# What do you stream for background sound? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 27, 2023, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276 "2023-04-27T14:43:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2023, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/21 "2023-04-28T04:22:42Z")
[![](https://frinkiac.com/meme/S14E05/459376.jpg?b64lines=IEkgc2hhcmUgYSBjb21tb24gd2FsbAogd2l0aCBhIGphaSBhbGFpIGNvdXJ0Lgo=) ](https://frinkiac.com/meme/S14E05/459376.jpg?b64lines=IEkgc2hhcmUgYSBjb21tb24gd2FsbAogd2l0aCBhIGphaSBhbGFpIGNvdXJ0Lgo=) [![](https://frinkiac.com/meme/S14E05/463129.jpg?b64lines=IFRoYXQncyBqdXN0IHRoZSBzb3VuZCBvZgogdGhlIHBlbG90YSBoaXR0aW5nIHRoZQogZnJvbnRvbi4gSSBmaW5kIGl0CiBzb290aGluZy4gKCB0aHVkZGluZyk=) ](https://frinkiac.com/meme/S14E05/463129.jpg?b64lines=IFRoYXQncyBqdXN0IHRoZSBzb3VuZCBvZgogdGhlIHBlbG90YSBoaXR0aW5nIHRoZQogZnJvbnRvbi4gSSBmaW5kIGl0CiBzb290aGluZy4gKCB0aHVkZGluZyk=) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2023, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/22 "2023-04-28T11:45:46Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > You’re studying or reading or busy in your home and want some background sound from the tv No I don’t. 🙂 At least, if I’m studying or reading, it’s a lot harder to concentrate if there’s something with words/voices going on in the background. So I’ll want either silence or something like instrumental classical music (which can be good if there’s something going on in the background that I _want_ to drown out). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2023, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/23 "2023-04-28T12:17:21Z")
Nothing. I don’t want or need background sound. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2023, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/24 "2023-04-28T14:16:55Z")
Cable tv here has a hundred music channels. Classical, country, jazz, easy listenin’, oldies, urban, you name it! I go back and forth - during the tRump years it was on the calming ‘spa music’ channel…if there is a movie marathon of ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Lord of the Rings’, or ‘Titanic’ on, I will have that on in the background and peek at my favorite scenes now and then. They’re like comfort food. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/25 "2023-04-28T14:27:50Z")
Nothing. My life doesn’t need a soundtrack. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2023, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/26 "2023-04-28T20:55:44Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > You’re studying or reading or busy in your home and want some background sound from the tv, I do not understand this concept. Sometimes I’ll play a one- or two-hour YouTube video of classical music, but not very often. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/27 "2023-04-29T02:05:17Z")
I also find silence ideal, but it’s best to have some sort of noise going on when I’m hanging around the house with the dogs. Otherwise they’ll start a riot every time a car goes by, or a bird farts outside. I use the Soundscapes channel on Direct TV. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/28 "2023-04-29T02:23:37Z")
Ocean waves. ---
**Author:** ![rippingtons\_fan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rippingtons_fan/32/11767_2.png) [@rippingtons\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rippingtons_fan)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/29 "2023-04-29T02:27:33Z")
I usually have on Music Choice on the Smooth Jazz channel. (I love Smooth Jazz.) ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/30 "2023-04-29T14:23:37Z")
I have different preferences for different circumstances. Housework gets almost exclusively instrumental jazz on spotify. Usually whatever precompiled playlist is at the top of the search results. Very rarely I’ll whip up a playlist with some Ella Fitzgerald in it for folding the laundry. Driving requires kawaii metal, rap from Thailand, Bloodywood, mongolian metal and Motorhead and norse/north european stuff like Heilung. This playlist has about 15 hours of music Work is the driving music plus classic american heavy metal and some funk and disco, a little bit of rock, a smidge of big band and swing. This playlist has about 23 hours of music Never anything from Rolling Stones as mick jagger … is terrible in my ears ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2023, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/31 "2023-04-29T15:13:36Z")
I took a local classic rock station’s (KZOK in Seattle) top 1025 song of 2015, whittled out about 10% of the songs and added my own. I then replaced the studio versions of about 25% of the songs with live versions. My only complaint with this is I haven’t found a music player for my computer that will randomize that complete list of songs. The one I am using will randomized about 300 songs maximum and it is a truly randomized list, it will play the same song over again, some times within about 20 minutes. So I just play the list in order, I pick a random starting point and listen from there. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2023, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/32 "2023-12-10T07:59:38Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I don’t like background sound if I’m trying to work or read and I hate having a tv on unless I’m watching a program. Same. The TV is not “just noise” to me. If it’s on, it’s what I’m doing. If I’m doing something else, it’s off. I don’t even like having the radio on when I drive. Quiet car is my preference. My wife is the opposite, with youtube music videos running on the side screen whenever she’s working, paused only for meetings. In the car, even when I’m driving and she’s the passenger, she insists on having background music playing, always. Drives me low-key nuts but it’s not a hill to die on. Edit: I just realized this was an old thread. Didn’t mean to bump for no reason. Stupid discourse recommendation mechanism. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2023, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/33 "2023-12-10T16:43:39Z")
I don’t play, let alone stream, anything for background sound. When I listen to music, I listen to music. The same with other media. I do have the radio on when I’m driving, though. It’s likely because I hate to drive. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2023, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/34 "2023-12-10T16:53:24Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I don’t like background sound if I’m trying to work or read and I hate having a tv on unless I’m watching a program. This. When I’m in the car and I have the radio on, it’s either the local classical station or the country station. (There also used to be a semi-decent oldies station\* in the area, but they switched formats a few years ago. \* They played '60s and '70s music; I prefer '50s and '60s. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2023, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/35 "2023-12-10T17:08:45Z")
Since this thread has been revived, I’d like to use it to complain about my in-laws. They keep the TV on when we visit and I’m never clear if we’re supposed to be watching it, or not. I’ve turned it off when they leave the room because no one seems to be watching it and I can’t hear myself think, but they inevitably turn it on again. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2023, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/36 "2023-12-10T20:14:10Z")
To avoid uncomfortable silences with in-laws with whom you don’t have much in common. Leave it on I say and don’t mention it. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2023, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/37 "2023-12-11T02:53:31Z")
I am always listening to my extensive collection of records for the Seeburg 1000 Background Music System. I have probably 700 or so of the special-format 16-2/3 RPM Mono records, they each have 15-20 songs per side, with about 1h 20m per record. It’s background music from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, just like you would have heard in a hotel lobby or in a supermarket. They actually stream the same stuff here: > **[Seeburg 1000 Background Music Radio | seeburg1000.com](https://seeburg1000.com)** > > Streaming the Best of the Seeburg 1000 Background Music Library Playing 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The Official Seeburg 1000 Website | Internet Radio I started collecting the records years ago when I feared that some day the site would disappear and I would be left without my preferred background music. I have ripped all of them to MP3 on a [highly customized Seeburg 1000 BMC](https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-cb9gMLn/0/fedc1c23/O/i-cb9gMLn.jpg), and I have them streaming via Icecast from a Raspberry Pi that is hidden inside an [original Seeburg 1000 BMS](https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-Gg4rhDL/0/b93cffab/4K/i-Gg4rhDL-4K.jpg). In my brand new home office I have built-in architectural Sonos speakers driven by a Sonos amp that is tucked away in my network rack. That amp is almost always just tuned to the Icecast stream playing the light background music quietly as I work. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2023, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/38 "2023-12-11T08:04:12Z")
TV is there to be looked at, so I wouldn’t have it as background. On my own, I’ll have [BBC Radio 3](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_three) on. With company, nothing. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2023, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/39 "2023-12-11T08:12:29Z")
The sleep apps having rain drops, wind, rain on a tin roof. Great for when I’m concentrating on work. The app offers Thunder storms and that’s a big no. Very annoying because it breaks my concentration. It’s fine for sleep. White noise is ok, but gets annoying if I’m working all afternoon. I like rain drops on a sidewalk best. It’s soothing. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2023, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276/40 "2023-12-11T12:12:17Z")
I like asmr style sounds too. I prefer Live action with scenery. I watch listen to YT channels. Wilderness Riders, basically horseback riders and pack mules clip clopping in the high elevations of Yellowstone camping and trail riding. Indian Ambience is a walk thru of villages in the rain makes me very sleepy. Or thru hikers in the PCT or AT or Continental Divide trail. Little Skittles or Quadzilla have a collection of their thru hikes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-stream-for-background-sound/983276.md?page=3)