For as long as I can remember, I’ve played music in the background while I worked, geeked out, whatever. Although my tastes have matured and become more refined, I find it tough to work without the right kind of music.
At home, I have a massive iTunes library that I shuffle through, but at work, I’ve tried to move to the cloud. Playboy was almost entirely Pandora, but I found that unless I constantly added new channels, it would seemingly get stuck in a rut and play the same 15 songs in a loop. Last.fm, which I feel is the slightly more progressive of the two, plays a more diverse range of music, but I think sometimes misunderstood what I was looking for, causing me to yet again constantly have to change the track/band/channel/what have you.
Lately, I’ve been really digging the Hype Machine (hypem.com). It was made by NY locals, and updates itself in real time based on what is being talked about on the music blogs. As a result, you get really cool unreleased stuff mixed in with club play and assorted oddities. It’s great work music, but I feel like it has a very narrow focus (I tend to stay on the “popular” page and let it go in the background). If I click through to new artists, obviously, I get new stuff.
But this is work music. Having to do anything to get it great is a strike against it. So now I ask you. What are your tricks for keeping the beats fresh. Do you use what I use? Something new? Help a guy out. (Feed Readers: Survey embedded below. Please click through to participate. Thanks!)
I go through phases where, when I get tired of my music, I’ll end up listening to all of my favorite movies in the background while I work. Comedies tend to lend well to this habit, as they can keep you cheered up throughout a stressful day, and since you’ve already SEEN the movie, you don’t end up as likely to want to watch it as well. Audio is an interesting thing, and LISTENING to a movie can help you notice parts of movies that you miss when being distracted by the visuals of the movie itself.
You could always dip into a co-workers itunes library that may be shared across your network, for a taste of something new, IF sharing is allowed on your office network.