11 ms·

MusicForProgramming();

411 points by seanplaice 15y ago

mw63214 15y ago
from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2715066 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2715066 "If someone integrated a contextual playlist generator into a web-IDE and changed the music based on length of current session, degree of nesting or other complexity values, time of day based on location, etc..., I think it would be a much appreciated feature."
pizza 15y ago
http://comtruise.com/kc/ http://comtruise.com/kc/ More Com Truise mixes
- badhairday 15y ago
  I love Com Truise. Ether Drift is definitely one of their best songs: http://open.spotify.com/track/2Z6CFvujnkDyPgsNn7zBAh http://open.spotify.com/track/2Z6CFvujnkDyPgsNn7zBAh
vyrotek 15y ago
As a general rule, we're looking for 1 hour long noise/dronescapes with no (or very few) drums or vocals. Happy coding / knitting / drawing / running / painting / writing / baking cakes! Apparently this should really be called "MusicToGetThingsDone" :)
ctdonath 15y ago
Music possessing these qualities can often provide just the right amount of interest to occupy the parts of your brain that would otherwise be left free to wander and lead to distraction during your work. Finally - someone who recognizes that there's a curious & busy part of the brain which must be kept preoccupied during complex tasks, and mixes music just for that purpose. "Trance" music podcasts are a great approximation for this. (See "The Vocal Trance", "Above & Beyond: Trance Around The World", "The Perfect Mix", "Push The Night", "Perfecto Podcast", "The Sound of Trance", "Shakedown Podcast") ETA: Alas, too many managers don't understand this; they think you're getting distracted by the music, and can't comprehend that it is necessary to facilitate focus.
- noonespecial 15y ago
  Oceanlab - Sirens Of The Sea Remixed is my goto. Its like a ticket to the zone. http://www.aboveandbeyond.nu/oceanlab-sirens-of-the-sea-remixed/ http://www.aboveandbeyond.nu/oceanlab-sirens-of-the-sea-remi...
  - joelg87 15y ago
    I find myself playing this one very regularly on Spotify, it really is like a ticket to the zone.
- joejohnson 15y ago
  I couldn't agree more about the Trance podcasts. It's great that these podcasts have no breaks (mixing each song into the next). Music like that with a good beat and lots of crescendos/decrescendos can be ideal for tuning out everything around me and staying focused for a long period of time.
  - kstenerud 15y ago
    You can also get good stuff on TT in the Trance Out room.
- emillon 15y ago
  > Finally - someone [...] mixes music just for that purpose. DJ Bolivia has been quite known for his "Music to code by" mixes, I definitely recommend them. http://djbolivia.blogspot.com/2011/04/music-to-code-by-volumes-1-3.html http://djbolivia.blogspot.com/2011/04/music-to-code-by-volum...
  - runevault 15y ago
    Just grabbed these and started the first track for while I work from home (go go Denver snow) and I'm really digging it. Thanks for the pointer.
    - 15y ago
Rotor 15y ago
Personally I enjoy minimal electronic music while coding. It fits nicely into the background while still sounding interesting. This site has some good minimal mixes http://deepmix.eu/ http://deepmix.eu/
k_bx 15y ago
http://www.kievbass.com/podcasts/ http://www.kievbass.com/podcasts/ works for me
- davemarchevsky 15y ago
  This site has some really diverse mixes, thanks!
udp 15y ago
I think the site is starting to creak under the strain. Perhaps a torrent of the MP3s would be a good idea?
- jQueryIsAwesome 15y ago
  Or maybe just use mediafire or hulkshare.
- manveru 15y ago
  I only have one, but it's quite nice. magnet:?xt=urn:btih:RT5HIT44ZRQPNZOBCP7WAWXC4X5XT43D&dn=music_for_programming_4-com_truise.mp3&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80%2Fannounce
  - manveru 15y ago
    And here's a list of all so far for future reference, seems like the site is doing fine for now though. magnet:?xt=urn:btih:LKY6JNYEXZZ3DNXJGMQANRQRC65DEDMS&dn=music_for_programming_1-datassette.mp3&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80%2Fannounce magnet:?xt=urn:btih:YQN3QLRTSAYWBWT3BHOVJJHHSWBYOQIJ&dn=music_for_programming_2-sunjammer.mp3&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80%2Fannounce magnet:?xt=urn:btih:UE3W6G6R5XQ5A6RV4HU74LCUIFJWMXRK&dn=music_for_programming_3-datassette.mp3&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80%2Fannounce magnet:?xt=urn:btih:RT5HIT44ZRQPNZOBCP7WAWXC4X5XT43D&dn=music_for_programming_4-com_truise.mp3&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80%2Fannounce
lignuist 15y ago
Jan Jelinek's music is great for programming. At least for me. :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jKqVswlAZ0&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jKqVswlAZ0&feature=relat...
- brownegg 15y ago
  Make sure to check out his LP under the name Gramm. first track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kHEu50uq3w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kHEu50uq3w
  - lignuist 15y ago
    Was my coding soundtrack for years. :) Actually I couldn't find a less distracting album yet. Just a little more than silence.
j45 15y ago
Somafm.com has a few channels with few drums or vocals 9 beet stretch might be of interest to anyone wanting something long noise/dronescapes
m_for_monkey 15y ago
If you use background music only for noise cancellation (crying babies, reconstruction works etc.), I recommend http://www.simplynoise.com/ http://www.simplynoise.com/. It's not as distracting as even the most minimalistic trance.
- ineedtosleep 15y ago
  Ah nice. Definitely bookmarking this. Also related, I started using rainymood, fireplace and jazz loops found on a reddit thread from a while back [1]. After using different combinations of the 3, I've found that sometimes music doesn't cut it, and a simple fireplace/rain loop helps me work better. [1] http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/ca4bl/time_to_get_classy/ http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/ca4bl/time_to_ge...)
  - m_for_monkey 15y ago
    These are great, too. I can't stand the water sounds, though. After a few minutes I feel an urge to urinate :).
richardk 15y ago
Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works?
- fady 15y ago
  i was thinking the same thing. both albums are really good.
- nlawalker 15y ago
  This is what I came here to say. I just started trying to improve my focus with isolating earbuds (haven't invested in noise cancelling cans yet) and rainymood.com. I heard the term "ambient" recently and decided to give it a try on Pandora, and got Lichen (#19) from Vol. 2 as the first track. I picked up both albums from Amazon soon after. Having no previous connection to electronic music at all and only knowing Aphex Twin from "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker" (not my thing), I was pleasantly surprised. Some of it's a little dark and/or tweaky, but most of it is great to have on while working, and it covers a range of upbeat/downbeat without ever getting into "dance beats", which don't help me at all.
- jentulman 15y ago
  Hello Everything by Squarepusher goes along nicely with this too. Not too up, not too down.
- alptrv 15y ago
  I used to listen Aphex Twin's music, works great for me, but now I mostly listening to The Flashbulb's compositions, can listen it for a whole day. Arboreal and Kirlian Selections albums are pure piece of art.
- un1xl0ser 15y ago
  Bogdan Raczynski's stuff can be quite nice and varies from acoustic Polish roots on accordion to 8bit beats and well executed video game nostalgia. Lots of stuff on Warp records does nicely, as already mentioned. Autechre, Boards of Canada, Of Montreal. I've been listening to Evil Twin by Modeselector way too often recently. I assume that most people here like to keep it mellow. I also listen to Amorphis (melodic metal) and lots of underground hip-hop, especially when I have to do administrative work and need a change of pace.
ben_straub 15y ago
Made a Pandora station seeded from the artists in all the mixes. http://www.pandora.com/#!/stations/play/738121268334091862 http://www.pandora.com/#!/stations/play/738121268334091862
- jseims 15y ago
  Thank you, thank you!
- subbu 15y ago
  I really wish Pandora was in my country too. SSH tunneling is too expensive.
  - nzmsv 15y ago
    Little known fact: only the webapp part of Pandora is IP-restricted. The media servers are open to the world. So as long as you can load the player through a tunnel, the actual mp3s can go through your normal connection.
DrCatbox 15y ago
Alpha and Omega (dub) and is the music I code by, repetitions, echos and reverb, the groove just takes you forward in your code. Example: http://grooveshark.com/s/Chantig/41T4IJ?src=5 http://grooveshark.com/s/Chantig/41T4IJ?src=5 http://grooveshark.com/s/Higher+Than+High/2JhKQT?src=5 http://grooveshark.com/s/Higher+Than+High/2JhKQT?src=5
fady 15y ago
nice. thanks for the mixes. i use "boards of canada" pandora station to accomplish the same idea. you get a lot of down tempo, ambient styles.
saturdaysaint 15y ago
I wish these were compiled in a Soundcloud - something mobile-friendly that lets you skip around in a mix without downloading the thing. And the hosting is pretty slow.
- djtriptych 15y ago
  Hosting seems pretty borked at the moment. And yeah would be great to be able to preview some of this without downloading a 100MB+ file...
  - LearnYouALisp 15y ago
    Agreed, I didn't want to waste a hundred megabytes of the owner's bandwidth (plus the time to download) just to sample the file, so I pasted the link into a media player to stream it. However, it was not able to jump ahead in the program I used (Media Player Classic).
    - _grrr 15y ago
      I made this a while back http://www.soundcloudwall.com/ http://www.soundcloudwall.com/
turbolent 15y ago
http://www.limbikfreq.com/ http://www.limbikfreq.com/ http://somafm.com/ http://somafm.com/
djtriptych 15y ago
I pretty much just play Trent Reznor when I don't feel like putting together a playlist. I've also really enjoyed listening to motorik rhythms lately. Something about that beat makes me feel like I'm constantly moving forward. Stereolab are the modern masters...
Void_ 15y ago
ETN.fm guys.
upthedale 15y ago
Whilst not music, I find listening to http://www.rainymood.com http://www.rainymood.com to be great for concentrating. It's a 30 minute sample of a rain storm. It got me through my Master's dissertation, where I had it on loop for hours at a time. Fiddler tells me you can currently grab the mp3 from here http://173.193.205.68/audio/RainyMood.mp3 http://173.193.205.68/audio/RainyMood.mp3 (this was especially useful for the times I wanted to be disconnected from the internet to focus on work).
- meow 15y ago
  Most of the time it helps me sink into deep sleep :)
  - Nathandim 15y ago
    Yep, add an extra point of help for those suffering with tinnitus (like me) and the site is suddenly made of gold.
- bobwebb 15y ago
  Oh wow, this is brilliant. I had heard of rainy mood before, but I'm so grateful you've found an mp3 of it. This is going to be on my mp3 player all the time now.
jonursenbach 15y ago
Would love it if there were Spotify playlist links for these.
- oe 15y ago
  I searched for the artists of episode 1 in Spotify. Only ~1/3 of them could be found and often the specific songs were not there.
draggnar 15y ago
That Com Truise mix is nice. Also check out his Komputer Cast 4 part set http://comtruise.com/kc/ http://comtruise.com/kc/
- simondlr 15y ago
  Com Truise is great. Discovered him last year. I'm a sucker for ambient lo-fi stuff.
jianshen 15y ago
Side question: why do you think so many coders prefer electronic music to be productive? Based on the comments here, electronic music (whether it's ambient, trance or dubstep) appears to be the assumed genre.
- ctdonath 15y ago
  1. As vishaldpatel notes, the pattern resembles meditative mantras. However the mind reacts to religious chanting, "trance" resembles that and invokes similar focus to the exclusion of other distractions. Indeed, we call the music "trance" for a reason. 2. The music does not demand attention to itself. Most other music is created with a "drop what your doing and pay attention to ME" sense, and we go to concerts and pay good money to listen to such music for what it is as the center of our attention at that time. Dance music derived from ambient origins creates a beautiful backdrop to something else, driving away other distractions and setting a pleasant environment for whatever we really want to do; most of it is created for, well, dancing - but the style where the focus is on self & moment, not on music or others & events. In our culture, very little else combines to create this audio backdrop combining meditation and high energy. Most instruments demand the musician(s) focus on a full performance, and hence expect (hope?) the audience to give similar attention - the antithesis of what we're looking for here. Even "minimalist" acoustic[ish] music like Philip Glass & Steve Reich, which resembles "trance", requires an intense single-performance effort & focus of the performers, giving the implication to the audience that similar focus should return the favor. Electronic music allows lots of free-running loops, zero-effort samples, edited-to-perfection sequences, and time-unconstrained editing after the fact - to wit, it's not created live, not intended for live performance, and the artist has no attitude of "I'm not utterly focused on perfect end-to-end performance of this, so I don't expect utter focus of the audience". Acoustic meditative music heads this way, but involves the performer in the focused activity; music isn't an ingrained part/consequence of coding. Upshot: electronic music lends itself to creating coding-productive music. We'd like such music from other sources, but nothing else lends itself to producing such high-energy long-run content without demanding the listener's attention.
  - technomancy 15y ago
tucosan 15y ago
OK, the site seems down. I managed to download half a mix until i got timeouts. If anyone managed to download those track, a mirror somewhere else, or a torrent would be really nice. Anyone care to provide us with a mirror?
joshaidan 15y ago
I think the site might be going a bit slow for me. Is there a mirror?
- ecaron 15y ago
  I reached out to @datassette to see if he'd let us host the MP3s for him on Cloudfront, so fingers crossed!
  - ecaron 15y ago
    The mirror of #4 is up: http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_4-com_truise.mp3 http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_4-...
leeoniya 15y ago
i usually stream psytrance, works well for some reason :)
- stdgy 15y ago
  I went through a long Shpongle phase about a year and half ago. Great coding music, if you don't mind the heavy psychedelic feel.
  - burke 15y ago
    Same story here. I wish there was more music that sounded like them. Particularly more music that sounded like Dorset Perception.
vishaldpatel 15y ago
Buddhists often chant mantras to stay in meditation. I suspect that a steady beat / rhythm has a lot more to do with concentrating than any specific genre. It gets the rest of our minds jogging along with the thing we're trying to achieve.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
pork 15y ago
Wow, you're really asking for a lawsuit aren't you? I mean, MP3s available for download for free on a simple HTML website? What is this, 1998?
- angersock 15y ago
  Or maybe it's more important to help your fellow programmers than worry about stupid legal shit?
mutewinter 15y ago
I wrote a blog post about this a while back, I'll just leave that right here. http://pileofturtles.com/2010/12/music-for-programming/ http://pileofturtles.com/2010/12/music-for-programming/
zavulon 15y ago
Instrumental classical mix works best for me. I put on Mozart or Beethoven radio on last.fm and just skip all the stuff with words (i.e. opera)
sil3ntmac 15y ago
My favorite album to listen to while I code is probably Blockhead's "The Music Scene." Gets the blood pumping.
potomak 15y ago
I was unconsciously searching for this for a while!
paulnasca 15y ago
Few years ago I wrote an extreme time stretching software ( http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/ http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/ ). You can use it to get a nice audio ambiance from any music or sound.
- farnsworth 15y ago
  I remember when paulstretch was making the rounds a year or two ago and I still find it fascinating- just want to say thanks!
- markbao 15y ago
  I remember using Paulstretch a long time ago, with amusing, awesome, though sometimes spooky results. Nice work!
- Ryanmf 15y ago
  Fancy seeing you here. Thank you. I get quite a lot of use out of it.
- desireco42 15y ago
  I really like the part with binaural beats...
mstevens 15y ago
I used to find http://musicforhackers.com/ http://musicforhackers.com/ the perfect background to coding, but they're down, and I've never worked out another source of the sort of stuff they played.
- kennywinker 15y ago
  All my upvotes. I started listening to this 15min ago and it's been 100% perfect so far. Thanks!
ggwicz 15y ago
Matt Mullenweg's method (at least, that's where I first heard it) of playing one song on repeat really works for me. I like short, simple songs. Something like a song off CYNE's album Evolution Fight works really well. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP2ISUThbcQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP2ISUThbcQ&feature=youtu...
astral303 15y ago
Atmospheric drum'n'bass is where it is at for coding. Warm lushness, yet rhythms that will help you keep your mental cadence up. Here are two mixes you should DL & listen to: http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/1%20-%20Monday/Atmospheric%20Chamber%20-%20Indigo%20Sync/2011/%5B2011.05.02%5D%20Atmospheric%20Chamber%20-%20Indigo%20Sync.mp3 http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/1%20-%20Monday/Atmosphe... http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/4%20-%20Thursday/Scenic%20and%20Advisory%20Show%20-%20Scenic%20and%20Advisory/2011/%5B2011.12.22%5D%20Scenic%20and%20Advisory%20Show%20-%20Scenic%20and%20Advisory.mp3 http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/4%20-%20Thursday/Scenic... Lush atmospherics, low-slung 29-38hz basslines, rock out to either full-time at 175bpm or half-time at 87bpm, depending on your mood.
- astral303 15y ago
  And on a more upbeat, liquid sunshine note, for those who want to go faster/harder: http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/1%20-%20Monday/Atmospheric%20Chamber%20-%20Indigo%20Sync/%5B2012.01.16%5D%20Atmospheric%20Chamber%20-%20Indigo%20Sync%20%5BSpecial%20Guest%20Soundsurfer%5D.mp3 http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/1%20-%20Monday/Atmosphe... (Bjork remix at the end kills it)
- achompas 15y ago
  These are excellent--halfway to my favorite LTJ Bukem mixes. Thanks for the links.
- jonstjohn 15y ago
  Great for late night coding when so much productive works get done. I've been a huge drum and bass fan for years - reverberates deeply for me.
- codesnik 15y ago
  If only DJs in thoose sets could shut their mouths. Extremly distracting.
- ajtaylor 15y ago
  Listened to the beginning few minutes of the first, and went straight to downloading. Thanks for the links.
jentulman 15y ago
I was recently pointed to http://block.fm/ http://block.fm/ as I like to go with some beats to work with and they have some great Dnb and electronica shows. Usually I can't cope with any words, lyrics in the song or presenters on a show, but if I can't understand the words, in this case because I speak no Japanese, it's not a problem and sometimes it's nice to have voices (outside my head) as part of the white noise.
- jcromartie 15y ago
  Indeed, the presenters on DnB shows are usually really hard to understand. "Big ups to cheesy grifter in tha gleebow huppa dig walla shim bam to ya fo keepin it real ya". I have no idea what they are saying. Since it's supposedly English, my mind has to try and parse it. Very distracting.
  - jentulman 15y ago
    :) I feel I should point you in the direction of the Hospital records podcast, in case you haven't found it http://www.hospitalrecords.com/broadcast/ http://www.hospitalrecords.com/broadcast/. The usual presenter is the label boss Tony Coleman, and a nicer man you'll be hard pressed to find. No posing, no cheese, no slang and a constant positive attitude. Plus it's an absolutely superb label.
Thangorodrim 15y ago
The site is unresponsive, but I wanted to recommend: Philip Glass symphonies Wagner's The Ring ( unless you speak German ) Slayer
- abruzzi 15y ago
  The stuff that works best for me is the Phillip Glass early crossover stuff (i.e. post-Einstein.) Things like Glasspieces, Dancepieces, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, The Photographer, and the three *qatsi films. They're minimal enough not to intrude on the foreground, but also not as harsh and "difficult" as the early stuff like large chunks of Einstein (except the knee plays) and Music in 12 Parts.
domador 15y ago
Got a "bandwidth exceeded" error message. Too bad.
Karn 15y ago
Some of my favourites: Michael Brook - Err: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcyQISCPTTs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcyQISCPTTs Michael Brook - Ultramarine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITFyP9b7ius http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITFyP9b7ius Michael Brook - Several Times II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK-oVQaTg_4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK-oVQaTg_4 Cliff Martinez - Helicopter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogDj3uXLP7w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogDj3uXLP7w Hammock - Maybe they will sing for us tomorrow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6kKjyHrXMw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6kKjyHrXMw
ciroduran 15y ago
509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded :-( Guess the hacker news-dotting did it. Care to torrent the files? :-)
MetalMASK 15y ago
This is definitely one of the areas that is to each his/her own. I found (the majority of) trance music superficial and get quite easily bored listening to them. Songs with lyrics messes with the language processing module of the brain and I don't want that kind of distraction. So I listen to classical, instrumental, OST and some techno (that are NOT tons of bass). Example of songs I am listening to now: Pierre Bensusan - Kourouts Nota (highly recommended) Eric Johnson - Gem Steffen Schackinger - On a rainy night The Glitch Mob - Animus Vox Klint - Diamond (OST from Snatch) Mirwais - Disco Science (OST from Snatch) Nathaniel Mechaly - Opéra (OST from Snatch) ... In case anyone is interested, this is my playlist on Grooveshark: http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Sen+s+Music+For+Coding/66931078 http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Sen+s+Music+For+Coding/66931... Again, music snobbery is one of the worst topics of discussion (I certainly don't want to invoke it), to each his/her own.
- Hortinstein 15y ago
  good call on glitch mob, I would check out emancipator too
droctopu5 15y ago
I used to be able to dev to any kind of music or talk, but it's gotten harder as I've gotten older. Sometimes I try to pick music that culturally matches the web site I'm working on. - Classical: sometimes pleasant, but can be too dramatic. - Hard electronic (dance, club, dubstep): too distracting Minimal or ambient techno tends to be way to go when I'm trying to focus on something, but need something to keep that part of my mind occupied. Soma.FM and Digitally Imported have the best streaming stations for that, IMHO. http://somafm.com/spacestation/ http://somafm.com/spacestation/ http://somafm.com/dronezone/ http://somafm.com/dronezone/ http://www.di.fm/minimal http://www.di.fm/minimal http://www.di.fm/chillout http://www.di.fm/chillout
AlexCP 15y ago
I always listen to http://designers.mx/ http://designers.mx/ when I work, lots of great mixes and a nice way to discover new genre.
shearn89 15y ago
My absolute favourite album to code to would actually be the Tron Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk, but I've also spent the last few years at uni listening to http://www.prettylightsmusic.com/ http://www.prettylightsmusic.com/ while I code: his albums are all available for free/donation, and the genre is kind of down-tempo electronic. There's the occaisonal vocal sample, but I've found it doesn't distract me from work. Endtroducing by DJ Shadow is also worth a listen, as although there's vocals, they're generally calm. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32X-ieCav-M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32X-ieCav-M
- kennywinker 15y ago
  I listen to the Tron Legacy soundtrack a few times a week. It's perfect for getting shit done. Enough intensity to keep me focused, not enough to be distracting. I'm also partial to Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport when I want something weirder, and DRMHLLR when I want something less electronic.
- morsch 15y ago
  The Tron Legacy OST is always fun, but it's even better when you listen to it doing something suitably epic, because many tracks sound so unapologetically grand. Perfect sound track for handing in an important paper and doing mountain climbing. Or doing mock epic things: feel like Batman while chopping onions. Some of the tracks from the remix album are also pretty cool.
- alinajaf 15y ago
  Try the Tron Legacy: Reconfigured soundtrack (mixes of the original). Same level of epic but better to program to IMO.
coopersloan 15y ago
Groove Salad has always been one of my favorite streams for coding. Lots of down-tempo stuff, tasteful choices: http://somafm.com/groovesalad/ http://somafm.com/groovesalad/
xxpor 15y ago
I find that music with no lyrics is most helpful. Stuff like a lot of post rock, such as Explosions in the Sky or Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Another option is Math Rock like Battles (I am actually listening to Gloss Drop right now).
- oceanician 15y ago
  Snap. Though I think I may have accidentally tranced out my co-workers in the past with this music.
mvalente 15y ago
Ulrich Schnauss, System 7, Man With No Name, Art of Trance, Dimension 5, Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Astral Projection, Kraftwerk, VNV Nation...
- mvalente 15y ago
  I'm usually a metal/hardrock guy, but coding to that is impossible. Major le me singing and playing air guitar and air drums.
- mvalente 15y ago
  Here's a Grooveshark playlist http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Music+For+Coding/66934126 http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Music+For+Coding/66934126
pnmahoney 15y ago
daft punk, daft punk, daft punk.
tobiasSoftware 15y ago
One of my favorite CDs for coding: Ecco the Dolphin. I'm not making it up, the CD by Spencer Nilsen is amazing, just perfect to code to. Also, the song "Water Ruins" from the video game Jet Force Gemini and anything by Opus III is excellent as well. Then there's "Just Hold On" by Jillian Aversa, and Super Metroid remixes on OCRemix, "Kindred," "Avien," and "Solitude." And I have dozens of trance CDs for coding too.
jff 15y ago
I typically just listen to my rockabilly/psychobilly station, I can't handle the trance/techno/ambient/whatever music everybody else seems to advocate. A good Reverend Horton Heat track has a good beat and fast pace too, it's just a lot more fun for me.
mark_h 15y ago
My go-to artist is Zoe Keating (layered cello, and on bandcamp as an added bonus: http://music.zoekeating.com/ http://music.zoekeating.com/). She's also quite interesting to follow: she's heavily into twitter, and is quite open about her profits, dealings with labels, etc. Otherwise though, vocal-less trance is usually pretty effective. I love all the recommendations these threads bring up -- thanks everyone!
- damncabbage 15y ago
  This is wonderful; thank you for the link. Just bought the download. :) I've recently been hooked on 41 Strings, a short vocal-less composition by Nick Zinner (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs). He's performed it live in a bunch of places, but it's available for download here: http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/download-nick-zinners-i41-stringsi-and-watch-making-of-video http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/download-nick-zinners...
  - mark_h 15y ago
    I just got around to checking that out; thanks!
- maular 15y ago
  Wow, she's great. Thanks for the recommendation!
- spacemanaki 15y ago
  Here's a Radiolab segment about her, and they use some of her music in their shows: http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2008/aug/25/quantum-cello/ http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2008/aug/25/quan...
- meow 15y ago
  Wow, all her tracks are so soul soothing...
eLobato 15y ago
Ludovico Einaudi and Max Richter put me in the mood quite nicely. Mozart, the three tenors, and similar stuff also work (but most of the time not as good as the former artists). Nonetheless that's rara avis among my coworkers, anyone else listening to similar stuff while coding?
- lautis 15y ago
  I sometimes listen to ambient-ish classical music while coding. Ólafur Arnalds and Jóhann Jóhannsson have been recently on my list.
moondowner 15y ago
Reading through the comments, I'm glad that there are people on HN who know what good music is - from Trance and Ambient to Dubstep and what not. And I want to say that Com Truise's album Galactic Melt is one of the best albums for me for 2011. It gets even better if you combine it with Daft Punk's TRON OST and put those two on shuffle.
koudelka 15y ago
I'm amazed that nobody has mentioned Hybrid yet: http://www.hybridsoundsystem.com http://www.hybridsoundsystem.com
mrinterweb 15y ago
I can't concentrate on programming because my brain can't ignore how bad the music is.
glfomfn 15y ago
For me they are two 'states'. When i am doing something 'tough/complicated/new etc' that needs 100% of my attention i need complete silence, no music, no sounds, nothing. When that's not the case (95% of time) i am fine with any kind of music, my taste goes from dubstep to classical and based on the mood i am fine to listen to anything.
- BurnZeZ 15y ago
  I cannot agree more. Often it makes me wish there was some type of program/device that plays music based on concentration levels. What happens when I start getting into something complicated, is that I notice the music. Until this point, it's just kind of in the background. It feels like my brain's saying, "Not enough CPU to play music and work on this problem. Please eliminate the problem."
paragraft 15y ago
I've found the drone music this guy does fantastic for zoning in while coding: http://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/ http://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/ Particularly of note is his 8 hour album "Field Recordings from the Edge of Hell" http://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/field-recordings-from-the-edge-of-hell http://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/field-recordings-from-the... . It's my go-to when I need to sit down and concentrate.
hk_kh 15y ago
Too comments. Nevertheless, I want to share, High Tone, that's all http://www.hightone.org http://www.hightone.org (fuck dubstep, let the old people stick to dub)
jvoorhis 15y ago
I was playing Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto when a contractor came for an on-site and he remarked on how it was good "design music". He mentioned he preferred ambient music whilst doing cognitively intensive work. When doing something rote, rock, pop or metal was a good choice.
eslaught 15y ago
What is the license for this music?
BasDirks 15y ago
I love listening to Paul Kalkbrenner while programming.
leon_ 15y ago
this music is the suxx0r. goa trance > all
oceanician 15y ago
Personally I find music without vocals, or very familiar music in the background to be useful. Blocks out the occasional car going past. Post-rock is really good unless it sends you into a trance haha. Actually hate working with headphones on now. Similarly using music I love to block out noisey work environments doesn't work. (Well, noisey work environments just don't work do they!). FWIW: I'm on last.fm as rock666
bellbind 15y ago
Wrong in so many ways.. I don't know where to start.
dmoo 15y ago
I've an Icelandic kick going on at the moment, some really great music coming out of there. Try Johan johannsson http://www.ausersmanual.org/stage/ http://www.ausersmanual.org/stage/ which is good but also with extra hacker kudos given the topic Also Olafur Arnalds http://olafurarnalds.com/multimedia/ http://olafurarnalds.com/multimedia/
eisbaw 15y ago
Röyksopp is #1!!!
kapranoff 15y ago
I will add my 5 cents with a mention of Qawwali music and specifically works of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. See, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustt_Mustt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustt_Mustt. This is not just a ticket to the zone for me, more like a teleport :)
larrytheliquid 15y ago
dj finny's dnb mixes have been sustaining me for years: http://www.mixcloud.com/finny/ http://www.mixcloud.com/finny/ i can't handle the monotony of trance, and dubstep can be a bit too much. a lot of dnb also tends to be repetitive, but finny keeps things lively enough for you to pay attention to code
robomartin 15y ago
Pink Floyd Mozart Bach
datassette 15y ago
http://musicforprogramming.net/ http://musicforprogramming.net/ now has an RSS feed
datassette 15y ago
http://musicforprogramming.net/ http://musicforprogramming.net/ now has an RSS feed
gtrak 15y ago
account suspended whaaa???
gtrak 15y ago
I found the links to what was up: http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_1-datassette.mp3 http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_1-... http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_2-sunjammer.mp3 http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_2-... http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_3-datassette.mp3 http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_3-... http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_4-com_truise.mp3 http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_4-...
blob8108 15y ago
I really like DJ Shadow for this kind of thing. Try "Midnight in a Perfect World": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmzHRGoKca0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmzHRGoKca0

411 points by seanplaice 15y ago

from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2715066 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2715066 "If someone integrated a contextual playlist generator into a web-IDE and changed the music based on length of current session, degree of nesting or other complexity values, time of day based on location, etc..., I think it would be a much appreciated feature."

pizza 15y ago

http://comtruise.com/kc/ http://comtruise.com/kc/ More Com Truise mixes

badhairday 15y ago
I love Com Truise. Ether Drift is definitely one of their best songs: http://open.spotify.com/track/2Z6CFvujnkDyPgsNn7zBAh http://open.spotify.com/track/2Z6CFvujnkDyPgsNn7zBAh

vyrotek 15y ago

As a general rule, we're looking for 1 hour long noise/dronescapes with no (or very few) drums or vocals. Happy coding / knitting / drawing / running / painting / writing / baking cakes! Apparently this should really be called "MusicToGetThingsDone" :)

ctdonath 15y ago

Music possessing these qualities can often provide just the right amount of interest to occupy the parts of your brain that would otherwise be left free to wander and lead to distraction during your work. Finally - someone who recognizes that there's a curious & busy part of the brain which must be kept preoccupied during complex tasks, and mixes music just for that purpose. "Trance" music podcasts are a great approximation for this. (See "The Vocal Trance", "Above & Beyond: Trance Around The World", "The Perfect Mix", "Push The Night", "Perfecto Podcast", "The Sound of Trance", "Shakedown Podcast") ETA: Alas, too many managers don't understand this; they think you're getting distracted by the music, and can't comprehend that it is necessary to facilitate focus.

noonespecial 15y ago
Oceanlab - Sirens Of The Sea Remixed is my goto. Its like a ticket to the zone. http://www.aboveandbeyond.nu/oceanlab-sirens-of-the-sea-remixed/ http://www.aboveandbeyond.nu/oceanlab-sirens-of-the-sea-remi...
- joelg87 15y ago
  I find myself playing this one very regularly on Spotify, it really is like a ticket to the zone.
joejohnson 15y ago
I couldn't agree more about the Trance podcasts. It's great that these podcasts have no breaks (mixing each song into the next). Music like that with a good beat and lots of crescendos/decrescendos can be ideal for tuning out everything around me and staying focused for a long period of time.
- kstenerud 15y ago
  You can also get good stuff on TT in the Trance Out room.
emillon 15y ago
> Finally - someone [...] mixes music just for that purpose. DJ Bolivia has been quite known for his "Music to code by" mixes, I definitely recommend them. http://djbolivia.blogspot.com/2011/04/music-to-code-by-volumes-1-3.html http://djbolivia.blogspot.com/2011/04/music-to-code-by-volum...
- runevault 15y ago
  Just grabbed these and started the first track for while I work from home (go go Denver snow) and I'm really digging it. Thanks for the pointer.
  - 15y ago

Rotor 15y ago

Personally I enjoy minimal electronic music while coding. It fits nicely into the background while still sounding interesting. This site has some good minimal mixes http://deepmix.eu/ http://deepmix.eu/

k_bx 15y ago

http://www.kievbass.com/podcasts/ http://www.kievbass.com/podcasts/ works for me

davemarchevsky 15y ago
This site has some really diverse mixes, thanks!

udp 15y ago

I think the site is starting to creak under the strain. Perhaps a torrent of the MP3s would be a good idea?

jQueryIsAwesome 15y ago
Or maybe just use mediafire or hulkshare.
manveru 15y ago
I only have one, but it's quite nice. magnet:?xt=urn:btih:RT5HIT44ZRQPNZOBCP7WAWXC4X5XT43D&dn=music_for_programming_4-com_truise.mp3&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80%2Fannounce
- manveru 15y ago
  And here's a list of all so far for future reference, seems like the site is doing fine for now though. magnet:?xt=urn:btih:LKY6JNYEXZZ3DNXJGMQANRQRC65DEDMS&dn=music_for_programming_1-datassette.mp3&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80%2Fannounce magnet:?xt=urn:btih:YQN3QLRTSAYWBWT3BHOVJJHHSWBYOQIJ&dn=music_for_programming_2-sunjammer.mp3&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80%2Fannounce magnet:?xt=urn:btih:UE3W6G6R5XQ5A6RV4HU74LCUIFJWMXRK&dn=music_for_programming_3-datassette.mp3&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80%2Fannounce magnet:?xt=urn:btih:RT5HIT44ZRQPNZOBCP7WAWXC4X5XT43D&dn=music_for_programming_4-com_truise.mp3&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80%2Fannounce

lignuist 15y ago

Jan Jelinek's music is great for programming. At least for me. :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jKqVswlAZ0&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jKqVswlAZ0&feature=relat...

brownegg 15y ago
Make sure to check out his LP under the name Gramm. first track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kHEu50uq3w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kHEu50uq3w
- lignuist 15y ago
  Was my coding soundtrack for years. :) Actually I couldn't find a less distracting album yet. Just a little more than silence.

j45 15y ago

Somafm.com has a few channels with few drums or vocals 9 beet stretch might be of interest to anyone wanting something long noise/dronescapes

m_for_monkey 15y ago

If you use background music only for noise cancellation (crying babies, reconstruction works etc.), I recommend http://www.simplynoise.com/ http://www.simplynoise.com/. It's not as distracting as even the most minimalistic trance.

ineedtosleep 15y ago
Ah nice. Definitely bookmarking this. Also related, I started using rainymood, fireplace and jazz loops found on a reddit thread from a while back [1]. After using different combinations of the 3, I've found that sometimes music doesn't cut it, and a simple fireplace/rain loop helps me work better. [1] http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/ca4bl/time_to_get_classy/ http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/ca4bl/time_to_ge...)
- m_for_monkey 15y ago
  These are great, too. I can't stand the water sounds, though. After a few minutes I feel an urge to urinate :).

richardk 15y ago

Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works?

fady 15y ago
i was thinking the same thing. both albums are really good.
nlawalker 15y ago
This is what I came here to say. I just started trying to improve my focus with isolating earbuds (haven't invested in noise cancelling cans yet) and rainymood.com. I heard the term "ambient" recently and decided to give it a try on Pandora, and got Lichen (#19) from Vol. 2 as the first track. I picked up both albums from Amazon soon after. Having no previous connection to electronic music at all and only knowing Aphex Twin from "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker" (not my thing), I was pleasantly surprised. Some of it's a little dark and/or tweaky, but most of it is great to have on while working, and it covers a range of upbeat/downbeat without ever getting into "dance beats", which don't help me at all.
jentulman 15y ago
Hello Everything by Squarepusher goes along nicely with this too. Not too up, not too down.
alptrv 15y ago
I used to listen Aphex Twin's music, works great for me, but now I mostly listening to The Flashbulb's compositions, can listen it for a whole day. Arboreal and Kirlian Selections albums are pure piece of art.
un1xl0ser 15y ago
Bogdan Raczynski's stuff can be quite nice and varies from acoustic Polish roots on accordion to 8bit beats and well executed video game nostalgia. Lots of stuff on Warp records does nicely, as already mentioned. Autechre, Boards of Canada, Of Montreal. I've been listening to Evil Twin by Modeselector way too often recently. I assume that most people here like to keep it mellow. I also listen to Amorphis (melodic metal) and lots of underground hip-hop, especially when I have to do administrative work and need a change of pace.

ben_straub 15y ago

Made a Pandora station seeded from the artists in all the mixes. http://www.pandora.com/#!/stations/play/738121268334091862 http://www.pandora.com/#!/stations/play/738121268334091862

jseims 15y ago
Thank you, thank you!
subbu 15y ago
I really wish Pandora was in my country too. SSH tunneling is too expensive.
- nzmsv 15y ago
  Little known fact: only the webapp part of Pandora is IP-restricted. The media servers are open to the world. So as long as you can load the player through a tunnel, the actual mp3s can go through your normal connection.

DrCatbox 15y ago

Alpha and Omega (dub) and is the music I code by, repetitions, echos and reverb, the groove just takes you forward in your code. Example: http://grooveshark.com/s/Chantig/41T4IJ?src=5 http://grooveshark.com/s/Chantig/41T4IJ?src=5 http://grooveshark.com/s/Higher+Than+High/2JhKQT?src=5 http://grooveshark.com/s/Higher+Than+High/2JhKQT?src=5

fady 15y ago

nice. thanks for the mixes. i use "boards of canada" pandora station to accomplish the same idea. you get a lot of down tempo, ambient styles.

saturdaysaint 15y ago

I wish these were compiled in a Soundcloud - something mobile-friendly that lets you skip around in a mix without downloading the thing. And the hosting is pretty slow.

djtriptych 15y ago
Hosting seems pretty borked at the moment. And yeah would be great to be able to preview some of this without downloading a 100MB+ file...
- LearnYouALisp 15y ago
  Agreed, I didn't want to waste a hundred megabytes of the owner's bandwidth (plus the time to download) just to sample the file, so I pasted the link into a media player to stream it. However, it was not able to jump ahead in the program I used (Media Player Classic).
  - _grrr 15y ago
    I made this a while back http://www.soundcloudwall.com/ http://www.soundcloudwall.com/

turbolent 15y ago

http://www.limbikfreq.com/ http://www.limbikfreq.com/ http://somafm.com/ http://somafm.com/

djtriptych 15y ago

I pretty much just play Trent Reznor when I don't feel like putting together a playlist. I've also really enjoyed listening to motorik rhythms lately. Something about that beat makes me feel like I'm constantly moving forward. Stereolab are the modern masters...

Void_ 15y ago

ETN.fm guys.

upthedale 15y ago

Whilst not music, I find listening to http://www.rainymood.com http://www.rainymood.com to be great for concentrating. It's a 30 minute sample of a rain storm. It got me through my Master's dissertation, where I had it on loop for hours at a time. Fiddler tells me you can currently grab the mp3 from here http://173.193.205.68/audio/RainyMood.mp3 http://173.193.205.68/audio/RainyMood.mp3 (this was especially useful for the times I wanted to be disconnected from the internet to focus on work).

meow 15y ago
Most of the time it helps me sink into deep sleep :)
- Nathandim 15y ago
  Yep, add an extra point of help for those suffering with tinnitus (like me) and the site is suddenly made of gold.
bobwebb 15y ago
Oh wow, this is brilliant. I had heard of rainy mood before, but I'm so grateful you've found an mp3 of it. This is going to be on my mp3 player all the time now.

jonursenbach 15y ago

Would love it if there were Spotify playlist links for these.

oe 15y ago
I searched for the artists of episode 1 in Spotify. Only ~1/3 of them could be found and often the specific songs were not there.

draggnar 15y ago

That Com Truise mix is nice. Also check out his Komputer Cast 4 part set http://comtruise.com/kc/ http://comtruise.com/kc/

simondlr 15y ago
Com Truise is great. Discovered him last year. I'm a sucker for ambient lo-fi stuff.

jianshen 15y ago

Side question: why do you think so many coders prefer electronic music to be productive? Based on the comments here, electronic music (whether it's ambient, trance or dubstep) appears to be the assumed genre.

ctdonath 15y ago
1. As vishaldpatel notes, the pattern resembles meditative mantras. However the mind reacts to religious chanting, "trance" resembles that and invokes similar focus to the exclusion of other distractions. Indeed, we call the music "trance" for a reason. 2. The music does not demand attention to itself. Most other music is created with a "drop what your doing and pay attention to ME" sense, and we go to concerts and pay good money to listen to such music for what it is as the center of our attention at that time. Dance music derived from ambient origins creates a beautiful backdrop to something else, driving away other distractions and setting a pleasant environment for whatever we really want to do; most of it is created for, well, dancing - but the style where the focus is on self & moment, not on music or others & events. In our culture, very little else combines to create this audio backdrop combining meditation and high energy. Most instruments demand the musician(s) focus on a full performance, and hence expect (hope?) the audience to give similar attention - the antithesis of what we're looking for here. Even "minimalist" acoustic[ish] music like Philip Glass & Steve Reich, which resembles "trance", requires an intense single-performance effort & focus of the performers, giving the implication to the audience that similar focus should return the favor. Electronic music allows lots of free-running loops, zero-effort samples, edited-to-perfection sequences, and time-unconstrained editing after the fact - to wit, it's not created live, not intended for live performance, and the artist has no attitude of "I'm not utterly focused on perfect end-to-end performance of this, so I don't expect utter focus of the audience". Acoustic meditative music heads this way, but involves the performer in the focused activity; music isn't an ingrained part/consequence of coding. Upshot: electronic music lends itself to creating coding-productive music. We'd like such music from other sources, but nothing else lends itself to producing such high-energy long-run content without demanding the listener's attention.
- technomancy 15y ago

tucosan 15y ago

OK, the site seems down. I managed to download half a mix until i got timeouts. If anyone managed to download those track, a mirror somewhere else, or a torrent would be really nice. Anyone care to provide us with a mirror?

joshaidan 15y ago

I think the site might be going a bit slow for me. Is there a mirror?

ecaron 15y ago
I reached out to @datassette to see if he'd let us host the MP3s for him on Cloudfront, so fingers crossed!
- ecaron 15y ago
  The mirror of #4 is up: http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_4-com_truise.mp3 http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_4-...

leeoniya 15y ago

i usually stream psytrance, works well for some reason :)

stdgy 15y ago
I went through a long Shpongle phase about a year and half ago. Great coding music, if you don't mind the heavy psychedelic feel.
- burke 15y ago
  Same story here. I wish there was more music that sounded like them. Particularly more music that sounded like Dorset Perception.

vishaldpatel 15y ago

Buddhists often chant mantras to stay in meditation. I suspect that a steady beat / rhythm has a lot more to do with concentrating than any specific genre. It gets the rest of our minds jogging along with the thing we're trying to achieve.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

pork 15y ago

Wow, you're really asking for a lawsuit aren't you? I mean, MP3s available for download for free on a simple HTML website? What is this, 1998?

angersock 15y ago
Or maybe it's more important to help your fellow programmers than worry about stupid legal shit?

mutewinter 15y ago

I wrote a blog post about this a while back, I'll just leave that right here. http://pileofturtles.com/2010/12/music-for-programming/ http://pileofturtles.com/2010/12/music-for-programming/

zavulon 15y ago

Instrumental classical mix works best for me. I put on Mozart or Beethoven radio on last.fm and just skip all the stuff with words (i.e. opera)

sil3ntmac 15y ago

My favorite album to listen to while I code is probably Blockhead's "The Music Scene." Gets the blood pumping.

potomak 15y ago

I was unconsciously searching for this for a while!

paulnasca 15y ago

Few years ago I wrote an extreme time stretching software ( http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/ http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/ ). You can use it to get a nice audio ambiance from any music or sound.

farnsworth 15y ago
I remember when paulstretch was making the rounds a year or two ago and I still find it fascinating- just want to say thanks!
markbao 15y ago
I remember using Paulstretch a long time ago, with amusing, awesome, though sometimes spooky results. Nice work!
Ryanmf 15y ago
Fancy seeing you here. Thank you. I get quite a lot of use out of it.
desireco42 15y ago
I really like the part with binaural beats...

mstevens 15y ago

I used to find http://musicforhackers.com/ http://musicforhackers.com/ the perfect background to coding, but they're down, and I've never worked out another source of the sort of stuff they played.

kennywinker 15y ago
All my upvotes. I started listening to this 15min ago and it's been 100% perfect so far. Thanks!

ggwicz 15y ago

Matt Mullenweg's method (at least, that's where I first heard it) of playing one song on repeat really works for me. I like short, simple songs. Something like a song off CYNE's album Evolution Fight works really well. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP2ISUThbcQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP2ISUThbcQ&feature=youtu...

astral303 15y ago

Atmospheric drum'n'bass is where it is at for coding. Warm lushness, yet rhythms that will help you keep your mental cadence up. Here are two mixes you should DL & listen to: http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/1%20-%20Monday/Atmospheric%20Chamber%20-%20Indigo%20Sync/2011/%5B2011.05.02%5D%20Atmospheric%20Chamber%20-%20Indigo%20Sync.mp3 http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/1%20-%20Monday/Atmosphe... http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/4%20-%20Thursday/Scenic%20and%20Advisory%20Show%20-%20Scenic%20and%20Advisory/2011/%5B2011.12.22%5D%20Scenic%20and%20Advisory%20Show%20-%20Scenic%20and%20Advisory.mp3 http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/4%20-%20Thursday/Scenic... Lush atmospherics, low-slung 29-38hz basslines, rock out to either full-time at 175bpm or half-time at 87bpm, depending on your mood.

astral303 15y ago
And on a more upbeat, liquid sunshine note, for those who want to go faster/harder: http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/1%20-%20Monday/Atmospheric%20Chamber%20-%20Indigo%20Sync/%5B2012.01.16%5D%20Atmospheric%20Chamber%20-%20Indigo%20Sync%20%5BSpecial%20Guest%20Soundsurfer%5D.mp3 http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/1%20-%20Monday/Atmosphe... (Bjork remix at the end kills it)
achompas 15y ago
These are excellent--halfway to my favorite LTJ Bukem mixes. Thanks for the links.
jonstjohn 15y ago
Great for late night coding when so much productive works get done. I've been a huge drum and bass fan for years - reverberates deeply for me.
codesnik 15y ago
If only DJs in thoose sets could shut their mouths. Extremly distracting.
ajtaylor 15y ago
Listened to the beginning few minutes of the first, and went straight to downloading. Thanks for the links.

jentulman 15y ago

I was recently pointed to http://block.fm/ http://block.fm/ as I like to go with some beats to work with and they have some great Dnb and electronica shows. Usually I can't cope with any words, lyrics in the song or presenters on a show, but if I can't understand the words, in this case because I speak no Japanese, it's not a problem and sometimes it's nice to have voices (outside my head) as part of the white noise.

jcromartie 15y ago
Indeed, the presenters on DnB shows are usually really hard to understand. "Big ups to cheesy grifter in tha gleebow huppa dig walla shim bam to ya fo keepin it real ya". I have no idea what they are saying. Since it's supposedly English, my mind has to try and parse it. Very distracting.
- jentulman 15y ago
  :) I feel I should point you in the direction of the Hospital records podcast, in case you haven't found it http://www.hospitalrecords.com/broadcast/ http://www.hospitalrecords.com/broadcast/. The usual presenter is the label boss Tony Coleman, and a nicer man you'll be hard pressed to find. No posing, no cheese, no slang and a constant positive attitude. Plus it's an absolutely superb label.

Thangorodrim 15y ago

The site is unresponsive, but I wanted to recommend: Philip Glass symphonies Wagner's The Ring ( unless you speak German ) Slayer

abruzzi 15y ago
The stuff that works best for me is the Phillip Glass early crossover stuff (i.e. post-Einstein.) Things like Glasspieces, Dancepieces, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, The Photographer, and the three *qatsi films. They're minimal enough not to intrude on the foreground, but also not as harsh and "difficult" as the early stuff like large chunks of Einstein (except the knee plays) and Music in 12 Parts.

domador 15y ago

Got a "bandwidth exceeded" error message. Too bad.

Karn 15y ago

Some of my favourites: Michael Brook - Err: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcyQISCPTTs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcyQISCPTTs Michael Brook - Ultramarine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITFyP9b7ius http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITFyP9b7ius Michael Brook - Several Times II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK-oVQaTg_4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK-oVQaTg_4 Cliff Martinez - Helicopter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogDj3uXLP7w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogDj3uXLP7w Hammock - Maybe they will sing for us tomorrow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6kKjyHrXMw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6kKjyHrXMw

ciroduran 15y ago

509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded :-( Guess the hacker news-dotting did it. Care to torrent the files? :-)

MetalMASK 15y ago

This is definitely one of the areas that is to each his/her own. I found (the majority of) trance music superficial and get quite easily bored listening to them. Songs with lyrics messes with the language processing module of the brain and I don't want that kind of distraction. So I listen to classical, instrumental, OST and some techno (that are NOT tons of bass). Example of songs I am listening to now: Pierre Bensusan - Kourouts Nota (highly recommended) Eric Johnson - Gem Steffen Schackinger - On a rainy night The Glitch Mob - Animus Vox Klint - Diamond (OST from Snatch) Mirwais - Disco Science (OST from Snatch) Nathaniel Mechaly - Opéra (OST from Snatch) ... In case anyone is interested, this is my playlist on Grooveshark: http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Sen+s+Music+For+Coding/66931078 http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Sen+s+Music+For+Coding/66931... Again, music snobbery is one of the worst topics of discussion (I certainly don't want to invoke it), to each his/her own.

Hortinstein 15y ago
good call on glitch mob, I would check out emancipator too

droctopu5 15y ago

I used to be able to dev to any kind of music or talk, but it's gotten harder as I've gotten older. Sometimes I try to pick music that culturally matches the web site I'm working on. - Classical: sometimes pleasant, but can be too dramatic. - Hard electronic (dance, club, dubstep): too distracting Minimal or ambient techno tends to be way to go when I'm trying to focus on something, but need something to keep that part of my mind occupied. Soma.FM and Digitally Imported have the best streaming stations for that, IMHO. http://somafm.com/spacestation/ http://somafm.com/spacestation/ http://somafm.com/dronezone/ http://somafm.com/dronezone/ http://www.di.fm/minimal http://www.di.fm/minimal http://www.di.fm/chillout http://www.di.fm/chillout

AlexCP 15y ago

I always listen to http://designers.mx/ http://designers.mx/ when I work, lots of great mixes and a nice way to discover new genre.

shearn89 15y ago

My absolute favourite album to code to would actually be the Tron Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk, but I've also spent the last few years at uni listening to http://www.prettylightsmusic.com/ http://www.prettylightsmusic.com/ while I code: his albums are all available for free/donation, and the genre is kind of down-tempo electronic. There's the occaisonal vocal sample, but I've found it doesn't distract me from work. Endtroducing by DJ Shadow is also worth a listen, as although there's vocals, they're generally calm. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32X-ieCav-M http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32X-ieCav-M

kennywinker 15y ago
I listen to the Tron Legacy soundtrack a few times a week. It's perfect for getting shit done. Enough intensity to keep me focused, not enough to be distracting. I'm also partial to Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport when I want something weirder, and DRMHLLR when I want something less electronic.
morsch 15y ago
The Tron Legacy OST is always fun, but it's even better when you listen to it doing something suitably epic, because many tracks sound so unapologetically grand. Perfect sound track for handing in an important paper and doing mountain climbing. Or doing mock epic things: feel like Batman while chopping onions. Some of the tracks from the remix album are also pretty cool.
alinajaf 15y ago
Try the Tron Legacy: Reconfigured soundtrack (mixes of the original). Same level of epic but better to program to IMO.

coopersloan 15y ago

Groove Salad has always been one of my favorite streams for coding. Lots of down-tempo stuff, tasteful choices: http://somafm.com/groovesalad/ http://somafm.com/groovesalad/

xxpor 15y ago

I find that music with no lyrics is most helpful. Stuff like a lot of post rock, such as Explosions in the Sky or Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Another option is Math Rock like Battles (I am actually listening to Gloss Drop right now).

oceanician 15y ago
Snap. Though I think I may have accidentally tranced out my co-workers in the past with this music.

mvalente 15y ago

Ulrich Schnauss, System 7, Man With No Name, Art of Trance, Dimension 5, Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Astral Projection, Kraftwerk, VNV Nation...

mvalente 15y ago
I'm usually a metal/hardrock guy, but coding to that is impossible. Major le me singing and playing air guitar and air drums.
mvalente 15y ago
Here's a Grooveshark playlist http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Music+For+Coding/66934126 http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Music+For+Coding/66934126

pnmahoney 15y ago

daft punk, daft punk, daft punk.

tobiasSoftware 15y ago

One of my favorite CDs for coding: Ecco the Dolphin. I'm not making it up, the CD by Spencer Nilsen is amazing, just perfect to code to. Also, the song "Water Ruins" from the video game Jet Force Gemini and anything by Opus III is excellent as well. Then there's "Just Hold On" by Jillian Aversa, and Super Metroid remixes on OCRemix, "Kindred," "Avien," and "Solitude." And I have dozens of trance CDs for coding too.

jff 15y ago

I typically just listen to my rockabilly/psychobilly station, I can't handle the trance/techno/ambient/whatever music everybody else seems to advocate. A good Reverend Horton Heat track has a good beat and fast pace too, it's just a lot more fun for me.

mark_h 15y ago

My go-to artist is Zoe Keating (layered cello, and on bandcamp as an added bonus: http://music.zoekeating.com/ http://music.zoekeating.com/). She's also quite interesting to follow: she's heavily into twitter, and is quite open about her profits, dealings with labels, etc. Otherwise though, vocal-less trance is usually pretty effective. I love all the recommendations these threads bring up -- thanks everyone!

damncabbage 15y ago
This is wonderful; thank you for the link. Just bought the download. :) I've recently been hooked on 41 Strings, a short vocal-less composition by Nick Zinner (of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs). He's performed it live in a bunch of places, but it's available for download here: http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/download-nick-zinners-i41-stringsi-and-watch-making-of-video http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/download-nick-zinners...
- mark_h 15y ago
  I just got around to checking that out; thanks!
maular 15y ago
Wow, she's great. Thanks for the recommendation!
spacemanaki 15y ago
Here's a Radiolab segment about her, and they use some of her music in their shows: http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2008/aug/25/quantum-cello/ http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2008/aug/25/quan...
meow 15y ago
Wow, all her tracks are so soul soothing...

eLobato 15y ago

Ludovico Einaudi and Max Richter put me in the mood quite nicely. Mozart, the three tenors, and similar stuff also work (but most of the time not as good as the former artists). Nonetheless that's rara avis among my coworkers, anyone else listening to similar stuff while coding?

lautis 15y ago
I sometimes listen to ambient-ish classical music while coding. Ólafur Arnalds and Jóhann Jóhannsson have been recently on my list.

moondowner 15y ago

Reading through the comments, I'm glad that there are people on HN who know what good music is - from Trance and Ambient to Dubstep and what not. And I want to say that Com Truise's album Galactic Melt is one of the best albums for me for 2011. It gets even better if you combine it with Daft Punk's TRON OST and put those two on shuffle.

koudelka 15y ago

I'm amazed that nobody has mentioned Hybrid yet: http://www.hybridsoundsystem.com http://www.hybridsoundsystem.com

mrinterweb 15y ago

I can't concentrate on programming because my brain can't ignore how bad the music is.

glfomfn 15y ago

For me they are two 'states'. When i am doing something 'tough/complicated/new etc' that needs 100% of my attention i need complete silence, no music, no sounds, nothing. When that's not the case (95% of time) i am fine with any kind of music, my taste goes from dubstep to classical and based on the mood i am fine to listen to anything.

BurnZeZ 15y ago
I cannot agree more. Often it makes me wish there was some type of program/device that plays music based on concentration levels. What happens when I start getting into something complicated, is that I notice the music. Until this point, it's just kind of in the background. It feels like my brain's saying, "Not enough CPU to play music and work on this problem. Please eliminate the problem."

paragraft 15y ago

I've found the drone music this guy does fantastic for zoning in while coding: http://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/ http://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/ Particularly of note is his 8 hour album "Field Recordings from the Edge of Hell" http://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/field-recordings-from-the-edge-of-hell http://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/field-recordings-from-the... . It's my go-to when I need to sit down and concentrate.

hk_kh 15y ago

Too comments. Nevertheless, I want to share, High Tone, that's all http://www.hightone.org http://www.hightone.org (fuck dubstep, let the old people stick to dub)

jvoorhis 15y ago

I was playing Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto when a contractor came for an on-site and he remarked on how it was good "design music". He mentioned he preferred ambient music whilst doing cognitively intensive work. When doing something rote, rock, pop or metal was a good choice.

eslaught 15y ago

What is the license for this music?

BasDirks 15y ago

I love listening to Paul Kalkbrenner while programming.

leon_ 15y ago

this music is the suxx0r. goa trance > all

oceanician 15y ago

Personally I find music without vocals, or very familiar music in the background to be useful. Blocks out the occasional car going past. Post-rock is really good unless it sends you into a trance haha. Actually hate working with headphones on now. Similarly using music I love to block out noisey work environments doesn't work. (Well, noisey work environments just don't work do they!). FWIW: I'm on last.fm as rock666

bellbind 15y ago

Wrong in so many ways.. I don't know where to start.

dmoo 15y ago

I've an Icelandic kick going on at the moment, some really great music coming out of there. Try Johan johannsson http://www.ausersmanual.org/stage/ http://www.ausersmanual.org/stage/ which is good but also with extra hacker kudos given the topic Also Olafur Arnalds http://olafurarnalds.com/multimedia/ http://olafurarnalds.com/multimedia/

eisbaw 15y ago

Röyksopp is #1!!!

kapranoff 15y ago

I will add my 5 cents with a mention of Qawwali music and specifically works of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. See, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustt_Mustt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustt_Mustt. This is not just a ticket to the zone for me, more like a teleport :)

larrytheliquid 15y ago

dj finny's dnb mixes have been sustaining me for years: http://www.mixcloud.com/finny/ http://www.mixcloud.com/finny/ i can't handle the monotony of trance, and dubstep can be a bit too much. a lot of dnb also tends to be repetitive, but finny keeps things lively enough for you to pay attention to code

robomartin 15y ago

Pink Floyd Mozart Bach

datassette 15y ago

http://musicforprogramming.net/ http://musicforprogramming.net/ now has an RSS feed

datassette 15y ago

http://musicforprogramming.net/ http://musicforprogramming.net/ now has an RSS feed

gtrak 15y ago

account suspended whaaa???

gtrak 15y ago

I found the links to what was up: http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_1-datassette.mp3 http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_1-... http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_2-sunjammer.mp3 http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_2-... http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_3-datassette.mp3 http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_3-... http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_4-com_truise.mp3 http://d2cb4q5pwp3op.cloudfront.net/music_for_programming_4-...

blob8108 15y ago

I really like DJ Shadow for this kind of thing. Try "Midnight in a Perfect World": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmzHRGoKca0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmzHRGoKca0