
Music to Let you Concentrate - biswajitsharma
https://www.focusatwill.com
======
jwr
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.

~~~
kps
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](http://archive.org/details/Sounds_of_Nature_Collection)

~~~
moultano
Check out gordon hempton: [http://soundtracker.com/](http://soundtracker.com/)
He makes fantastic binaural nature recordings. The advantage of binaural
recordings is that they have an amazing feeling of "space" so that you forget
that you are wearing headphones and that you aren't sitting in a forest. I've
made some of my own as well.
[https://soundcloud.com/moultano](https://soundcloud.com/moultano)

~~~
kps
Very nice — I'm working to your _Fall Creek_ right now (my code's compiling).
Do you use a commercial dummy head or something less costly?

~~~
moultano
I salivated over a dummy head for years until I found this:
[http://3diosound.com/](http://3diosound.com/) All of these were recorded with
the original model of it.

------
antihero
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.

Check out
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUAAVUKk6Fc](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
> 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.

~~~
angersock
If you like goa and whatnot, these folks have some good free tracks scattered
across different electronic genres:

[http://www.ektoplazm.com/](http://www.ektoplazm.com/)

~~~
tripzilch
Thanks, I am already aware :) Two recent finds on that site I've been
listening to a lot are _Mindsphere - Inner Cyclone_ (old school melodic goa)
and _Pavel Svimba - Space Babuska_ (real crazy, poppy psy, reminds of Haltya,
some great mixing/mastering, way too distracting for this thread though :) ).

This site shows that it is in fact possible to offer great quality music
online for free & legal download. I'm frankly amazed actually, just _how_ it
can be. These producers must love their craft so much.

------
pepr
"... 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.

~~~
rednukleus
Can you recommend a Top 5 ambient albums for working?

EDIT: Thanks for all the suggestions!

~~~
JonnieCache
76:14 by Global Communication is an undisputed classic of the genre, however
you might find it distracting because it's so good.

And of course there's Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92, which should
go without saying really. Again, you might not be able to work because it's
such a good record. Also, it's not ambient in the sense of having no beats. If
you've never heard it before you should probably just stop working right now
and listen to it. Also he did a SAW vol. 2 album which is more beatless, but
it's not as good.

You can't go wrong with Future Sound of London. It's a bit dystopian, but
utterly amazing stuff.

The "minimalist" (he hates that word) work of composer Steve Reich is also
very good for zoning out. All the other people in the modern "ambient" genre
are ripping him off to some extent or another. I suggest starting with
Electric Counterpoint.

EDIT - some more:

Hecq - 0000

Almost anything by The Orb, especially _The Orb 's Adventures Beyond the
Ultraworld._ Make sure you get the proper UK version not the cut down US
release.

Portico Quartet by Portico Quartet

All the Boards of Canada stuff

~~~
amitdugar
Thank you for suggesting Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works. I'd never heard
of this before. Loving it :)

~~~
JonnieCache
Fun fact: if you believe the title, he wrote some of the tracks when he was 14
years old.

Personally I don't believe it for a second.

~~~
hexagonc
I don't find it surprising, especially for someone that is already a musical
prodigy. I remember dreaming of beautiful melodies as a kid, but lacking
musical talent, I was unable to play them on a musical instrument. Thus, the
melodies were just stuck in my head and usually forgotten shortly after waking
up.

~~~
JonnieCache
The thing is, RDJ is legendary for self-mythologising. As a result of this,
everyone else mythologises him too. He's obsessed with messing with his fans'
heads. He has openly stated in interviews that he lies about himself all the
time.

[http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-
instruments-...](http://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-
electronic-music-production/793023-things-u-heard-about-aphex-twin.html)

To be fair he could have written that stuff as a teenager. But then maybe he
also owns one of Kraftwerk's original vocoders, modified to produce output in
Cornish.

Apparently he also has a lookalike that walks around at his shows to divert
the attention of fans.

Etc etc.

------
limmeau
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).

~~~
lloeki
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.

[0]:
[http://musicforprogramming.net/?c=manifesto](http://musicforprogramming.net/?c=manifesto)

~~~
DiabloD3
Yay for musicforprogramming. I listen to their mixes quite frequently.

I wish they'd do a 24 hour mix that omitts vocals and sharp sounds altogether,
that'd pretty much be the best ambient music I could imagine.

------
Nzen
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...](http://www.sound-ideas.com/sound-effects/bbc-41-60-cds-sound-
effects-library.html) Some are the typical sfx fare, but the latter half is of
city streets from around the world.

~~~
jimbosis
SoundTransit
[http://turbulence.org/soundtransit/index.html](http://turbulence.org/soundtransit/index.html)
has interesting field recordings all under the CC BY 2.0 license. If you "Book
a Transit," it compiles an mp3 of several different field recordings, taking
you from city to city. You can also search the database or just browse the
collection.

~~~
limmeau
The flight booking metaphor makes it very inviting to play around. Thanks for
sharing.

(Now if I could get Firefox for Android to download a .mp3 link to local SD
card...)

------
soitgoes
Nice service. When I'm coding Trance, mainly Armin van Buuren, works best for
me.

~~~
jwdunne
Agreed and same. I have a playlist on my phone for just trance which gets
listened to whenever I'm working or even exercising.

I noticed something really interesting - your pace adjusts to the beat. For
example, I took my headphones off to take a call and I was in awe at the speed
of the beat, which only 2 minutes ago sounded fairly regular and not as fast.

~~~
jlengrand
Agreed.

When I was working for my math exams, having to learn dozens of demonstrations
by heart, I have a playlist composed of 6 hours of remixes of satisfaction, by
Benni Benassi. Amazing how 6 hours can look like 30 minutes when you listen to
the same, repititive music :).

------
crazygringo
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...

------
p0nce
I use 25-min "pomodoro" mixes from there
[http://tech.no.com/](http://tech.no.com/)

~~~
boothead
Nice, thanks for sharing!

~~~
p0nce
Also progressive house mixes from [https://soundcloud.com/cid-
inc](https://soundcloud.com/cid-inc) and [https://soundcloud.com/mystic-
mind](https://soundcloud.com/mystic-mind)

------
b0rsuk
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.

~~~
angersock
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.

~~~
b0rsuk
Red Alert 1 amazingly cheesy ? Really ?

Frank Klepacki - "Mechanical Man" (C&C 1)
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap6QaDBZJwM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap6QaDBZJwM)

C&C 1 tracks had vocals unit they figured out it conflicted with the
announcer.

------
buster
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.

------
michaelgrafl
Justin Bieber slowed down by 800% makes for some nice ambient noise.

Someone should assemble a collection of lame pop music that sounds awesome
when piped through Paul's Stretch.

Would listen.

~~~
epsylon
For the lazy, here's the song mentioned:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QspuCt1FM9M](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QspuCt1FM9M)

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](http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch)

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunn_%28band%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunn_%28band%29)

[3]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Djdi6z0m8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Djdi6z0m8)

[4]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buA_xDQQg74](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buA_xDQQg74)

[5]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls1OYn_xGzM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls1OYn_xGzM)

------
jechen
"We are not an entertainment company – we are a productivity tool company. We
provide a new additional service you use to get stuff done better."

Yes! This is exactly the kind of music service I've been looking for when I'm
working.

------
jrnkntl
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](https://soundcloud.com/tags/tech-
house)

------
brusch
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.

------
kvcrawford
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](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/](http://stillstream.com/)

------
frankydp
[http://www.getworkdonemusic.com/](http://www.getworkdonemusic.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.

------
khalidmbajwa
I somehow find techno and trans music to be quite distracting, this playlist
however is an absolute godsend. "[http://8tracks.com/tachedroof/the-only-
study-mix-you-will-ev...](http://8tracks.com/tachedroof/the-only-study-mix-
you-will-ever-need-pt-1")

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.

~~~
philbarr
You mean: [http://8tracks.com/tachedroof/the-only-study-mix-you-will-
ev...](http://8tracks.com/tachedroof/the-only-study-mix-you-will-ever-need-
pt-1)

The quote got included in your link

------
ashutoshm
Yo-Yo Ma - Bach, Cello Suites
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHzfD6XLK7Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHzfD6XLK7Q)

------
eggsyntax
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](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.

------
INTPenis
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.

------
hoytie
I have a "music for programming" spotify playlist for anyone interested:
[http://open.spotify.com/user/thoyt/playlist/2AUYxFDAi6MdOPtg...](http://open.spotify.com/user/thoyt/playlist/2AUYxFDAi6MdOPtgOdcCxF)

I tend to think I do my best work in silence, but for repetitive or boring
tasks it's great to have a lovely soundtrack.

------
cfolgar
Interesting. I've seen a few similar submissions here that play ambient/focus
music. To me, a product or service like this has to provide enough goodies to
sway me from the convenience of a simple Spotify playlist, seeing as that is
the go-to choice for many.

If you can strike a balance between creating helpful productivity
customization and keeping it simple, something like this could really takeoff.

------
b0rsuk
I noticed a while ago that some music needs active listening[1], while other
kinds[2] don't distract me.

1 - Rock, various kinds of progressive music, anything with nontrivial melody

2 - ambient, more monotonous music, music with uniform volume

I'd love to say I've started dividing my music collection according to this
criteria - but I've been too lazy so far. Sorry about that. I'll try once
again.

------
fhd2
Have been using this for about two months now. Never really listened to music
while working before, for some reason it always ended up distracting me (the
kind of music I like anyway).

But with this, I can actually concentrate just fine. Can't really tell if it
helps, but at least it's nice music that doesn't get in the way, good enough
for me :)

------
kaonashi
I need something that my brain isn't going to try to follow along with, like
late 60's/early 70's jazz.

------
QuantumGood
In spotify, the "Exam Study Classical Music…" playlist is good to know:
[http://open.spotify.com/user/127564522/playlist/0CwzkFXVbEK6...](http://open.spotify.com/user/127564522/playlist/0CwzkFXVbEK6VJO3Rzo7lX)

------
brixon
It's different for everyone and you should try out different things. For me, a
2 disc collection of Willie Nelson helps the most since it is a moderate tempo
and I have heard it so many times that it is not distracting. Also, when the 2
CDs are done, I know that I should stand up and stretch.

------
kcorbitt
This is a great little service. I have a "concentrate" playlist in spotify
that tries to fill this need with classical music, but I listen to it in the
background so much that even with a fairly long playlist I get tired of
hearing the same songs. Will definitely be trying this out.

------
tdicola
For concentrating, I'm a big fan of Brian Eno's ambient albums like Ambient 1:
Music for Airports.

------
cpeterso
I like listening to rain or even white (or pink or brown) noise:

[http://www.rainymood.com/](http://www.rainymood.com/)

[http://whitenoisemeditation.bandcamp.com/](http://whitenoisemeditation.bandcamp.com/)

------
mellotron
Boards of Canada pandora, gradually tuned for minor key ambient electronica.

That's my work soundtrack of choice.

------
azsromej
A really nice site for pink noise (and fans, traffic, babbling, airplane
cabins, waterfalls, rivers) is
[http://mynoise.net/noiseMachines.php](http://mynoise.net/noiseMachines.php)

The creator is a signal processing engineer.

------
jcfrei
I've realized that it doesn't matter so much what I listen to but rather how
much. The more often I hear a song / album whilst working the better it helps
me to focus. For a while now this has been pink floyds pulse concert from
1994.

~~~
georgemcbay
For me, songs without lyrics work best, doesn't matter if it is classical or
instrumental techno like Nine Inch Nail's "Ghosts". Songs with vocals that
I've heard a lot are better than songs with vocals that I've never heard
before, presumably because my brain isn't trying as hard to process the words
as it would be if I hadn't heard them as much... but songs with no vocals at
all are the best for focus, IME.

------
deepvibrations
For me it's all about headphones with a good bass response and a bit of deep
dubstep :)
[http://www.youtube.com/deepervibrations](http://www.youtube.com/deepervibrations)

------
5555624
I tend to go with 12 Girls Band or movie soundtracks (Morricone, Horner,
Williams).

------
iMark
I'm deeply in love with Zoe Keating's work. She's a cellist who composes and
records her own music, building compositions using a looper. It's beautiful
stuff, and I find it perfect for coding.

------
oceanician
This works great for me if not used too frequently:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0EgzJ0KGxg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0EgzJ0KGxg)

Wish there was a 8 hour version!

------
yoshgoodman
I use this channel
[http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugb_j1Et8HRUpGiboLsPCw](http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugb_j1Et8HRUpGiboLsPCw)

------
antoncohen
Coffitivity works well for me, it's not music, it's ambient noise
[http://www.coffitivity.com/](http://www.coffitivity.com/)

~~~
swah
But... isn't this exactly like the sound I'm trying to block (coworkers
talking!) ? :)

[edit] I just read on their page that their theory is "It's pretty hard to be
creative in a quiet space". So while I like the "hotel lobbby" feel for some
kinds of work, I disagree that silence is bad.

OTOH, this might work for me because I can't parse engilsh that well.

~~~
antoncohen
No, coworkers walking is distracting because I can hear and understand what
they are saying. My mind gets interested and will try to listen. For me it's
the same with music that has pronounced lyrics.

~~~
swah
Right, so the point is that there is enough people talking at the same time
that it becomes noise..

------
devindotcom
I'm a little confused (though the service looks nice and works well). Do
people not have their own music they prefer to listen to, or a dozen other
ways to stream customized channels?

------
DiabloD3
I'd like to recommend BlueMars as well,
[http://bluemars.org/](http://bluemars.org/)

Although I wish the guy running it would add more music.

------
lectrick
I feel bad for people who can't tolerate this sort of music but wordless
energetic-yet-repetitive techno/trance/dubstep/etc seems to work great for me

------
codereflection
The service looks awesome, will definitely be trying it out.

Also I love how the comments on this post have provided a plethora of new
places to find music. Thanks everyone.

------
ChikkaChiChi
The best sound to help me concentrate would be some sort of ultrasonic
repellent to keep people out of my office (unless absolutely necessary, of
course!)

------
rob-alarcon
I was just testing the site like at 10:00AM and I just realize that I have
been listening and coding with the "Up Tempo" station for about 40 min.

This is nice.

------
orthecreedence
I like DroneZone from SomaFM. It's my go to music for loud neighbors or lots
of distracting noise. Very calming and allows me to concentrate.

------
dbcooper
The mixes from Non-Collective are pretty good too.

[http://noncollective.com/](http://noncollective.com/)

------
jsingleton
[http://www.radioparadise.com](http://www.radioparadise.com) is pretty good
for easy listening

------
ff10
I regularly go with Autechre "Perlence Subrange 6-36", Alva Noto's Xerox Vol.
1, Haliod Copies, Oval - "Systemisch"

------
JoshTriplett
"It appears you have no connectivity."

~~~
wwwhizz
I presume you are blocking Flash.

~~~
Sujan
Nah, happens quite a lot after some time of play.

------
larrykubin
Explosions in the Sky is my go to for this.

------
scotty79
I think that music just tricks my brain into thinking that what I'm doing is
cool though it almost never is.

------
nreece
The app layout is responsive and looks slick too. What framework (if any) did
you use to build the UI?

~~~
biswajitsharma
Apologies, Just in case there has been any confusion. I just came across the
Service, Liked it, Shared it here.

I am not involved in developing this service.

I liked the fact that, there is a lot of science that has gone behind it.

------
gburnett
Thanks for posting this. Silence is preferable to music but music is
preferable to other voices.

------
healsjnr1
Board of Canada. Need I say more?

~~~
amouat
An extra s would be nice - Board _s_ of Canada ;)

Nice to hear a Scottish band getting a shout though.

~~~
partomniscient
Indeed. For those that aren't aware, their new album just came out a few days
ago as well.

------
theclothesthief
Nice app but is the favicon a red tooth? This is bugging me more than it
should.

~~~
thezilch
No,
[https://www.focusatwill.com/favicon.ico](https://www.focusatwill.com/favicon.ico)

------
adamors
Noise, modal jazz. Anything with a simple pattern is distracting.

------
jafaku
Doesn't work. I click on the buttons and nothing happens.

------
revorad
Loving the Up Tempo channel this morning. Nice work.

------
hdra
Dubstep and trance music usually do the job for me

------
vixen99
From Serse? I thought it was Handel.

~~~
gazrogers
It is Handel. The Opera is Serse or Xerxes.

------
Aqueous
Music to let you concatenate.

------
dakimov
I did not get how they handle intellectual property.

