Music To Code By
We all have our favorite music to listen to. For me, it’s 70s and 80s rock. It takes me right back to my college days, and I still love the beat. My go‑to band is Boston—every song on their first album is solid. But plenty of rock bands can get me air‑guitaring by their second song.
As I got older and developed my photography workflow, I realized how hard it was to merge my love of music with processing digital images. Picture trying to edit 2,500 wedding photos while AC/DC’s Back in Black is blasting. Concentration becomes a challenge. I’m shuffling images from 3–4 different cameras, setting keywords, hunting for the perfect white balance, bouncing between Lightroom and Photoshop—and meanwhile Steven Tyler is screaming in my ear.
Several years ago, I heard an interview between a Microsoft tech and a programmer who was also a musician. The conversation centered on the music he listened to while working. His dilemma was the same as mine: how to focus while listening to music you love. He explained that he eventually composed the perfect music to program by.
I thought, maybe this is it. I jumped onto Spotify, typed in “Music to Code By,” and suddenly found all kinds of playlists and artists creating exactly what I needed. It was the perfect companion for navigating my complex workflow. I was in heaven. Many Sunday mornings were spent moving my mouse across two monitors while listening to “Music to Code By.”
