<p>Beyond that, I've always liked Kraftwerk's "Tour de France" for programming to.
I'm a big fan of C418 for programming music: <a href="http://c418.org/" rel="nofollow">http://c418.org/</a><p>I also like the indie game music bundles. I posted this a few days ago but it didn't gain any traction: Game Music Bundle 2!<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3573416" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3573416</a>
<a href="http://www.gamemusicbundle.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.gamemusicbundle.com/</a>
I hacked together a command line interface using wget, Bash and mpg123: <a href="https://github.com/jseb/musicforprogramming.net-cli" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/jseb/musicforprogramming.net-cli</a>
I found out that I can program best to chillwave, ambient and/or electronic music, some recommendations:<p>- Sobrenadar: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwsAnTzdCNs" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwsAnTzdCNs</a>, <a href="http://absentfever.bandcamp.com/album/physeos" rel="nofollow">http://absentfever.bandcamp.com/album/physeos</a><p>- СВ Хутор (no idea what that means): <a href="http://sv-hutor.bandcamp.com/album/ep" rel="nofollow">http://sv-hutor.bandcamp.com/album/ep</a><p>- Goldroom: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKtJhYew4Hk" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKtJhYew4Hk</a><p>- Casa Del Mirto: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSJ07Aa1W38" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSJ07Aa1W38</a><p>- Booka Shade, or some other DEEP house-ish stuff<p>- Warpaint, best consumed as live performances: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EWiY9xXrug" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EWiY9xXrug</a><p>- TRUST: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tc1xj7Nblc" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tc1xj7Nblc</a><p>- sloslylove: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IldogOjTxY" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IldogOjTxY</a><p>- Apparat: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyZhzfgXHMk" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyZhzfgXHMk</a><p>- The National (his deep, deep baritone voice just keeps me somehow concentrated): <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbFWAtFb18k" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbFWAtFb18k</a><p>- Blonde Redhead: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7FqUNlEdwA" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7FqUNlEdwA</a>
I find myself listening to a lot of ambient/drone music while programming lately. Previously it was more upbeat with Daft Punk Legacy and Reconfigured. I feel I don't want to be concentrating on the music, but am comforted by having talk/silence removed.<p><pre><code> Aerosol - All that is solid melts into air
Loscii
NASA voyager recordings - Symphony of the planets
Toe</code></pre>
For those who prefer radio, try WFMT out of Chicago---be warned, it is classical 24x7, but chosen and DJed by the best in the business. Easily available as iTunes->radio-> Classical->WFMT. As a change of pace, 5 hours of folk music on Saturday Night starting at 7:00 p.m. central time.
Some of my favourite programming music:<p>Artist: The Glitch Mob<p>Daft Punk: Tron Sound Track, Tron legacy reconfigured<p>Particularly with music from The Glitch Mob I find my focus is more intense and I only break my current activity when the music finishes. Need to find more music that gets my mind in the zone like that...
Com Truise is fast becoming one of my favorite musicians.<p>PS: Usually at this point when discussing music for working, somebody has mentioned "Selected Ambient Works" :)<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-ecyzuMNs0" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-ecyzuMNs0</a>
I listened to the Com Truise mix while programming the other day. It was too distracting, as the music kept changing every 2 or so minutes. Instead I prefer silence, or the next closest thing, which is the kind of music that really plays with your sense of time. E.g.<p>9 Beet Stretch
Mirror/Mimir (and other Christoph Heemann works)
Charlemagne Palestines
The Necks<p>I won't bother providing links, as the commonality with these artists is that their pieces are long (and in the case of the first one, very long), so you probably won't find any samples of this music that is indicative of the effect of the whole thing.
I usually listen to The Prodigy (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTw2YvutJRA" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTw2YvutJRA</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVefPPr69NU" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVefPPr69NU</a>) or some drum and bass, like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au_BUnGWquA" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au_BUnGWquA</a>. Basically, anything with high energy, exactly the opposite of what this site suggests. I feel like I'm typing faster. It's like a race between the song and my fingers.
Where I work, we listen to BBC 6 Music (<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music</a>). It's eclectic enough that no-one gets annoyed with the choice of songs (if you don't like one, you'll probably like the next) and there's nothing particularly noisy or distracting on there (loud over-processed pop/dance music, shouty DJs or ads). There's also far less repetition than on similar stations.<p>I'd much rather this, than one person's choice of "concentrating" music. One man's concentration aid is another man's hell.
I personally find The Necks very good for almost any kind of work. They produce minimal jazz, which I prefer to more distracting music — even if I might listen to it otherwise, such as electronic.<p>While their tracks are not available for free, you can find samples here:<p><a href="http://www.longarms.net/cdcatalog/detail.php?ID=1809" rel="nofollow">http://www.longarms.net/cdcatalog/detail.php?ID=1809</a><p><a href="http://www.myspace.com/thenecks" rel="nofollow">http://www.myspace.com/thenecks</a>
I really like the design of the site (unusually so) but I am annoyed with the 'aesthetic' part: <a href="http://www.musicforprogramming.net/?c=aesthetic" rel="nofollow">http://www.musicforprogramming.net/?c=aesthetic</a><p>"the most effective music to aid prolonged periods of intense concentration tends to have a mixture of the following qualities:" is too clinical to describe something as personal and emotional as music...
I quite enjoy just chucking on a playlist of The Flashbulb (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+flashbulb" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+flashbulb</a>).<p>There tends to be enough ambient, non-lyrical tracks to keep me interested. Some infrequent breakcore tracks get me amped as either a break or a queue to think harder :D.
The style of music on the one that I downloaded didn't work so well for me. It was too airy and then there were some vocals.<p>I don't know what style to ask about. If I like to program to uptempo Jean-Michel Jarre and extended mixes of Blue Monday by New Order (the only track of theirs that I am aware that I like), what do I like and where can I get more of it?
Very nice and relaxing music. It's also nice that there is a podcast. But they could definitely make a simple cue-sheet or track list with song lengths – it is difficult to find a name for current song. Maybe miss of such metadata is a weakness of a podcast but at their site only a single track can be found.
I prefer higher energy music for coding. Stuff like Trance Around the World (<a href="http://www.trancearoundtheworld.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.trancearoundtheworld.com/</a>), Jaytech, Myon & Shane 54 and Tritonal podcasts (all on itunes podcast directory)
Personally, I enjoy Strobotone
<a href="http://www.ideology.de/archives/audio000261.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.ideology.de/archives/audio000261.php</a>
also there are other good Ideology.de artists, that are well
suited for "music for programming" IMHO.
Exactly what I have been looking for. Subscribed.<p>P.S: I've found that the Portal 2 soundtrack is awesome to code to. <a href="http://www.thinkwithportals.com/music.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.thinkwithportals.com/music.php</a>
There is also <a href="http://soundserum.com/" rel="nofollow">http://soundserum.com/</a> which features a <i>ton</i> of creative commons licensed music (3.5GB of it, based on the torrent they provide).
Redditunes is good too.<p><a href="http://www.redditunes.com/?g=Ambient" rel="nofollow">http://www.redditunes.com/?g=Ambient</a><p><a href="http://www.redditunes.com/?g=Chill" rel="nofollow">http://www.redditunes.com/?g=Chill</a>
Song from "Hobbit" trailer - "Misty Mountains" on loop: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tOo2OMUhB8" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tOo2OMUhB8</a>
hey odddogmedia!
would love to work together somehow. we're created <a href="http://www.attictv.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.attictv.com</a> and it would be great if we could somehow use your compilations :D
is there any way to get in touch?
this chiptunes station is pretty great:
<a href="http://tunein.com/tuner/?StationId=127100&" rel="nofollow">http://tunein.com/tuner/?StationId=127100&</a>;
if you're not that into emo/hippster music try out <a href="http://www.ektoplazm.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ektoplazm.com/</a> - great music for coding.