Everyone needs good music for coding (a little side project of ours) | Hacker News Reader

Everyone needs good music for coding (a little side project of ours)

thefeelgood.com

15 pointsandr23 comments

When I want "coder background music" I just listen to a psytrance onine radio station.

trance is good, but for work? maybe that's why your coding isn't going so well :)

Trance can get me in to the zone faster than anything else out there, music or otherwise. Granted, I prefer progressive to psy, but everyone has his own preference.

Seconded.

pandora.com is really good. When coding, I alternate between trance http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh11364865758277320 and mellow hip-hop http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh236914974523469512

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cough cough ..yc is for programmers and sit...cough sites...

I agree with the title of this post, but don't really get what the referenced post is supposed to do in order to help. I think the topic is really interesting and I'd like to know what other hacks are listening to.

I posted "Coding In Flow - Does Music Get You Higher?" on my blog in 2006 on the very same topic listing my favorite music for certain development tasks.

http://codesurgeonblog.com/2006/08/coding-in-flow-does-music...

Good music is important for me to get into "deep hack mode". Usually, it's house, trance or something like that. One day last week though, though I had David Wilcox's "Do the Bearcat" on repeat for about 2 hours. It was the most productive 2 hours I've had in a month.

Who would have thought?

The internet radio stations I listen to for programming music require each mix (song) to be between 45 and 90 minutes, not fade or do other distracting effects, and a couple other basic rules that make it quite good for programming.

Sounds interesting, which stations?

I'm actually trying to make lists of the best programming music now. First, I'm collecting databases of all the music I can find. The electronic genres are the most elusive... I have a database listing about 16MM tracks and mixes now. Once I get all that I'll finish making those lists.

I have found some decent web stations, but for the most part I just rip hundreds of tracks from dozens of stations at a time and pluck out the couple good songs and then repeat.

I'll get back to you on that.

"deep hack mode" I love it!

Thanks for the David Wilcox reference, but no thanks.

Just the other day I cranked Gershwin's Rapsody in Blue and had the most productive 17 minute in a month. Who would have thought?

You could make it so that if you are not coding fast enough it stops the music.

I've discovered a lot of "programming music" using last.fm, and I totally agree on elecronic/trance for background. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Boards of Canada. I can't recommend them enough.

Another music sharing service:

http://www.jukefly.com/

What do you think of an app that analyzes text on your screen and plays appropriate music.

musicovery.com is good. I usually listen to electronica, down tempo, negative mood.

The key is listening to music that has vocals and that are more monotonous. Vocals can get distracting.

some good music there - although I prefer albums when I'm coding. I think it provides good quantized units of time to work on things

daft punk

doubletrue.

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