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This was posted 2 weeks ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3547694
Yes, but the site collapsed under the load that time, so glad to be reminded!
I was just thinking it was good to see this trending up again. Didn't get to check it out last time due to the site issues.
My favorite programming music:

  Any of Brian Eno's ambient stuff
  The Field - From Here We Go Sublime
  The Field - Looping State of Mind
  Luomo - Vocalcity
  Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
  Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
  Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise
  Burial - Untrue
>The Field - Looping State of Mind

Listening to it right now. :)

Can't forget Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto!
Seconded! I love me some Piano Glitch, for real
I highly approve of Burial for programming music, and have some recommendations of my own:

  Clubroot - Clubroot
  Explosions in the Sky - Earth is Not A Cold Dead Place (and everything else)
  Four Tet - There Is Love In You
  Bonobo - Days to Come
  Pretty Lights - Filling Up The City Skies
That said, I find I can listen to just about anything and program; Drum & Bass being one of my favorites to listen to. If you're feeling really adventurous and don't find anything non-ambient distracting, here is another list:

  Unquote - Reverberation Box
  Phace & Misanthrop - From Deep Space
  Calibre - Calibre
  High Contrast - Confidential
Probably too much listed here, but I'm an avid music listener (mostly of EDM); I also find that it keeps me focused when working.
It's funny, I never used to listen to drum & bass except when I went out, but these days it's pretty much all I listen to - while at work, on the bus, wherever. I guess that when you get enough exposure to a certain genre, you can find all different kinds of music to suit every situation just in that genre.

Phace & Misanthrop have been doing some awesome work! The Neosignal music is really great.

Perhaps one day I'll get tired of

    Vangelis - Blade Runner OST (3CD)
but right now it's almost a Pavlovian trigger for me.
You might like to check out kuedo's album from last year.
If you like that one check out 'Soil Festivities', it's one of Vangelis least appreciated albums but I feel it is his best.
Ambient has always been great for coding, a few of my favorites:

  múm - Finally We Are No One
  Dirty Three - Whatever you love, you are
  Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
  Four Tet - Rounds
a lot of wordless jazz for me.

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

Am I having a Deja vu?
I wish I could get my affiliate links on the front page of HN twice in two weeks...
I'm biting my tongue right now, trying very hard to stay within the site rules.

Its not even a very good link. 4 mediocre playlists. Big deal.

Ive been collecting electronic music for 15 years and this trance style music is quite boring and formulaic.

The web is awash with much better mixes than these all done for free by professionals.

Here are two you can subscribe to in iTunes (weekly podcasts)

http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast.aspx - These have been going for years showcasing many varieties of house and techno.

http://www.datatransmission.co.uk/Podcast/ UK based outfit again going for years. They have 2 mixes a week.

Then there is http://soundcloud.com - find you favourite electronic artists and download their mixes.

The posted page looks a little pathetic compared to these.

I disagree. Datassette and Com Truise are seriously good music producers themselves. And I think both of them and Sunjammer have very good taste and listen a lot of music to be able to put together this kind of compilations. Pretty sure you can't find most of what they listen on iTunes.

Matter of taste. Keep that in mind and you'll become more respectful.

I listened to all of them and it was commercial tripe. Keep that in mind.
Commercial tripe? Lol. You clearly have no idea what you're talking about.

I'm just sharing some nice mixes some friends and I have put together for working to, and paying actual money to let you listen to them for free. Have a bit of thought before you mash your banana hands against the keyboard kthx.

Dude you have affiliate links all over your site. How is this not commercial ?
Because the hosting has cost me over $200 and the affiliate links have brought in about $20 ?
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For those who prefer radio, try WFMT out of Chicago---be warned, it is classical 24x7, but chosen and DJed by the best in the business. Easily available as iTunes->radio-> Classical->WFMT. As a change of pace, 5 hours of folk music on Saturday Night starting at 7:00 p.m. central time.
If you mention Xela, you should also mention Yasume: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_SdCPLOkP4
Agreed! And there are lots of jumping off places in that list (e*vax is Evan Mast, half of Ratatat, Geotic is Will Wiesenfeld, best known for Baths, etc).

I just want to dump a handful of lesser-known artists to get people started...

The Tron Soundtrack by Daft Punk is amazing for programming.
Wish the tracks on that album were a little longer though. The original Bladerunner soundtrack is great as well.
Phish is perfect for programming. If you like rock, jazz, classical, etc give it a try.
My current coding playlist is:

* Moon OST - Clint Mansell

* Donnie Darko OST - Mansell

* Inception OST - Hans Zimmer

* The Social Network OST - Reznor

* Simple Things - Zero 7

* Melody AM - Royskopp

* Abroreal - The Flashbulb (a lot of his stuff is good)

I'll add a couple:

* TRON Legacy OST

* Amelie OST (when I feel I need a change of pace, and something lighter)

Both the Inception and Social Network soundtracks are excellent - check out the Batman Begins soundtrack if you get a chance - I like a lot of Hans Zimmers soundtracks and really dig that one too.
Gah! I didn't know Clint Mansell did the Moon OST. Must acquire. I have been listening for The Fountain soundtrack (by Mansell) while programming - and I love it. I also just discovered he did the Pi soundtrack.

Other OST picks: Tron (and Tron Reconfigured) and Nick Cave / Warren Ellis soundtracks - particularly The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

di.fm (just pick an ambiental stream) and/or simplynoise.com and/or www.rainymood.com
It's called electronic music. Trance preferred.
http://pure.fm/ The progressive channel in particular does to for me, but they have excellent sets on all their channels.
Yes. Try the Submers and First Narrows albums, in particular. Every track on Submers is named for a famous submersible, so you're coding underwater listening to the plant noise.

If you've ever played Osmos on iOS, you've likely heard "Lucy Dub". It's track 2 on First Narrows.

Some of my favourite programming music:

Artist: The Glitch Mob

Daft Punk: Tron Sound Track, Tron legacy reconfigured

Particularly with music from The Glitch Mob I find my focus is more intense and I only break my current activity when the music finishes. Need to find more music that gets my mind in the zone like that...

I find myself listening to a lot of ambient/drone music while programming lately. Previously it was more upbeat with Daft Punk Legacy and Reconfigured. I feel I don't want to be concentrating on the music, but am comforted by having talk/silence removed.

   Aerosol - All that is solid melts into air
   Loscii
   NASA voyager recordings - Symphony of the planets
   Toe
For classical I like Bach symphonies.

But usually, I find myself incredibly productive when I listen to house music. My recent discovery has been Maceo Plex and the album "Life Index".

Maceo Plex merges the tracks into a continuous mix, roughly 128bpm, and once you skip track 1 (a dialogue), the music flows smoothly for a good 90 minutes.

Beyond that, I've always liked Kraftwerk's "Tour de France" for programming to.

I absolutely cannot listen to house music and work. As soon as I hear any kind of House I start dancing. I find it nearly impossible to listen to any kind of music and try to focus on working, but House is the worst, it invades my brain and body.

I do however, listen to tech-house or funky house tracks whenever I need to take a break from work. For whatever reason, house music makes me incredibly happy and energized.

  Mozart - Sonata #11
  Oceanlab - Sirens of the Sea (album)
Bach symphonies? Are you talking about JS Bach or his sons? I didn't think JS Bach wrote any symphonies.
Johann Christian.

Should've clarified.

I listened to the Com Truise mix while programming the other day. It was too distracting, as the music kept changing every 2 or so minutes. Instead I prefer silence, or the next closest thing, which is the kind of music that really plays with your sense of time. E.g.

9 Beet Stretch Mirror/Mimir (and other Christoph Heemann works) Charlemagne Palestines The Necks

I won't bother providing links, as the commonality with these artists is that their pieces are long (and in the case of the first one, very long), so you probably won't find any samples of this music that is indicative of the effect of the whole thing.

hey odddogmedia! would love to work together somehow. we're created http://www.attictv.com and it would be great if we could somehow use your compilations :D is there any way to get in touch?
There is also http://soundserum.com/ which features a ton of creative commons licensed music (3.5GB of it, based on the torrent they provide).