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Ask HN: Good coding music?

21 points by sarreph ↗ HN
I don't know why, but recently I've been unable to listen to music whilst doing work for extended periods (45 mins or more). It seems to distract me or get in the way.

Would anyone care to tip me off with some good (preferably non-mainstream, as I like discovering new artists) music to work/code productively to? I was thinking anything along the lines of Minimalism/House/Electro, although I like to dip into Classical from time to time.

... Or just share anything (music) that makes you work productively :)

41 comments

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reisub
I usually like instrumental music, words take my attention away from the code. Mozart, and other classical music is a great background for coding. Other than classical, God Is An Astronaut (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34C41eEpM48).
2mur
The Glitch Mob - Drink the Sea and We Can Make the World Stop EP
tjr
I have for years found that if I really needed to concentrate deeply on a programming project, I tend to be immensely helped listening to Electric Light Orchestra's "Mr. Blue Sky". Yes it is (was?) mainstream, and yes it has been cliche'd into the ground in countless movies that used it for overtly happy scenes. But regardless, it helps me. (If the ELO original is too mainstream for your tastes, you might like the version by The Delgados.)

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

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

chewxy
My playlist today is full of Tchaikovsky and a few Bear McCreary interleaved.
bnejad
Trance, specifically the weekly "A State of Trance" hosted/mixed by Armin Van Buren. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_State_of_Trance

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

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

dethstar
I usually listen some post-rock such as GYBE!
meerita
My favorite coding music, for late nite is SomaFM: Mission Control, wich is ambient music mixed with NASA mission audio archives, it is sublime. You can find it iTunes radio or in SomaFM official website http://somafm.com
hmsimha
My vote goes to SomaFM's Space Station, though the vibe of that station is a bit variable
majc2
Big fan of movie and game soundtracks for coding. Regular rotation at the moment consists of Man of Steel, Batman Trilogy, Inception, Mass Effect 3, Skylander Giants and a lot of classical music esp the planets or anything else from civ 4!

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

Oculus
DJ sets of artists like Kaskade or Porter Robinson always work for me. I find the key is to find something that doesn't distract you from the work, but is also nice to listen to when you focus on it. I find it really hard to just work when the room is completely silent.
bdevine
I swear by Boards of Canada, which, judging from the criteria you listed, might be right up your alley.
rdouble
Try the free podcasts from bleep.com
jschrf
Take a look at http://musicforprogramming.net/, you might find something you like there.

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