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Couple of my favorite artists for concentrating music:

e*vax: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pUlD79DCvA

Geotic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBeWuBBG0gw

Xela: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RsdMs-Whlo

Murcof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74spJD2oEPg

Shlohmo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SokFGXlIHM

Tycho: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mehLx_Fjv_c

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...

When this was posted 2 weeks ago, I tried to step up and do the hosting with Amazon's Cloudfront. 72 hours and 3TB later, I sadly acknowledged that I didn't have the checkbook size to properly meet the download needs.

Since then, @datassette has moved hosting to Dreamhost and they're truly sticking by their unlimited bandwidth policy. So as much as we typically like to point out when DH is down or messes up, I think they deserve some public acknowledgement for doing something right.

Thanks for sharing, been wondering where the site went.....Nice job!

The usual solution to this problem, when you're short on cash and need to push out a lot of gigabytes to a lot of people, is to put up a torrent. They're not just for piracy!

(Fun fact: if you host files on Amazon S3, it will also generate a torrent file and handle the seeding and tracking.)

I kept pushing that solution too, largely because I love the "here's another legal reason for torrent technology" proof that it gives, but it was important to datassette to be able to directly stream from the site and that isn't possible with a torrent.

Yes, both a magnet link and a direct link should be offered, and probably will be soon.

uTorrent allows streams in torrents. Interesting that they haven't made it a bigger feature, this has a large potential if it becomes a bigger part of the torrenting user interface. People complain that this stream download is bad for the peer cloud, but it could work very well if there's a single big server or two backing everything up- at the same time, taking a lot of bandwidth pressure off those servers.

Is this not the perfect use case for a torrent?

Why not use CloudFlare?

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

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 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.

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

benn's pale blue dot is a great ambient album to work to.

http://bennjordan.bandcamp.com/album/pale-blue-dot

Thanks - I downloaded everything he has ever done and wasn't sure where to start

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.

I've experimented with different types of music while working/coding, and I've found the perfect thing that works well for me, which is soundtracks from RTS games. They're instrumental, vaguely electronic, and specifically designed to fade into the background and create a general sense of urgency and focus.

If you are a big Starcraft player for example, playing the background music from Starcraft can create a sort of Pavlovian Response, telling your brain "You are sitting at a computer carrying out a difficult task which takes a good deal of focus and mental exertion. This activity is fun and rewarding, and it is urgent that you do it as well and as quickly as possible."

Give it a try.

tl;dr Soundtracks from RTS games

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.

Hell yes Kraftwerk!

I'm a big fan of C418 for programming music: http://c418.org/

I also like the indie game music bundles. I posted this a few days ago but it didn't gain any traction: Game Music Bundle 2!

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3573416 http://www.gamemusicbundle.com/

Thanks for this, I was late on finding out about the first bundle, and didn't know they had a second one out yet.

You're in luck. "For $5 you can grab the "big ten" soundtrack and albums from the original bundle". :D

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.

My playlist contains both the Daft Punk Legacy OST and the TRON: Legacy R3C0NF1GUR3D[1] album which contains various artists remixing the Tron Legacy album.

[1]: http://www.amazon.com/Tron-Legacy-Reconfigured/dp/B004UOE7VA...

Loscil: http://grooveshark.com/#!/search?q=loscil

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.

I hacked together a command line interface using wget, Bash and mpg123: https://github.com/jseb/musicforprogramming.net-cli

I found out that I can program best to chillwave, ambient and/or electronic music, some recommendations:

- Sobrenadar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwsAnTzdCNs, http://absentfever.bandcamp.com/album/physeos

- СВ Хутор (no idea what that means): http://sv-hutor.bandcamp.com/album/ep

- Goldroom: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKtJhYew4Hk

- Casa Del Mirto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSJ07Aa1W38

- Booka Shade, or some other DEEP house-ish stuff

- Warpaint, best consumed as live performances: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EWiY9xXrug

- TRUST: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tc1xj7Nblc

- sloslylove: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IldogOjTxY

- Apparat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyZhzfgXHMk

- The National (his deep, deep baritone voice just keeps me somehow concentrated): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbFWAtFb18k

- Blonde Redhead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7FqUNlEdwA

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

I'm usually listening to this one: http://somafm.com/play/groovesalad

love somafm! ...a bunch of great stations for programming.

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.

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...

Com Truise is fast becoming one of my favorite musicians.

PS: Usually at this point when discussing music for working, somebody has mentioned "Selected Ambient Works" :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-ecyzuMNs0

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 ?

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.

I usually listen to The Prodigy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTw2YvutJRA, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVefPPr69NU) or some drum and bass, like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au_BUnGWquA. Basically, anything with high energy, exactly the opposite of what this site suggests. I feel like I'm typing faster. It's like a race between the song and my fingers.

Same here. I think it's very personal at the end of the day. Stigma is an all time favourite! :)

Where I work, we listen to BBC 6 Music (http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music). It's eclectic enough that no-one gets annoyed with the choice of songs (if you don't like one, you'll probably like the next) and there's nothing particularly noisy or distracting on there (loud over-processed pop/dance music, shouty DJs or ads). There's also far less repetition than on similar stations.

I'd much rather this, than one person's choice of "concentrating" music. One man's concentration aid is another man's hell.

I personally find The Necks very good for almost any kind of work. They produce minimal jazz, which I prefer to more distracting music — even if I might listen to it otherwise, such as electronic.

While their tracks are not available for free, you can find samples here:

http://www.longarms.net/cdcatalog/detail.php?ID=1809

http://www.myspace.com/thenecks

I really like the design of the site (unusually so) but I am annoyed with the 'aesthetic' part: http://www.musicforprogramming.net/?c=aesthetic

"the most effective music to aid prolonged periods of intense concentration tends to have a mixture of the following qualities:" is too clinical to describe something as personal and emotional as music...

Ltj Bukem & MC Konrad, good stuff

For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFVHjZYoq4Q

Horizons still gives me goose bumps listening to it! Such an amazing vocal sample :)

Happily surprised by the amount of people posting dnb on this thread to be honest :)

It's the same for me, especially that song gives me goose bumps and I start thinking about a special part of my past. :)

I quite enjoy just chucking on a playlist of The Flashbulb (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+flashbulb).

There tends to be enough ambient, non-lyrical tracks to keep me interested. Some infrequent breakcore tracks get me amped as either a break or a queue to think harder :D.

The style of music on the one that I downloaded didn't work so well for me. It was too airy and then there were some vocals.

I don't know what style to ask about. If I like to program to uptempo Jean-Michel Jarre and extended mixes of Blue Monday by New Order (the only track of theirs that I am aware that I like), what do I like and where can I get more of it?

Very nice and relaxing music. It's also nice that there is a podcast. But they could definitely make a simple cue-sheet or track list with song lengths – it is difficult to find a name for current song. Maybe miss of such metadata is a weakness of a podcast but at their site only a single track can be found.

http://www.di.fm/chilloutdreams Totally recommend.

I prefer higher energy music for coding. Stuff like Trance Around the World (http://www.trancearoundtheworld.com/), Jaytech, Myon & Shane 54 and Tritonal podcasts (all on itunes podcast directory)

Personally, I enjoy Strobotone http://www.ideology.de/archives/audio000261.php also there are other good Ideology.de artists, that are well suited for "music for programming" IMHO.

You could sign up on Mixcloud and put the mixes there, mixes are kinda their core speciality.

Exactly what I have been looking for. Subscribed.

P.S: I've found that the Portal 2 soundtrack is awesome to code to. http://www.thinkwithportals.com/music.php

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).

Redditunes is good too.

http://www.redditunes.com/?g=Ambient

http://www.redditunes.com/?g=Chill

Song from "Hobbit" trailer - "Misty Mountains" on loop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tOo2OMUhB8

Anyone into contemporary classics? I really enjoy piano and cello music while coding, like Ludovico Einaudi, Brian Crain, Julia Kent, Zoe keating etc.

I have recently become quite fond of Arvo Pärt and other classical minimalist composers, largely because I like the texture of piano and strings with the simplicity of minimalism while I'm working, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vdgZAJVnes

I've been using these on and off since they were posted the first time. Sadly, a few of them have speech in them, which ruined my concentration.

Feth me, it seems I am the only one who listens to classic heavy metal gods like Iron Maiden and AC/DC while chugging out code...

You're not the only one - Maiden's Powerslave is a regular in my "coding" playlist. That album flat out rocks.

Ha! I agree! And what a coincidence, I was listening to Rime of the Ancient Mariner when I saw your post...

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.

I recommend DJ River's Ambient Mixes: http://www.djriver.com/

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?

Phish is perfect for programming. If you like rock, jazz, classical, etc give it a try.

this chiptunes station is pretty great: http://tunein.com/tuner/?StationId=127100&;

di.fm (just pick an ambiental stream) and/or simplynoise.com and/or www.rainymood.com

if you're not that into emo/hippster music try out http://www.ektoplazm.com/ - great music for coding.

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