One really awesome thing I've found is listening to game music/soundtracks whilst working. I figured big game companies spend a lot of time designing music that is engaging and stimulating to the brain but not so stimulating that you lose all track of what you're doing and start rocking out to the music.

EA Games Soundtrack - SIMCITY is a great example of this. Before I was listening to techno/trance/dance type stuff, but it doesn't hold my concentration whilst coding or writing documentation like many of the game sound tracks do.

Some Spotify links to game music albums I've found awesome at allowing me to stay on track:

London Music Works Game Collection: http://open.spotify.com/user/1114941712/playlist/1qd0VVUvxFj...

RPG Orchestra : http://open.spotify.com/user/1114941712/playlist/2RVn60xpklO...

SIMCITY : http://open.spotify.com/user/1114941712/playlist/6ZPzgdhJIWA...

Red Alert Sound Track: http://open.spotify.com/user/1114941712/playlist/2CAcjxhHzTN...

I've also found wearing noise cancelling earbuds/headphones even if nobody else is about really helps whilst listening to music to help me zone in. We've spent a lot of time in the office trying out different types of music and setups, with the conclusion being game music + noise cancelling earbuds/ headphones seem to be the winner.

Indie game soundtracks are great too, and if you buy Humble Bundles you already have loads! :)

Google Music All Access "I'm feeling lucky radio" is the best thing ever

CLI ruby client for soundcloud -- less distracting interface for Soundcloud (not mine, but I have contributed): https://github.com/rekado/soundCLI

I also wrote IRC supybot plugins for the digital-tunes API: https://github.com/doublerebel/Supybot-dt

And for the beatport API, but it needs to be updated since they switched to OAuth: https://github.com/doublerebel/Supybot-beatport

Beethoven symphonies simultaneously disappear into the background while I'm thinking hard, and inspire me to create something meaningful with my work.

I constantly move my headphones around on my head as I'm working. They stay right over my ears while things are going well, and then I move them forward off my ears a bit when I need to concentrate a bit more. For some reason that is more satisfying to me than adjusting the volume frequently. I'm quite curious to hear if anyone else does that?

Spotify/Trance playlists. Spotify has a great selection of curated playlists that help the brain get focused and get into a productive un-emotional state.

I also keep a second laptop on the side (apart from the desktop workstation) so that I don't have to context switch for my music if I need to.

I have tried a lot of different music. I've found trance to be the most effective for me. Also vocals are great when I am trying to do light work but not for heavy coding sessions.

Grooveshark -> my collection -> play all [-> shuffle, sometimes]. At times I also put on specific playlists, but that's not so often.

The downside of Grooveshark is that there are no hotkeys, but I don't really miss them that much. I've got volume control keys on my keyboard and that's enough. On the upside, it works in the browser so I don't need a special Linux client.

We're using a webapp we've created and are currently working on. Since it's player as well as playlist are both collaborative we can schedule songs/youtube videos we like. Hearing can indeed be a way for noticing server/code issues.

http://co.lou.rs/#trance

For coding/documenting/analysis, under Windows, foobar2k , playing whole albums from my collection brought to work on a 2.5" USB drive. DT770 headphones.

In the lab, I often have electronic music mixes on loudspeakers, it's more monotonous and fits to the bunker atmosphere where I work ;-)

Usually (like right now) using XMMS and a pair of Marley headphones. Other times, I may find something on Youtube that I want to listen to. Rarely, I dial up a Shoutcast stream. I've kinda gotten away from Pandora, albeit for no particular reason.

Dr.dk's classical channel, Dubthugz, and Mind Potion Radio. If I'm feeling a little lo-energy, I watch the Bella Coola segment from Into the Mind. Equipment: Sennheiser HD518s via a Behringer headphone amp. On the road I use MEElectronics IEMs.

Jamendo radios, mostly rock and lounge. It helps that English is not my mother tongue and so just a random song is unlikely to grab my attention too much. Known songs might very well distract me so I avoid my personal music collection.

Recently I've been listening to lighter soundtracks (Thomas Newman) on Pandora mixed with ambient sounds[0]. I use open-back headphones at home.

[0] http://asoftmurmur.com/

I prefer something with a more house/techno/trance vibe. One of my favorite artists to listen to lately is Overwerk. I feel like this electronic synths make me feel one with the cyber world :P

Varied. In the office, songs on shuffle, or SomaFM (lush/secret agent), or a random mood playlist off Songza. Using Westone 4R IEMs.

At home, same song choices, but stream to my jambox.

I usually listen to music that I've heard many times before. I find listening to new music steals my focus.

Soma.

Great CL interface. Especially like Groove Salad and Air Lounge.

I think you can get these stations using a browser as well on Radionomy.

Sennheiser HD 650, Woo Audio WA-6, Cambridge Audio DACMagic. Normally I'm just streaming from di.fm

mplayer + zsh globbing, or even find [options] -exec mplayer {} \; but I tend to listen more and more to albums and concert bootlegs and mixtapes on youtube.

VLC with media keys (or sometimes the ncurses client)

iTunes with mainly Dubstep & electronic, but everything else too. And the standard iPhone 5 earbuds. Works wonders for me.

YouTube playlist + Koss KSC75 headphones

Custom Spotify Playlists

grooveshark broadcasts are the bee's knees

Radio from phone

I have my own soundcloud playlists

but once they are done (4 hours ish each) I just put on pandora and listen to that