Programming

I don't really like thinking about what to listen to, so I use di.fm (an internet radio for electronic music) and just enjoy the endless stream of music. Some of my favorite channels:

• Electro Swing - my absolute favorite, energetic and fast but improves focus
• LoFi Hip-Hop - like the popular YouTube mixes but better curated and higher-quality
• Liquid DnB - this is the middle ground between relaxing LoFi and energetic "Matrix" style coding music

It was really hard to find music I enjoy but I can also concentrate while listening to it. These 3 channels have been the absolute best for me in this regard. I hope you will like them too.

If you're into ambient stuff: https://musicforprogramming.net/

After years of trying different genres I found the best music for me: instrumental metal.

My go to artists are:

• Andromida, for something hardcore
• God is an Astronaut, for something melodic and chill
• Outrun the Sunlight, TANK86, Modern day Babylon for the times when I want to listen to something else
• anything that Spotify recommends

And my recent discovery: The HU. Mongolian band playing a mix of folk/rock/metal with a lot of throat singing. Since I don't understand Mongolian and throat singing is very uncommon for me, I just treat it as another instrument, and it can easily get me in the zone.

Anything with upbeat tempo, i have a 5 day playlist of metal music i just shuffle..

I have 2 categories, either Classical Music ( actually my preferred classical programming music is The Legend of Zelda: Concert 2018 by Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and I'm not entirely sure it qualify as "Classical" ) or 80-style hard rock (Like the soundtrack for Peacemaker)

Soundtrack for Furi (the game) is incredible: Youtube link. Also see other (synthwave) music by Waveshaper, Carpenter Brut, French 79, The Toxic Avenger, ...

On Spotify I often listen to "Dance Covers", it is a mix of known songs with a higher bpm or increased base.

It has the perfect beat range for my taste :)

All about electronic music for me when coding, like the liquid drum and bass mixes from this guy https://youtube.com/@themanfromdelmonte, or pretty much anything from Cercle https://youtube.com/@Cercle

Aphex Twin for me.

Something about those snare rushes just tickles my brain the right way and helps me to focus.

Katana zero soundtrack amazing music and game

I’ve been enjoying One Wayne G by Mac DeMarco

I mainly listen to classical music. Mainly clarinet concertos, because I just happen to have a lot of them.

No one mentioned lofi girl? The youtube channel's study stream is amazing for helping me focus on coding.

I mostly play classical music:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DX17GkScaAekA?si=Ape3CKxfSzKGdSPSPgt9aA

In addition to LoFi that others have recommended, I'd also suggest Chillstep. Chillstep is mellow, rhythmic, but without all the artificial scratchs and pops common in LoFi.

This is a playlist I tried to replicate from memory of the playlists I loved to listen to back before Google bought and closed down Songza, a curated music streaming platform:

• Songza Nostalgia

BTW, if anyone could provide a better genre classification of this playlist, or similar albums/artists, I'd be grateful! I had to piece this together from sampling song radio suggestions and auditory recall, as I can't recall names, nor bothered to make note of them when auto playing from Songza back in the day.

I tend to rewatch TV shows I've seen before in a quarter tile of my screen. Gives me that background noise and doesn't really distract me from work as I've seen the episodes before.

When I get bored of that, I like to fire up an EDM set on Youtube. An Armin Van Buuren set or something.

I use brain.fm and switch genre as needed, but I mostly stick to lofi and rain.

Is there a genre that's similar to that but instead of being relaxing it's energizing? I love the isolation that music provides but acerbate my daydreaming tendencies higher frequency beats would be better but it often includes distracting beat drops or sudden track changes