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You music playlists for productivity?

Natalia on August 09, 2019

Some people like to listen to classical/ambient music while working, others to rock or dubstep. What is your type?
Please share some playlists or artists! I'm looking for something fresh! :)

Austin S. Hemmelgarn • Aug 9 '19

I've got a long (currently 51:10:12) playlist I shuffle while I work. Primary artists include:

Sabaton: European power metal with a strong focus on military history, plus some really good tribute songs. Their songs 'The Last Stand', 'Bismarck', 'The Red Baron', and 'To Hell and Back' are all good places to start if you just want a sample of their music.
Falconer: European power metal with a medieval focus and crystal clear vocals. 'The Past Lives On', 'Northwind', 'Stand in Veneration', and 'Carnival of Disgust' are all good songs for a sample of their work.
Elvenking: European power metal with a heavy Celtic/Gaelic influence, plus some really good acoustic stuff too. Their music is more varied than most of the other groups on this list, ranging from pretty strongly Celtic-neo-pagan songs ('The One We Shall Follow', 'Invoking the Woodland Spirit') to more conventional power metal ("The Wanderer', 'Draugen's Maelstrom'), to stuff that's just plain different (for example, 'Through Wolf's Eyes' is a retelling of the classic Red Riding Hood fairy tale, from the perspective of the wolf).
Twilight Force: Symphonic metal with a high-fantasy focus. They don't have a particularly large discography yet, but are still rather good. 'The Power of the Ancient Force', 'Made of Steel', and 'Riders of the Dawn' are probably some of the best songs to start with.
Turisas: Viking metal with some symphonic and power metal influence. 'The March of the Varangian Guard', 'To Holmgard and Beyond', 'We Ride Together', and their remix of 'Rasputin' are all particularly good places to start.
Hammerfall: European power metal and heavy metal. Lots of good music. Their recently released song '(We make) Sweden Rock' from their new album is especially good.
DragonForce: Power metal with heavy techno and EDM influence. Probably best known for 'Through the Fire and Flames', other good songs include 'Ashes of the Dawn', 'Cry Thunder', 'Soldiers of the Wastelands', and their metal remix of 'Ring of Fire'.
PowerGlove: American instrumental power metal with some techno/chiptune influence with all of their songs being metal remixes of songs from video games, cartoons, or movies. They've got particularly interesting remixes of 'Under the Sea' and 'This is Halloween', as well as a lot of good Final Fantasy music.
Big Giant Circles: Instrumental chiptune by a guy who actually does music for triple-A video games. I honestly feel that there's no bad place to start with his actual chiptune albums ('The Glory Days' and 'Imposter Nostalgia'), though he's also done some stuff beyond just chiptune that's pretty good too.

There's some other stuff in there too, but most of it is isolated cases of specific songs I really like from outside my typical preferences.

Natalia • Aug 12 '19

Have you tried Rhapsody of Fire?

Austin S. Hemmelgarn • Aug 12 '19

I'll have to look into them. I'm unusually picky about my music, so I often have a hard time finding stuff to add to my playlist.

Sen Toren • Aug 9 '19

Lately, it's either been dark 80s synth/outrun type music, 80s J-Pop, or 90s vaporwave tunes. Lo-fi hip-hop beats are also always a good choice. I'll also throw on some classical piano or violin if I can't decide on any of the above.

Natalia • Aug 12 '19

Give a try to Antonin Charvat for classical?

Desi • Aug 9 '19

I loooove brain.fm!

I also like the ChilledCow youtube channel

Inspired by @ben I find the Social Network score really effective, and I also made a ~~~ deep focus ~~~ playlist on Spotify.

aRtoo • Aug 12 '19

I listen to yiruma and piano guys on spotify. They're really good at least for me. reply here if you'd try it. :)

Natalia • Aug 12 '19

I'm checking it right now :)

aRtoo • Aug 12 '19

watcha think? haha.

Natalia • Aug 13 '19

I think it's a really nice one. Not for work (for me) - too slow. But really 10/10 for afternoon tea or reading time <3

aRtoo • Aug 13 '19

yea also for reading. haha. enjoy :)

stackOverflowed • Aug 9 '19 • Edited

I have several playlists for this. Mostly when I'm coding there's a lot of distractions around me. My top 2 playlists on Spotify are:
Beats to think to.
Hans Zimmer.

They've no lyrics, just perfectly paced music.

J Beetz • Aug 10 '19

Erik Satie, Elliot Smith, Allah Las, Miles Davis, The Who, Fugazi, Bad Brains (only the old stuff), Maxence Cyrin (especially his covers), Francisco Tarrega, Chopin, Debussy, Kevin Morby, Beirut.

So Yeah, all over the place.

Gayan Hewa • Aug 9 '19

Lo-fi beats playlist on spotify open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF...

Nishant Rana • Aug 12 '19 • Edited

I'd strongly suggest listening to Liquid Mind - the music is so beautiful, you feel so peaceful when it is being played in the background.

youtube.com/watch?v=0equ5QrmJL8

You can play it 24 hours, it also helps while meditating and sleeping.
liquidmindmusic.com/
liquidmindmusic.com/stream.html

Guys definitely give it a try once. I have tried so many ambient music and relaxation music (healing, reiki, meditation etc.) but this is one step above all of them..

David Anton Alvarez • Aug 14 '19

It depends on the mood with which I got up that day, but my favourites are:

Youtube

Lo-Fi hip hop, usually FreeCodeCamp youtube radio.
Rain sounds, in the forest or the sea.

Spotify

Jazz Now! and Jazz Classics Blue Note Edition.
Instrumental Madness.
New Metal Tracks / Kickass metal.
Deep Dark Indie / Deep Focus.

As you can see, I split my music in two main objectives: keep me focused when I need some extra concentration (lo-fi, deep music), or boost me up when I feel lack of energy (unfortunately, I don't like coffee :-S).

Hope that this playlists can be useful to someone else.

Natalia • Aug 14 '19

This is amazing! I'm listening to Deep Dark Indie right now but I also listen to nature sounds! <3

Holy-Elie Scaïde • Aug 13 '19

What works for me is music I know. If I know the song|mix, it becomes white noise for me and helps me concentrate more. In my idle time, I listen to reggaeton, dancehall, and epic so that's what I listen to me when I'm working