Why do some developers listen to music while they code?

If I'm learning something new, silence. If I'm doing something that I already know how to do, I listen to music to kind of get in a flow.

I do it because the headset keeps my ears warm in our cold office!

I listen to music with no vocals. That does not need me to focus on the music and acts like background white noise. This helps me focus on the job at hand. I can avoid hearing people talking and getting distracted. It is a noisy kind of silence!

As a "developer" (Read: Junior person who knows barely anything at this point), and an individual with Autism, music my way of drowning out unexpected noises. When there are people talking, or noises occurring around me , I will inadvertently attempt to isolate and figure out what those noises are. With music (Mainly stuff that I know the lyrics to) I don't focus on that, since I know what the noise is. It leaves me to concentrate on my problem solving.

In my situation, I work in a kind of noisy environment, so I hear music to abstract myself from all the talking and laughing and whatnot. I mostly hear music I already know, and that's more rock, pop, hip-hop etc... to help me get in the mood. If I'm focused working, normally after one or two songs I get so into "the zone", that when I'm out, the playlist is over :p

A list of things I listen to while coding:

Artists:

• John Hopkins
• Steven Wilson

Albums:

• Passage by Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk - open.spotify.com/album/4Aumawi2PZu...
• Kid Velo by Rival Consoles - open.spotify.com/album/6nj966rHe5u...
• Becoming X by Sneaker Pimps - open.spotify.com/album/6GJzRv7WrIU...

And many more.. anything with a good groove for coding fast without thinking, and no music at all for planning ahead without coding (whiteboard, note book).

IMO, music helps you get into "flow".

From my personal observation when working & listening to music, I see two patterns:

1) There are times when coding with music makes you super-productive (often when you know what you are solving and need to actually code it).

2) There are times where you need silence to concentrate & solve / understand the problem at hand. If all your mental capacity goes towards that problem, then - music can be distracting.

But in the end - it all depends on the person & the context ;)

I listen alternately to trance (Above & Beyond etc.), soundtracks (movie and game) and classical. While trance occasionally has vocals they are usually really short and simple so they are not much of a distraction. Overall electronica fits my silicon based lifestyle the best. Actually music not only does it help me focus, it keeps me from bothering the people around me. I tend to talk to myself a bit and I like interacting with my co-workers (to their detriment from time to time). With tunes that are not very singable I tend to not sing (not singing is my gift to mankind). As far as classical goes nothing for me beats Debussy.

I pretty much agree -- silence when developing is my ideal.

I have found that having a ticking clock is quite soothing, but maybe it just gives some part of my brain something meaningless to focus on so it doesn't wander off making up conversations with imaginary people.

That happens with everyone, right?

I like to hear music when I program and when I study, mostly instrumental but sometimes I can deal with vocals if I'm not much into the lyrics (If I'm I could fall into the song and just not do anything (?) )

This is something that depends on the person, I like to do it while I do those things because it makes me feel more comfortable, also I work in my home and sometimes my family is too noisy and its just better to hear to something pleasant when you're trying to concentrate on a problem. I give you the studying too because its other thing that requires concentration and there's lots of people that just can't deal with music while they study too.