Brain.fm: Music-Assisted Focus

Most focus tools are built on vibes. This one is built on neuroscience.

Brain.fm offers music that is structurally designed to interact with your brain’s timing systems—specifically, by modulating auditory stimuli to produce reliable phase-locking in attention-related neural networks. This is not about lo-fi ambiance or background noise. It’s about rhythmic structure that shapes the excitability of neural populations so that you’re more likely to be alert at the right times.

I don’t usually promote things in class, but I use this every day and it’s been transformational

I’m neurodivergent (HSP, autistic), and while I’m not someone with ADHD (which Brain.fm markets toward), I find the platform astonishingly effective for entering and sustaining flow—especially when writing, coding, or doing deep design work. I wouldn’t casually recommend it otherwise, but: you can assume most of the content for this course was created with Brain.fm tracks playing in the background.

The mechanism is called entrainment of neural oscillations, and it’s increasingly being recognized as a substrate for selective attention in cognitive neuroscience. Neural ensembles in the brain exhibit spontaneous, rhythmic patterns of excitability—what we call brainwaves. These oscillations can be entrained—that is, phase-aligned—to the timing of external sensory input like rhythmic sound. When this happens, the brain becomes more excitable (and thus more responsive) at the moments it expects new stimuli.

As reviewed by Calderone et al. (2014), rhythmic auditory input can reset the phase of oscillatory activity, tuning large-scale cortical networks to synchronize with an external rhythm. This optimizes the detection and processing of information that arrives at predictable intervals. In real-world applications, this means your brain is better prepared to “catch” ideas, synthesize thoughts, and maintain a coherent attentional stance.

Brain.fm’s music is crafted using these principles—not just to sound good, but to maximize sustained attention by embedding rapid modulations and suppressing distracting features. The company holds patents on neural phase-locking technologies, distinguishing its approach from binaural beats and traditional background music. Their claims are supported by placebo-controlled studies using EEG and fMRI, showing modulation of oscillatory phase and functional network activity.

• Motivation/Focus: Techno March — fast-paced, intense, forward-motion, running a marathon. This is the track I use when I know exactly what I need to do, and I need motivation to do it. For instance, when I’ve crystallized how I want a lecture to flow, and now I need to knit the slides together, run parallel sessions of ChatGPT to wordsmith each articulation of a narrative, and assemble a final story. This is the track I use when I need to get it done. I often using a standing desk and stand up for this one.

• Motivation/Focus: Sunroof — steady, immersive, minimal distractions. This is the track I use when I need to get into the zone, but not in a particular rush, just sustainable workflow, this is when I need to be happy, joyful, remember that all the work I am doing is in service of a larger project to do good. Like with Techno March, I often have a pretty good idea of what I want to do, and this helps me do it. Listened to this many times in the morning on my commuter train from West Trenton.

• Focus: Pushing Forward — electronic, hypnotizing, exhilarating, complex textures. To my autistic brain, this track is like CRACK: The brain entrainment sequence in the beginning is sophisticated textured, repeats, overlays and flips patterns in a way that is bringing all focus to the center of vision. All of the textural elements that are mentioned in the brain entrainment phase are then layered for the remaining duration of the track. This track is a super-power. I doesn’t just keep me motivated, it takes me in a place of deep concentration where I can access some of my deepest cognition for problem solving. This is the track I keep for my most challenging problems.

• Deep Thinking: Balearica — complex textures, body high, hypnotic. This track is almost like getting with indica (the kind of cannabis that makes you fall into the couch and escape in deep, sedate though), but retaining clarity of mind. Although it is entirely abstract, it evokes the underwater calls of whales. It is a track that I can listen to for hours, that completely blocks out any distraction, and allows you to consider a problem from every different facet, calmly, intentionally, and with an acuity of perception that is unmatched. This is the track I use for creative, open-ended explorations.

• Focus: Veil of Light — slow, steady, rhythmic, complex textures. This track has a slow, steady, rhythmic beat, like the pulse of a heartbeat. The entrainment phase is very gentle, and the rhythm is layered very progressively. Once the track starts going, the various stimuli and patterns are extremely pleasant.

• Motivation/Focus: Daylight Break — fast-paced, steady, rhythmic, complex textures. This track, very much like Techno March, is excellent for motivation, but it is also good for thinking things through. It is particularly adept at blocking out overwhelming distractions, like for instance from other commuters on the train, when you are not in the QuietRide Car (or when you are in the QuietRide Car but the rules are not being followed 😭).

Brain.fm doesn’t just have these tracks, but hundreds of more to choose from. Their library can be searched through, and filtered according to many dimensions. In addition the productivity-related categories, there are also tracks to Relax, Meditate and Sleep. Here are a couple of recommendations of those:

• Sleep: Beneath the Rose — hypnotizing, drone, deep, complex textures. This is one of several excellent sleep tracks, which helps create a hazy texture for blocking out thought patterns and helping fall asleep. I find these tracks extremely in two situations you might encounter: (a) when trying to sleep on the airplane, and (b) when trying to sleep after having crammed for a late-night deadline.

• Relax: Black and White — earnest, nostalgic, contemplative, introspective, hazy. This track is a little bit lo-fi with a river sound track, and I find it both calming, soothing, at the same time as there is a sense of yearning. It makes me thoughtful, humble, contemplative, grateful, and reflective.

They offer a free month (no charge for 30 days), and I wanted to share this with anyone in the class who might benefit:

👉 Click here for 30 days free

You’ll be asked for:

• Name
• Email
• Password
• Optional ADHD status
• Credit card info (not billed unless you continue after 30 days)

After that, it’s $69.99/year.

Please note that although this is formally a “referral link”, the link doesn’t contain any information linked to me. Brain.fm doesn’t give me any credit for you signing up, and I don’t get any kickback of any kind.

If you’re the kind of person who:

• Finds silence unsettling but lyrics distracting
• Feels like your thoughts scatter when you try to start a task
• Wants to shape your sensory environment to match your intentions

…then this might be worth experimenting with. Especially if you’re neurodivergent and haven’t found generic productivity tools helpful.

Let me know if it clicks for you—or if you find a track I haven’t tried.