We all have our favorite music to listen too. For me, its 70 and 80s rock. It brings me back to my college days and I just love the beat. My go to band is Boston. Every song on their first album is very good. However, there are many rock bands that get me to air guitar by their 2nd song. As I got older and developed my photography workflow, I found it hard to merge my love of music with processing digital images. Picture listening to ACDC’s “Back In Black” while trying to process 1500 wedding images. It gets difficult as I’m trying to concentrate. I move images around changing their order (normally from 3-4 different cameras), setting keywords, trying to find the perfect white balance, doing some editing in photoshop from lightroom and all while listening to Steven Tyler scream in my ear.
Several years ago, I was listening to an interview between a Microsoft tech and a programmer. The programmer was also a musician and the interview centered around the music he listens to while doing work. His dilemma was similar to mine. Trying to concentrate while listening to certain music. The programmer told his interviewer that he composed the perfect music to program by. I immediately thought wow, just maybe. I quickly went to Spotify and typed in “Music to Code By” and found all kinds of stuff. Playlists and Artists that made the perfect companion to maneuver through my complexed workflow. I was in heaven. I spent a lot of Sunday mornings moving my mouse around my two monitors while listening to “Music to Code By”.
Spotify screen shot
Now, keep in mind, this isn’t the music I’d listen to while sharing a few beers with friends. They’d think I’d lost my mind. This is elevator stuff. But somehow the perfect blend (for me anyways) of music to process by. I’ve given the discovery to other photographers, but they didn’t share my enthusiasm. So, “Music to Code By” might not be for everyone that spends time in front of a computer. On the other hand, if you do spend a lot of time processing images and find it difficult to listen to your favorite choice of music, you might want to give it a try.