First of all, thanks so much for your willingness to fill out my “Writers and Music” survey. (If you haven’t yet and you’re willing to help writers everywhere with two minutes of your time, click here.)

This survey and blog post were born of my own curiosity. I regularly listen to music while I’m writing, and I wanted to know how other writers listen to music. I wanted to see how this analysis might inform my own music-listening habits and hope it will help other writers too.

So let’s dive in to the results.

Survey Participation

I sent this survey to my email list and via my social media channels. I asked respondents to consider sharing the survey via their channels too.

As I write this I’ve received 107 responses with a completion rate of 74 percent. Average time to complete the survey: 1 minute, 51 seconds.

I’m just geeky enough to find that interesting. I’m also geeky enough to find this interesting:

• 57 percent of respondents took the survey on a PC or laptop,
• 39 percent used smartphones, and
• 4 percent used tablets.

Interesting, right?

Now to the meat of it.

Fiction vs. Nonfiction Writers

I’m a nonfiction guy myself, so it’s no surprise that most of the respondents, 65 percent, were nonfiction writers. Of the remaining, 14 percent identified as fiction writers, and 21 percent said they were equally both.

How Often Do Writers Listen to Music While Writing?

I asked “Do you listen to music while you write?” and asked respondents to select a number between 1 and 10, 1 being “No, never” and 10 being “Yes, always.”

Sixty percent of respondents landed in the 7 to 10 range. I think of this as the “often to always” range. The top pick, at 18 percent of respondents, was 8.

The survey revealed 17 percent were in the 4 to 6 range, what I think of as “sometimes” territory.

And 20 percent of writers rarely or never (0 to 3) listen to music while writing. Seven percent indicated they never listen to music while writing.

It’s possible these results are skewed because you might be more likely to fill out a survey about your use of music as a writer if you’re a writer who listens to music.

Having said that, writers who listen to music while writing are safely in the majority here. Those in the “sometimes” and “rarely” camps have plenty of company too.

What Services Do Writers Use for Listening to Music?

Respondents were allowed to pick more than one service for this question, and the options were iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, old-school CD player, and “Other.”

The top service at 31 percent of respondents was iTunes, though Pandora and Spotify were solidly tied at second with 29 percent of the responses.

As for the “Other” responses, following is a breakdown of services that were entered more than once plus the number of entries in parentheses:

• YouTube (7)
• Amazon Music (2)
• Focus @ Will (2)
• Google Play (2)
• iHeart Radio (2)

Honorary mention goes to the respondent who wrote in “Record player”!

What Type of Music Do Writers Listen To?

The results to this question were particularly interesting to me. Here’s a pie chart that summarizes the findings by percentage of responses.

Let’s break down that “Other” option. Below, again, are the music types that received more than one write-in with the number of people who did so in parentheses:

• Instrumental (8)
• Worship (6)
• Christian (5)
• Indie/Singer-songwriter (2)
• Soundtracks (2)

Some of those “Christian” entries might belong in the “Worship” category, but I kept them separate because I do think there’s a difference between the worship genre and contemporary Christian music.

The big winner here is classical, which I find fascinating. But another noteworthy selection, I think, is that broad category of instrumental music, which, in addition to those who wrote that exact word in under “Other,” likely also includes New Age, jazz, electronic, and soundtracks. These nonverbal options comprise well over half of respondents.

But a still significant minority (my estimate is about 20 percent) listens to music with words, including those who selected country, rock, folk, perhaps some of the jazz contingent, and many of those who wrote in worship or Christian.

Honorary mention goes to the person who wrote, “I develop a play list for the project with music that fits.” I love that intentionality!

What Are Writers’ Favorite Pandora Stations?

As a Pandora listener myself, I was eager to learn some new Pandora stations to check out, and the responses to this question did not disappoint!

I was also interested to see if writers gravitate toward any particular stations. The only outlier here was “Classical,” not surprisingly given the responses to the question about type of music. Both Leonard Cohen and the Piano Guys received two entries.

About a third of survey takers responded to this question, which makes sense because about the same percentage selected Pandora under the services question mentioned above. Below I’ll alphabetically list the stations respondents wrote in as their favorite:

• 1920s
• Baroque
• Beats for Studying
• Brooklyn Duo
• Christian
• Civil Wars
• Classical (3)
• Classical for Studying (2)
• Colin Haye
• Country rock
• David Nevue
• David Francey
• Epic Soundtracks (2)
• George Gershwin
• George Winston
• Hammock
• Helen Jane Long
• Hymns4Worship
• Jazz Standards
• Jim Brickman
• The Oh Hellos
• Leonard Cohen (2)
• Lumineers
• Michael Buble
• Nickelcreek
• Piano guys (2)
• Sleeping at Last
• Smooth jazz
• Worship

What Are Writers’ Second Favorite Pandora Stations?

Following is a list of what writers wrote in for their second favorite Pandora station:

• 70s
• 80’s
• 80s alternative
• Beach boys
• Carly Simon
• Christian
• Civil Wars
• Classic rock
• Classical
• Classical Guitar Radio
• Classical instrumental
• Downton Abbey soundtrack
• French folk music
• Frou Frou
• George Winston
• Instrumental (2)
• Jazz
• Jazz Standards
• Lord Huron
• Christian
• Movie scores
• Peaceful Seclusion
• Piano Guys
• Rock
• Seasonal
• Smooth Jazz
• Soundtracks
• Thomas Newman
• Traditional Country Hymns

One person wrote, “I haven’t tried any others yet but would be interested to see what other people use.” I’m interested in that as well! In fact, I’m currently listening to the George Winston station due to these results!

Conclusion and Takeaways

Clearly a lot of writers, perhaps most, listen to music while they write. Generally they prefer nonverbal music, and classical music is the top pick. Most writers use either iTunes, Pandora, or Spotify to listen while they write.

Personally I’ll definitely be trying some of these Pandora stations out. I’m most intrigued by Classical for Studying, Epic Soundtracks, Piano Guys, Peaceful Seclusion, Instrumental, Leonard Cohen, Beats for Studying, and Smooth Jazz.

Question: What’s most helpful to you about these findings? What Pandora stations will you be trying? You can leave a comment by clicking here.