Fun Background-Noise?

generally pandora for me, however i haven't had a decent pair of headphones for awhile(the ipod ones i have hurt my ears after 10-20 minutes), and i don't know why, but i can't enjoy music if it's coming from my computer speakers.

I either listen to vocal trance (I like the digitally imported webradio) or to some TV shows I downloaded the day before - or just rerun old ones, bandwidth permitting. Though I haven't programmed in a while, since I'd like to enjoy the holidays for once

Sometimes just silence, though that usually only happens when I am really busy and forget to turn the music on!

I usually go for Yann Tiersen, Edith Piaf, Björk, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, or anything Jazz-ish on my playlist. Obviously on a decent low volume so I can concentrate. The Tiger Lillies or Sinéad O'Connor are good choices too. Metallica, Metal Lucifer, Massive Attack or Testament work as well. It really depends on the coding. There's just a time when I neither pay attention to what I'm doing nor what I'm listening.

Mostly videogame music, particularly the Nier OST, the Cave Story OST, the Shadow of the Colossus OST, the Chrono Trigger OST, OCRemix stuff, and stuff from composers that I like such as Goniochromism, sevenee, Flashygoodness, and Disasterpeace.

I also like having the Mega64 podcast on my second monitor but sometimes it distracts me a lot. Totally worth it though.

Mostly videogame music, particularly the Nier OST, the Cave Story OST, the Shadow of the Colossus OST, the Chrono Trigger OST, OCRemix stuff, and stuff from composers that I like such as Goniochromism, sevenee, Flashygoodness, and Disasterpeace.

I also like having the Mega64 podcast on my second monitor but sometimes it distracts me a lot. Totally worth it though.

I also love listenign to video game music when i program but not always
morrowind/halo2 soundtracks are my favorites

otherwise i listen to nothing or some white noise if other people are around

I listen to video game music (OC Remixes of Zelda, Star Fox, Final Fantasy), worship music (Misty Edwards or others), or just violin/salsa/guitar.

Sometimes I listen to the music a composer made for my own game, to get me in an inspirational mood.

In most situations, the music is background noise that could be a single 30 second clip on repeat for three hours before I realize it.

generally pandora for me, however i haven't had a decent pair of headphones for awhile(the ipod ones i have hurt my ears after 10-20 minutes), and i don't know why, but i can't enjoy music if it's coming from my computer speakers.

I don't have quite the ear others have for music, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I like JVC Gummy-brand headphones. Relatively inexpensive ($8.50~), and they last longer then the cheap $0.99 headphones, and they don't hurt my ears like some others do. They last me about 3-5 months each, and this is with wear and tear of multiple people grabbing them off one computer to use for another, and their being in nigh-continuous use every day - so you may get longer lifetimes out of yours. I buy 2-3 at a time, and at $8.50 or so and lasting three months apiece, that's about $3 a month for headphones that actually work (as opposed to having to buy multiple sets of $0.99 or higher headphones that are broken out of the box).

But, as mentioned already, I don't have the ear to really discern the difference in audio quality that others might require.

I listen to video game music (OC Remixes of Zelda, Star Fox, Final Fantasy), worship music (Misty Edwards or others), or just violin/salsa/guitar.

Sometimes I listen to the music a composer made for my own game, to get me in an inspirational mood.

In most situations, the music is background noise that could be a single 30 second clip on repeat for three hours before I realize it.

generally pandora for me, however i haven't had a decent pair of headphones for awhile(the ipod ones i have hurt my ears after 10-20 minutes), and i don't know why, but i can't enjoy music if it's coming from my computer speakers.

I don't have quite the ear others have for music, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I like JVC Gummy-brand headphones. Relatively inexpensive ($8.50~), and they last longer then the cheap $0.99 headphones, and they don't hurt my ears like some others do. They last me about 3-5 months each, and this is with wear and tear of multiple people grabbing them off one computer to use for another, and their being in nigh-continuous use every day - so you may get longer lifetimes out of yours. I buy 2-3 at a time, and at $8.50 or so and lasting three months apiece, that's about $3 a month for headphones that actually work (as opposed to having to buy multiple sets of $0.99 or higher headphones that are broken out of the box).

But, as mentioned already, I don't have the ear to really discern the difference in audio quality that others might require.

o, i don't really have an ear for music like that either, any sort of headphones work for me(except the shit ipod ones, again hurt my ears), and it's not that i haven't had headphones, it's just i have 5 dogs, and every now and then, they tear up my headphones because the table i left them on is low enough for them to grab(don't think they are untrained, it's rare when it happens, but it does sometimes happen, and is why i don't have headphones atm.)

it's not that i can't enjoy music from speakers, just for some odd reason i can't really get into programming if it's coming through speakers.

Sometimes, when I've had enough coffe, metal and punk rock. Otherwise, mostly Liquid/Ambient Drum and bass and other rather chilled out stuff.

Netsky, LM1, DJ Shadow, Xilent, Air, Doves, Solar fields, ...

Pandora. When I want to be really productive, I listen to my Deadmau5 channel (it's not my favoritist music in the world, but it does a great job at creating a droning ambience that stops my brain from thinking about tangential things). I mostly listen to my Imagine Dragons, Hans Zimmer, I Will Follow You Into the Dark, or Breaking Benjamin stations, though. Or I put it on shuffle to mix in my other ~25 stations for a healthy mix of music.

When I want to be really productive, I listen to my Deadmau5 channel (it's not my favoritist music in the world, but it does a great job at creating a droning ambience that stops my brain from thinking about tangential things).

Actually I was shocked to find this was true. I'm not a dubstep guy (not really much of a music guy in general), but anytime I listen to dubstep while programming, my productivity, focus, (hopefully) code quality, and enjoyment all take a significant jump. Half the time I just go to one of those channels with the 2 hour long compilations of random stuff and just let it play. I have no idea what I'm hearing, but it keeps me from saying "Hey, I wonder if Kevin got my e-mail yet. Might as well check real quick."

Going Quantum podcast tends to be my music of choice for coding. Also, if you like music do yourself a favour and get some decent over ear open backed headphones with a wide frequency response and low distortion. Closed back aren't bad either, but open do sound better. Start of the year I spent about £150 on some sennheiser headphones and it was the best investment I've made audio wise.

Depends on the project & time committed to solely programming. I'll play some YouTube chillstep mixes or my hans zimmer Pandora channel if I've got a lot of time. Otherwise, i keep it fairly quiet.

I find it extremely interesting that other people actually find dubstep/chillstep good for productivity. I honestly rarely listen to any music. But man, dubstep really works wonders. I even listen to it when I'm doing math homework or something.

Laugh if you will, but as a fan of pro-wrestling I've found that to be great background material--nobody's saying anything that you need to fully focus on, and if you look up every now and again you're bound to see somebody doing a cool backflip and then kicking someone else in the head.