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Music to Code By

Sometimes you need to block out the world in order to work. I find the best solution is to put on a solid pair of closed-cell headphones, like my beloved Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 250ohm headphones, and spin up some good music. With the right tunes I can dive in and work for hours.

Sometimes, however, your MP3 player has died, or your iTunes library sounds a little stale, and searching for music on YouTube would be too much of a distraction. You want fresh playlists of music, with no ads or interruptions. In that case, I have a few suggestions:

StereoMood has a bunch of playlists grouped by whatever mood you’re in (studying, just woke up, working) or want to elicit.

Similarly, 8-Tracks has assorted playlists based on moods or theme (One Person Dance Parties, Gaming, Feeling Better).

Musicovery uses a neat graph – Calm to Energetic, Dark to Positive – to gauge your emotional level, and produces a music track to suit.

thesixtyone, a great showcase of independent musicians, has a similar, if more precise, mood range: party, happy, triply, crazy.

You might want music with more sound and ambience, less rhythm. If that’s the case, may I suggest:

RainyMood: the sounds of a rainy night. Can be especially nice if you mix it right with the RainyMood YouTube feed and appropriate music using YouTube Doubler.

Even distant thunder and raindrops might be a little too structured for you. Your tastes might run to pure noise, in which case SimplyNoise is your friend.

Or you might like the electronic sounds of the city: You Are Listening To Los Angeles is a hypnotic mashup of ambient music overlaid with live feed captures from the radio traffic of the Los Angeles Police Department. (Or, if you prefer French, Montréal. Other cities are also available: Chicago, San Francisco, New York, but I prefer the LA mix.) Or perhaps 24 hours of the warp engines of the starship Enterprise at idle?

I personally find heavily lyrical music distracts me from code or writing; give me instrumental tracks, classical to electronica, and I can develop for days. What about you? What's your favourite music to code or design to? Do you have a favourite site that feeds your musical need?

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I actually make use of youtube quite a lot by using its playlist feature and making up my own music playlist which basically gives me something to listen to, regardless of what computer I'm on. My current favorite though for non-lyrical music is definitely John Murphy's Surface of the Sun, I just love how epic it sounds.

posted by Grant Angus

Usually I can listen to almost anything, but I have two specifics that I go to when all else fails:

  1. Glee. Obviously. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm not the only one. I've often found myself whining about my inability to focus on Twitter and received replies of "put on some Glee!" I think it just gets me in a really good mood, and everyone knows the songs on the show, so singing along takes very little effort.

  2. Maxence Cyrin's piano cover of Where Is My Mind (originally by The Pixies, obviously). On a loop. For days. Something to do with the rhythm of it makes me settle down and focus. I've literally listened to it for 8 hours straight and had some of my more productive days. It is gorgeous.

posted by Aisling Brock

I love rainy mood, nice and relaxing. Should remember to use it more.. I like listening to electronica like Deadmau5 or drums and bass like Pendulum, thought a lot of the latter is a bit too.. energetic? It's better for keeping me awake if I'm working on something in the evening. :P I have a mix of other random music too, but the majority is those two genres.

posted by Heather

I like your anime choices, and may I recommmend "Naussica of the Valley of the Wind", "Kiki's Delivery Service", and "Armitage III" OAVs.

I frequently use Grooveshark for my music, but I thank you for the other suggestions, as I frequently have to block out interruptions while coding at home.


Eric

posted by dedread

OH, I FORGOT. The Cinemix channel under Classical on iTunes radio is gorgeous. Also, stop going back and marking up my comments correctly. :|

posted by Aisling Brock

WhenIcodeIliketolistentoCancerBats,sometimesCannibalCorpseifI'mangry,ormaybes
omeMisfits.Youknowhowitis.Anddon'teditmycommentspleasebecause
I'mbeingcreative.

posted by Dr Shillian Bilcocks

Music is where it's at indeed. In the beginning was the music and the music flowed across the void.

posted by fpurpura

Ah yes, RainyMood's my favorite!

posted by Shayan Zaidi

I like to play 'Listening to Los Angeles' and 'Rainy Mood' simultaneously. It's a complete brain massage.

posted by greg duhaney

I listen to iTunes radio, specifically 'DI - Progressive'.

posted by ROFLWOFFL

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Aisling BrockHaha, that is actually incredibly clever.

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