I’ve always been a Hip Hop enthusiast and I’ll always love the genre to some degree. There’s still a place for Hip Hop to exist in my life and I’ll make sure there always will be. But now that my work is shifting more to the practice of writing, I find myself unable to listen to background music with vocals while I work. For many writers, listening to music with vocals disrupts the flow of words. I find this happening to me, and it means I have to either pause my music or my podcasts while I focus on writing.
But that doesn’t mean that you should be forced to work in silence. For some, silence can be just as disruptive as loud music. The solution to this problem is to instead listen to non-vocalised melodies, or what’s being called Lofi. Depending on your tastes, you could find these kinds of melodies anywhere. Spotify, iTunes, YouTube. If you’re a Hip Hop fan like I am then it could be as simple as listening to instrumentals of your favourite songs instead.
For me, I’ve started to listen to a few Lofi YouTube broadcasts that play songs from indie artists. These channels are designed to pump out chill music that you can study, write or work to. I think these are great, because not only does it promote indie musicians, but it can also expose people to new tastes while also helping to set the ambiance.
Here are some of the channels that are among my favourites.
HOMEWORK RADIO – A mix of jazz, hip hop and acid-jazz sounds. You can choose between music with vocals and music without vocals on their channel.
IN YOUR CHILL – A mix of hip hop, jazz and funk sounds. You can choose from different sounds on their channel.
NOURISH. – They have a mix of electronic music, meditation themed music and chillhop. You can choose from different sounds on their channel.
Each of these broadcasters also have their own Spotify playlists too, if you’d rather use Spotify instead of YouTube. You can also support them by donating a pound / dollar or two on their Patreon pages or YouTube broadcasts. They seem to stream all day, everyday.
Considering that they provide the same services that a radio station would, I have no problems supporting them.