How many of us have switched on Pandora’s Classical for Work station in our cubicles, hoping that the Mozart effect will kick in, only to nearly nod off? While Debussy might coax some workers into productivity mode, for others it’s just boring.





Christofer Karltorp used to listen to classical music in college while studying, and for awhile, it worked. Sonatas don’t have distracting lyrics, and seemed to activate the right parts of his brain.

Once he graduated and started Zerply, a sort of LinkedIn for creative talent, he found the ethereal sounds of Bach almost too soothing. His job involves a lot of coding, and he craved something with a continuous beat that could keep him going. He tried the electronic music route, but that didn’t have the intended effect. “I could only take so much dubstep and things like that,” Karltorp, the CEO of Zerply, told Fast Company. “After awhile, it took me down, rather than kept me up.”

About four years ago, Karltorp landed on something that worked: Video game soundtracks. “If you listen to it over and over again, it never gets boring, it continues to pulse,” Karltorp explained. He started with recordings from StarCraft, of which he played “insane” amounts of as a teenager. “I started diving in and realizing that there is this whole world of people remixing video game music and that there’s this community out there that has discovered the same thing that I have,” he said.

Karltorp has found that music from games he used to play as a kid, such as StarCraft, Street Fighter, and Final Fantasy, work best. Because the music is designed to foster achievement and help players get to the next level, it activates a similar “in it to win it” mentality while working, argues Karltorp. At the same time, it’s not too disruptive to your concentration. “It’s there in the background,” said Karltorp. “It doesn’t get too intrusive, it keeps you going, and usually stays on a positive tone, too, which I found is important.”

Unlike electronic music, Karltorp hasn’t gotten sick of the video game music. He has even figured out which tracks work best for certain tasks. For example, if he has a lot of emails to answer, Karltorp puts on the Street Fighter II soundtrack. “I know how long it is,” he said. “I listen to it so much, it puts external pressure on me to finish up before the album comes to an end.”

Gaming music fits all the metrics for optimum work sounds. Ambient music at a moderate volume improves creativity, according to the Journal of Consumer Research. Most music composed for games, similar to something from an ambient pioneer like Brian Eno, doesn’t force itself to the center stage your brain but instead thrums in the background.