Why you should control the music you work to

Music by Modes Rodríguez on Flickr

We have yet to find someone who doesn't agree that at certain times listening to music can make you more productive.  However, when you look at some of the large meta-analyses of research into the idea of music to work to, it gets a little more opaque.  

More recent research indicates that what happens in these big studies is that the positive effects of listening to music are balanced out by the negative effects, leading the researchers to conclude that music to work to doesn't actually work.

Looking at the right variable

We recently came across a study from Dr. Amanda Krause who was intrigued by the idea of dominance and control over the auditory environment and the effect it would have on how people felt.

Using a technique called the experience sampling method (ESM,) she conducted a study where 177 participants were sent two text messages a day and were asked to complete online reports on their experience with music in the preceding two hours.

Her team initially focused on what devices people were listening to music on and found that when listening to music through the radio or recorded music in public (a low control environment,) people reported feelings of lethargy.  However, when listening to music on mp3 players or through their computer speakers (a high control environment,) people reported contentment and further motivation to listen.

Control is everything

If you just looked at the data without separating the medium on which they experienced the music - you'd say there was a net zero benefit from listening.  Which is clearly not the case for some of the people and leads us to wonder how many other variables are being missed in the music to work to literature.

For us the big takeaway from this initial study is that the development in the last decade of audio hardware combined with the digitization of music (mp3 players, iPods, Beats headphones etc,) has given people far more control over what they listen to.  As a result, the concept of music to work to becomes more popular as it becomes more effective.

While we know that everyone is different and what works for one person might be anathema for another, if you need to get some writing done, maybe some research or any kind of knowledge work, you might try some music2work2 - it seems to work well for a lot of people.

You might also enjoy:

Why listening to music at work could make you smarter

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This Week in Music to Work to - July 31st, 2014

Study finds that snowboarders listening to music have less injuries

This is brilliant - seems that if you listen to music while you're snowboarding you're less likely to have an accident.  However, the data does come with the caveat that if you do have an accident while listening to music - it's more likely to be significant and end up with a trip to the ER instead of being handled by the snow patrol on the hill.

It reminds me of driving behavior in Germany back in the day - accidents were pretty infrequent, as most people obeyed the traffic laws, however - when there was an accident it was generally pretty horrendous due to the unlimited speeds allowed on the autobahn.

The takeaway for me is the whole idea that music can encourage and facilitate the development of a state of flow.  That place where you're not really thinking about what you're doing - you're just in the zone and performing effortlessly.  So for our snowboarders they make less mistakes and have less accidents.  the down side could potentially be that they start testing the limits of their ability - resulting in the big accidents that send them off to the ER.

Ah well - no pain - no gain!!!  ;-p 

Not Just for Music: Drumming Is Therapy, Too

When you look at the list of benefits as identified by scientific studies it just makes you wonder why more people aren't shouting about this.  Improved T cell counts, helping Alzheimer patients, reducing drop out rates and even reversing genetic responses to stress!  I wonder if it's just cultural - the idea that a drum circle is typically populated by 60's throwbacks and the whole hippie thing that keeps people from actively attending or doing something with this information.  I guess we're going to need even more studies before people are convinced.

Running to the beat of your own music

Studies over the years have show the clear benefits that music can bring to runners - I particularly remember the one quoted that shows that music can reduce the perception of exertion by 10% and that synchronizing movements to the beat can increase performance by 15%.  Who wouldn't want to get that benefit?

It's going to make runners at least more aware of the tempo of tracks and as the article says move people more into the techno and hip hop worlds!

They're Using Our Biology Against Us? Movie Makers Are Evil Geniuses!

Short primer on how composers use music to manipulate emotions in the movie world.  Although we're all familiar with the sounds of Jaws and the shower scene from Psycho - its the infrasounds used in Paranormal Activity - those deep frequencies that we can't hear but feel - that really - that I think are really interesting!

Does listening to music improve productivity? Here's 8 compelling reasons why it does

It's funny - when we sat down 9 years ago and wrote the business plan for music2work2 we knew that one of the indicators of success would be the arrival of articles that talk about how music can help productivity.  It always puts a smile on my face to read pieces like this.  If you're struggling with someone who says music doesn't have an effect - get them to read this.  but remember - it is all subjective - and even though these studies show a benefit - there are plenty of people for whom music is a terrible distraction - whether its instrumental or not!

#musictoworkto #musictowriteto #musictorunto

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Frustration 2 - Final Piano Track

Edit April 14 - that wasn't the final track - it could have been but it wasn't "quite" right and anyway - the core file got lost in the hard drive failure - so I'm guessing - it wasn't the final track after all...

After a few weeks of hacking it out - here is the final piano track for Frustration 2. We'll be adding strings etc over the next few weeks - but I do like how this has progressed since the beginning of the year.

We're also enjoying the instant feedback from YouTube - this picked up 250 views in the first 24 hours which bodes well for the completed track.

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