Brain.fm does it work?

I first heard about Brain.fm years ago but never tried it as I didn’t see what the difference was between the application and just listening the to focus playlists on Apple Music. It was when Mark Ellis reviewed the app and pointed out 1 major ”feature”.

Using Brain.fm does not mess with your Apple Music recommendations.

Based on this I figured I would give the service a try for the first time and I was surprised. It works. Not only does this keep my Apple Music clean but I also don’t spend 5–10 minutes finding the right music to listen to. Brain.fm simply asks you what you want to do and how long you want to do it for. Answer the 2 questions and you start hearing the perfect music for your activity.

Music does help me focus and get more work done. This is likely becuase I work from home and spend a lot of time sitting in front of a computer, alone. The music breaks the silence in a non-distracting manner.

Brain talk a lot on their site about the science and AI behind the music they have, yes this is AI generated music.

Scientists at Brain.fm work with collaborators at academic institutions to run experiments, looking at the effects of our technology on the brain using fMRI and EEG. We also run large-scale behavioral tests, measuring performance on simple games.

Brain.fm

I don’t know if how much of this is just marketing speak and if the music does actually affect your productivity. I can say that I am able to focus for longer when listening to the right kind of music.

In short, Brain.fm helps me focus and get more done during my work day. Not necessarily increasing the work completed per hour but over a day I get a lot of focused time. Previously I would get 3–4 hours for truly focused working time per day, now I am getting 4–6 hours per day.