I cant work in silence.
So I collect instrumental and foreign-language music on a scale better measured by weeks than by hours.
Here are some of my greatest sources of background music for work, studying, and creativity.
Recommendation Lists
Flow State: This is my very favorite way to get new background music.
Excellent curation with descriptions of each album.
Most recommendations are available on Spotify and YouTube.
Personally, I load all their recommendations into a gigantic playlist and hit shuffle.
This soaring, often instrumental genre is a great backdrop for reading sci-fi and fantasy.
This music will not distract you.
It might make you feel like a page ofChicken Soup for the Soul.
Focus and Study: Search either of these two terms on Spotify and smack the top result.
Youll get full genre pages full of Spotify-curated playlists.
Browse around to find the right mood.
Pure Focus: This official Apple Music playlist has 100 rotating tracks of mostly beat-driven electronica.
For a more free-flowing sound, tryPure Ambient.
Youll run into some stuff thats not at all conducive to work.
Websites
Poolside FM: Chill beats and silent 80s ads inside a retro Mac interface.
This popular JQBX room plays only chill lounge beats with minimal vocals.
you’re able to export the rooms song history into a Spotify playlist for solo listening.
YouTube
My Analog Journal: This stuff is what every cafe should be playing in the background.
A YouTube channel full of vintage instrumental and foreign-language DJ mixes.
(Their videos get taken down sometimes, so you might have to skip forward in the playlist.)
Magical Mystery Mix: YouTube channel with international hip-hop, jazz, and vintage Japanese pop.
This YouTube stream is the most famous clearinghouse for that music.
The creator also managesthree popular Spotify playlists.
Bach: Classical music is perfect study music, when it behaves itself.
The albumBach to Workfeatures his most studious piano pieces.
Yo-Yo Ma recently releaseda new performance of Bachs cello suites.
Suzanne Ciani: The famous synth composers work ranges fromsyrupy new agetochallenging quadraphonic experiments.
I personally like her compilation of two freaky live sets,Buchla Concerts 1975.
Fela Kuti: The Afropop star specialized in 13-minute tracks with an energetic, but not frantic, groove.
The few English lyrics wont get in the way.
Eno coined the term ambient music for his albumAmbient 1: Music for Airports.
See 15 of his ambient albumslisted at Ambient Music Guide.
Long Ambients: Natalie Portmans great-uncle Moby has released two free ambient albums.
I love to pretend Im quietly scribbling in a notebook in the back pew while the organ player rehearses.
The track The Little Lord of Misrule does contain some vocals by a distant and presumably naughty child.
Bonobo: For when you run out of Floex.
Philip Glass: This contemporary composers music feels mathematical, energetically repetitive, fractal.
My current favorite is Lavinia Meijers spare arrangements for harp onThe Glass Effect.
I also recommendGlass Pianoand the more exciting but distractingPowaqqatsi.
If the lyrics are too distracting, try the swinging instrumental collectionJazzify.
The Simssoundtracks are chill, jazzy backgrounds to build by.
Spotify hasThe Sims,The Sims 2(by Mark Mothersbaugh!
),The Sims 3(by Steve Jablonsky!
), andThe Sims 4(an orchestrated collection by Ilan Eshkeri!
), plus soundtracks for add-ons likeThe Sims MedievalandThe Sims 2: University.
Lena Raines soundtrackfor the platformerCelestecombines electronic and analog instruments, and builds toward climaxes without overpowering your other thoughts.
Age of Empireswas most of my childhood.
Last years remaster,Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, came with afully orchestrated soundtrack.
I prefer the old-school sounds ofAge of Empires II(unavailable on Spotify, but free on YouTube).
Stranger Things 2s soundtrack feels more like a churning ENIAC than a creeping horror.
It pays homage to 80s soundtracks by Vangelis and John Carpenter.
Theres enough world-class productivity music to soundtrack an entire career.
Its a good problem to have.
So kindly, give me more to try!
