

Ask HN: Good coding music? - sarreph

I don&#x27;t know why, but recently I&#x27;ve been unable to listen to music whilst doing work for extended periods (45 mins or more). It seems to distract me or <i>get in the way</i>.<p>Would anyone care to tip me off with some good (preferably non-mainstream, as I like discovering new artists) music to work&#x2F;code productively to? I was thinking anything along the lines of Minimalism&#x2F;House&#x2F;Electro, although I like to dip into Classical from time to time.<p>... Or just share anything (music) that makes you work productively :)
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darkmethod
I'm a fan of anything by Zoe Keating.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TTX0ryyoac](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TTX0ryyoac)

"Into the Trees" is my default coding music.

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majc2
Big fan of movie and game soundtracks for coding. Regular rotation at the
moment consists of Man of Steel, Batman Trilogy, Inception, Mass Effect 3,
Skylander Giants and a lot of classical music esp the planets or anything else
from civ 4!

Final shout out would be music that Adam Curtis has used in his documentaries
such as Power of Nightmares. He uses lots of good modern instrumental pieces.
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/4202789.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/4202789.stm)
is a starting point.

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tjr
I have for years found that if I really needed to concentrate deeply on a
programming project, I tend to be immensely helped listening to Electric Light
Orchestra's "Mr. Blue Sky". Yes it is (was?) mainstream, and yes it has been
cliche'd into the ground in countless movies that used it for overtly happy
scenes. But regardless, it helps me. (If the ELO original is too mainstream
for your tastes, you might like the version by The Delgados.)

More generally, I find that light classical music, especially Bach, is
pleasant to have playing while I work.

Anything else may or may not help, and it's pretty random. A song that helps a
lot one day may be a distraction on another day. For just "listening" to
music, I mostly enjoy jazz, but that often doesn't really help me much to
focus on programming.

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jschrf
Take a look at
[http://musicforprogramming.net/](http://musicforprogramming.net/), you might
find something you like there.

I personally use di.fm or soma.fm and pick a channel that suits my mood,
usually something a little more downtempo and free of vocals.

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shoo
Stars of the Lid -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaSi7Gut7xM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaSi7Gut7xM)
,
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et_lDyRymrw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et_lDyRymrw)
,
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OycCEDxQFoA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OycCEDxQFoA)

Tim Hecker -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jXbnydhNjU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jXbnydhNjU)

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yulaow
I usually listen the related broadcast in Grooveshark
[http://grooveshark.com/#!/writhem/broadcast](http://grooveshark.com/#!/writhem/broadcast)

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paul_willis
Try this out, it's Keith Jarrett live at Köln
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a7xoYZZE4s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a7xoYZZE4s)

~~~
sarreph
He's great! Hadn't heard of him before.

Thanks for the share.

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bnejad
Trance, specifically the weekly "A State of Trance" hosted/mixed by Armin Van
Buren.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_State_of_Trance](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_State_of_Trance)

There are like 600 episodes, each is a 2 hour mix. Great to just turn one on
and not fidget around with the next track.

Another one of my favorites is Digitally Imported, di.fm Basically a bunch of
different electronic genre stations.

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pushkargaikwad
I personally find music to be distracting while coding but yesterday found
this thread on reddit
[http://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/1jke2r/whats_the_most...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Music/comments/1jke2r/whats_the_most_beautiful_music_that_you_have_ever/),
this has some gems! I am sure you will find few good once

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hemezh
I personally prefer chillstep, it really helps me concentrate. Recently I
created a mix @
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EY0r-VJF6k](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EY0r-VJF6k)

I'd strongly suggest you to discover other artists of this genre e.g. Xan,
Sizzlebird, Ramases B, etc

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reisub
I usually like instrumental music, words take my attention away from the code.
Mozart, and other classical music is a great background for coding. Other than
classical, God Is An Astronaut
([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34C41eEpM48](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34C41eEpM48)).

~~~
ScottWhigham
Love that God is an Astronaut! Awesome.

------
meerita
My favorite coding music, for late nite is SomaFM: Mission Control, wich is
ambient music mixed with NASA mission audio archives, it is sublime. You can
find it iTunes radio or in SomaFM official website
[http://somafm.com](http://somafm.com)

~~~
hmsimha
My vote goes to SomaFM's Space Station, though the vibe of that station is a
bit variable

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Oculus
DJ sets of artists like Kaskade or Porter Robinson always work for me. I find
the key is to find something that doesn't distract you from the work, but is
also nice to listen to when you focus on it. I find it really hard to just
work when the room is completely silent.

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vmarsy
What about [https://www.focusatwill.com/](https://www.focusatwill.com/) ?

or not really music but a coffee shop sound :
[http://coffitivity.com/](http://coffitivity.com/)

~~~
Raphmedia
Thanks a lot for those two links. They really make it for me!

Edit: I found that Coffitivity goes really well with Muzak -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdJWZxPW45c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdJWZxPW45c)
\- that someone else posted. Turns your office into a mall!

------
carlyle4545
The Diplomats are ideal for maintaining an optimal level of concentration.
Their album, "Diplomatic Immunity Vol. 1" will put you in a zone. The song
"Dipset Anthem" is the undisputed gem. Thank me later...

~~~
sonicallison
I can't think of anything more distracting than this album, they stop to talk
constantly...

[http://www.amazon.com/Diplomatic-Immunity-
Diplomats/dp/B0000...](http://www.amazon.com/Diplomatic-Immunity-
Diplomats/dp/B00008GQ9Y)

------
jeremyirony
I like the playlist made of: \- Kingdom of Heaven OST \- Assassin's Creed
Revelations OST (the full 3 CD version) \- Full Mass Effect 3 OST (extracted
by some guy from the game itself. Not the one you can buy ;))

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hyling
[https://www.focusatwill.com](https://www.focusatwill.com) works well. I also
create a Spotify station by searching for "background music"

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jamesjguthrie
I can't code with music on, my brain tunes into it and makes me want to sing
along or pretend I'm drumming etc.

I find TV on in the background to be much more helpful.

~~~
alexanderh
This is why there is an entire genre of music called "Ambient"

Seriously, I know where you're coming from but there is music out there for
every situation.

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pidge
I like the this room on Turntable, electronic chill -
[http://turntable.fm/chill_or_be_chilled2](http://turntable.fm/chill_or_be_chilled2)

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wanderr
When I really need to focus, I listen to a mix of mostly Au Revoir Simone,
Ladytron, Metric, and The Faint

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Skoofoo
I like to listen to [http://scenemusic.net](http://scenemusic.net).

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bdevine
I swear by Boards of Canada, which, judging from the criteria you listed,
might be right up your alley.

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alexanderh
I really enjoy all kinds of Ambient music for coding

Sync24 and RQ come to mind.

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mkname
muzak, designed not to distract.

example
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdJWZxPW45c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdJWZxPW45c)

(edited to remove distracting remark)

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2mur
The Glitch Mob - _Drink the Sea_ and _We Can Make the World Stop EP_

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chewxy
My playlist today is full of Tchaikovsky and a few Bear McCreary interleaved.

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MonkoftheFunk
[http://Di.fm](http://Di.fm)

~~~
MonkoftheFunk
[http://www.di.fm](http://www.di.fm)

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dethstar
I usually listen some post-rock such as GYBE!

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rdouble
Try the free podcasts from bleep.com

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keefe
checkout state of trance on youtube I like those really long tracks for the
sustained flow

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jrokisky
Brian Eno's Ambient albums

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benjtinsley
Steve Reich + coding = profit

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biolime
I always listen to grunge.

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anigbrowl
Extrawelt.

