Music for Programming
musicforprogramming.net229 points by merusame 18 hours ago
229 points by merusame 18 hours ago
In the morning I listen to chill electronic music without lyrics: Tycho, Emancipator, Blackmill, Jon Hopkins
Later in the day I listen to more energetic electronic music (a lot of which is from the Hotline Miami soundtrack): M|O|O|N, Dan Terminus, Carpenter Brut, Daniel Deluxe, 1788-L, Pendulum
It's unsurprising to find lots of ambient / electronica here, and generally I'm the same, but I do occasionally like really loud punk or rock if I need some motivation, like the album Feel The Darkness by Poison Idea, or as I said in another comment, I Am A Tower by Swans on a loop. Generally I get my best work done when I can lock into a single track and have it on repeat.
Don't laugh, but for me, it's Abba. Their entire discography is ~3 hours which is how long I can maintain peak concentration. Their songs are consistently good so that I don't need to skip a song, but not too good that I would stop working and start listening. Plus I've never heard Abba song in any good movie so it doesn't remind me scenes from a movie I would want to rewatch. Of course I don't listen to it every day, only when I really need to, most daily programming tasks can be done with any music.
For real concentration I can't have lyrics but that's a great idea for other flow states. Mozart and Brahms are good for me ... Not slow enough to put me to sleep not fast enough or unusual to make me pay attention to the music.
I vary a lot but when I do classical music Mozart has occupied quite a lot of my stats, in particular a clarinet concerto by Katherine Lucy [1] and also things like Beethoven's 6th (pastoral, it's beautifully featured in Fantasia) or Grieg's morning mood.
- [1] https://open.spotify.com/album/1R6rh9My8CTK4DqZorJR0V?si=3Ct...
If you have specific song/interpretation recommendations I'd love to hear them.
I've really been enjoying this series of Mozart concertos on Alpha, highlighting young(er) performers: https://outhere-music.com/en/collections/next-generation-moz...
Agree about the lyrics. Phillip Glass is one of my favorites for flowing. His style usually involves a lot of repetition, which I find meditative.
Steve Reich is my favourite of the minimalists. Electric counterpoint and Music for 18 Musicians are regulars in the line up.
Like others have said, for specific types of activity, I'll prefer no vocals or maybe even no music, but if vocals are fine Abba does have a great flow to it. I used to run to Abba too, at times, because it feels upbeat/positive with good enough tempo. Super trouper, for instance, makes for a great booster.
As a dancer it’s funny to me that programming and dancing both seem to be better with a disco soundtrack. Or house, or funk. Anything with a strong backbeat.
The Winner Takes It All lyrics are great for commits and Pull Requests: I don't wanna talk If it makes you feel sad And I understand You've come to shake my hand I apologize If it makes you feel bad
> Don't laugh
I laugh (:
But good for you, whatever works. Personally, I can't do music with much lyrics or narrative; I find it distracting.
But to each their own!
No laughter here, my brother in music. This is one of the few vocal groups that I could be in the zone with, except "Fernando", because one must release their inner theater kid with that one.
I've had three main tracks that I've used for the past 8 months or so.
The first one is a 1-hour mix of "In Motion" from the soundtrack to The Social Network: https://youtu.be/bCxPmMbZjuk
The second is a 1-hour mix of "It Has to be This Way" from the soundtrack to Metal Gear Rising Revengance: https://youtu.be/jKGDib6qZBo
The third is a 1-hour mix of "Clock Tower" from the soundtrack to Dead Cells: https://youtu.be/plwhysPCxXI
In Motion is my favorite productivity track as well. Most of the time I just listen to the whole The Social Network soundtrack
You're my kind of person
I think you meant "standing here, I realize, you are just like me, trying to make history"
Shoutout to SomaFM's Defcon Radio which has been my go-to programming music for years now. Not too dissimilar to the stuff found on this site. https://somafm.com/defcon/
I find that the Secret Agent channel is great for my focus nowadays. I recall listening to Groove Salad back in my draftsman years, from 2000-2002. I am still amazed at how SomaFM has continued to exist.
I used to work to SomaFM all the time. Then took a break I guess? Then somehow totally forgot it even existed. So thanks for the reminder.
My defaults are Drone Zone, Synphaera, and The Trip.
These three are very similar to what Defcon sounded like before around 2023 when they started adding more generic hip-hop influenced beats.
Defcon can be alright, but about 25% of their playlist will suddenly take me out of a flow state due to vocals or some obnoxious rhythmic detail.
I love the music on defcon but could really do without the sporadic interruptions. At first it was ok but gets old after a while.
Remember your 3-2-1.
Personally, I still like these defcon sound bites, even though I've heard them plenty of times. They are part of the atmosphere that the stream wants to create.
While I'm not surprised at the general tastes here in the comments (as I mostly share them), I am surprised at the lack of any mention of classical?!
Johann Johannsson and Max Richter are my go-tos.
I’ve found instrumental + slightly repetitive tracks work best for me — anything too dynamic pulls my attention away.
Lately it’s been a mix of ambient electronic and lo-fi, especially for longer deep work sessions.
If I'd have to make one recommendation it's David August's Boiler Room set [1]. It has such a coherent flow through the whole set, it makes me fly through multiple hours if not days of work.
Aim to Head's mix channel is a lot of what I listen to for my design work. 30 min to 1 hour of well mixed tracks. The Witch House tracks are partially helpful in focusing.
This seems focused on one very particular taste in music of droning semi-random lo-fi synthesizers. I find this unlistenable without any kind of percussion.
The fact that it works for the author, but totally does not for you is a big fat sign that says: search what works for you. More than that: search what works for you in a particular state of mind. You are a special enough snowflake to require a personal playlist, and it's not easily guessable. Sometimes what works best for me is Bach's violin concertos. Other times it's MBR [1]. Yet other times it might be some Keiko Matsui piano jazz, or early Apocalyptica, or Enya, or [...]. Try different things, notice what feels right and when, rinse, repeat.
Wow I've never thought about listening to music I like before?????
Not all music I like makes good work music. For instance, I cannot work with code while listening to songs: the verbal center apparently gets overloaded.
Agreed! I like music that can be enjoyed either active or passive listening. The main requirement is that it have no vocals. Here's my go-to Spotify playlist while coding.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1IKenYEiooONuxxawKtNOm?si=...
I remember watching an interview with Marco Arment (creator of Overcast and Instapaper) where he mentions that he listens to Phish a lot [1]. He collects every single recording and live show, almost 30 gigabytes of music from this one band. IIRC, he listens to it when working, so he never runs out of "music for programming" this way.
Aphex Twin, Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Boards of Canada
Mr. Robot Original Soundtrack
I discovered long ago that psytrance/goa was perfect for me. It works almost as well as caffeine and I can work for hours and hours as long as it’s blaring.
same.
before it was a job, I was programming exclusively to trance.fm (sadly gone)
Same. To be honest, anything with a303 feels uplifting, but for me, hard acid techno is the winner!
This site is a gem that has accompanied me on many spikes in the last year :) datasette's original music is top tier too. cognitively stimulating but not attention stealing.
Have you listened to his "business funk" mixes? Too stimulating for work (for me) but so much fun. In my head it's the soundtrack to me striding through an open plan office barking nonsense business jargon.
<3 music for programming
some personal favourites:
- https://musicforprogramming.net/seventyone
I just listened to the Matrix OST and that one really gets me into a coding mood!
For me nothing beats 90s ambient dnb for coding. There's something about drum and bass that really gets me in flow.
Also Big Beat, for me. Crystal Method's Vegas reaches into my brain and flips the time to code switch.
Definitely my cuppa tea too :)
Yoooo thanks for the rec this is spot on up my alley.
You might also like mood indigo on SoundCloud, mix of house and DnB been a solid programming session soundtrack for me over the last few years.
Same. My music collection covers a vast range but I find the Good Looking Records catalog to be nearly ideal for getting me into the flow state.
It really sucks that so much of that catalog is no longer available for all intents and purposes.
I recently discovered Lorn and have been mainlining his back catalogue ever since whilst working. Thoroughly interesting and immersive yet not distracting.
Oliver Huntemann - Propaganda Album
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLscdEjM7jiUsxRPIt7BUjzxpA...
I'm well aware that I'm in the minority, but I have never been able to focus on anything - especially programming - other than in absolute, total silence.
(Yes, I'm an only child.)
I don't know if you're in a minority. I think people just don't like a boring answer like "silence".
I was raised in a big family, and I prefer silence when I need truly deep focus. From my experience in open floorplan offices, a majority don't break out the headphones until it gets noisy enough. Some people would even come in early or stay late for exactly this reason.
When I'm really trying to get shit done I'll put on some German industrial music like Bagger 258. The lyrics don't bother me because I don't understand them. I find the harsh aesthetic helps to keep me from getting distracted with side quests. Those little voices in my head become inaudible over the nonsensical (to me) lyrics.
I like listening to hard rock, EBM and industrial when working. Something with a lot of energy. The lyrics don't bother me at all, I am good at not listening to them, especially if I know the song and what the lyrics are.
Here is some long-play stuff I do with code that helps write code https://lowveld.bandcamp.com/
I listen to post-rock.
There are usually no lyrics, there's an absolute ton out there, and something about the music gets my brain flowing better than other instrumental music.
This is more like music for relaxation. I can't code without a strong rhythm.
When too much rhythm is never enough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3KgZlxTz8g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PIzzMYWp0U
Merzbow. Keep by fidget brain occupied with pure noise while I get real work done.
OPs playlist requires too many faculties used in coding.
I love instrumental only hip hop beats like shamisen x hip hop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qi_-RmXz_g
While working with code, I mostly listen to Playboi Carti or older Thugger
Can we play it for my LLM?
The soundtracks for SimCity 3000, 4, and the 5th one titled just "SimCity" are written specifically to be played while doing some fiddly micromanagement tasks.
This may be weird.. but I have been listening to a bunch of extended "save room" ambient tracks based on music in Resident Evil.. Someone under the name of Survival Spheres has a crapload of these on YT-music.. They are all about 10-12 mins long.. and they stay of the way mentally..
I’ve thought about and experimented with it a lot. The main criteria is no lyrics, or at a minimum lyrics in a language you don’t understand at all, since this hijacks attention from parts of the brain useful for programming in a noticeable way. I find prominent fast percussion seems to help with focus but I am less confident of that.
Most other elements don’t seem to matter too much. Baroque, industrial, ambient, etc are all effectively equivalent in most regards.
That said, I tend to lean toward 1990s atmospheric drum-and-bass (pretty much anything released by Good Looking Records) as a good default. That genre maximizes things that seem to help while minimizing things that seem to detract.
I love progressive techno for this. No vocals and sounds are in the lower frequency range. Easy to tune out.
then you'll adore this "deep progressive techno" mix playlist by artist "Dub Element" with 50 hours of the finest rolling deep pumping oldschool rave techno. Also does d'n'b and dub techno..
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAb7rS-Wvyr0AZdUlgaCg...
My vibe coding playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFcwd2lzu8tujlF-tPg1EfXPU...
I remember downloading music from the hacking e-show “The Scene” way back when - must have been late 2000s? Some great music in there like Newborn Butterflies if I remember the name right. It was nice background music in the show and I’d put it on from time to time.
I personally love my classic/progressive rock and am happy to listen to it while working. It seems odd to limit music for programming to only lo-fi.
my go to coding playlist for years https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVuvGj-9l_yXpuZwSqo...
Haha cool, very specific music though
Look up Dub Techno.
awesome for coding! my fav stations with dub techno chan: Mabu Beatz from Germany, Radio Caprice from Russia & Radio Schizoid from India. Last one has an excellent chillout chan as well, even though the track metadata has been half broken for years (UTF16BE BOM ftw)..
Swans is good for programming. And good for gnosis.
I occasionally have I Am A Tower on a loop when I really need to break through some kind of mental / coding block.
Iron Maiden for me :)
Metal for me as well, though I prefer more of the screamy-scream variety (Summoning, Judas Iscariot, Darkthrone,...).
For another genre suggestion: handpan music. It's rhythmic and repetitive, but warmer than electronica, and fades nicely in the background:
This sight got me through many projects in college :)
Di.fm (Digitally Imported) has been my companion throughout the years
soma.fm Channel: DEFCON Radio Best programming music!
synthwave
this is so much fun!
Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness
minecraft music is peak and takes all :)
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