Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do ya? — Leonard Cohen
Here is a list of great musical resources on YouTube (not YouTube Music) for your extended listening sessions. The following links are all livestreams but the links themselves are primarily to a channel’s front page as many of the URLs change over time. I did include one livestream URL after each section to provide you with an opportunity of giving them a listen without leaving the page.
Don’t get the whole lofi thing? This video can give you some guidance.
Lofi Girl
The original. Chilled Cow. At this point in Internet history, LofiGirl represents so much more than just a music channel on YouTube. She personifies something much larger. She was also a tremendous help to the world during the pandemic. Here is a great historical piece on LofiGirl’s history and impact.
You can easily scratch all your lofi itches with what LofiGirl offers to the world, but do not hesitate to give the following channels your time.
Chillhop
More lofi
The following offer typical jazz around the clock. Great for the office or early Saturday mornings. If you want to spice things up a bit, tune into any of the three streams offered by the Acid Jazz channel.
- AcidJazz
- Dr. SaxLove ️
- TOKYO Cafe
- Cafe Music BGM
- Relax Music
- Sleepify Don’t let the name turn you away, this is a great classical station. They also offer a livestream has has a gentle fireplace ambiance over the classical music playing.
These channels offer background ambiance of various types. Teravibe does themed soundscapes that are several hours long, such as “Writing in a Cafe” or “Preparing potions in a lab”. It is very unique and great if you want something even less distracting than lofi.
Nemo’s Soundscapes does the famed “music playing in another room and it’s raining”. It’s another one of those things you just need to experience to understand.
Think Sinatra, Martin, Nat King Cole, Paul Anka, Tony Bennett. All the songs from the “good old days”.
Old World Radio
This channel takes inspiration from the famed Fallout game franchise and offers a couple of different channels that would fall under the “good old days” genre. One of the livestreams even has the DJ from the game in between songs.
Synthwave? Imagine, if you will a world were back in the 80s the aesthetic and vibe was intact, but the musical producers had access to all the technological advancement that musicians have today. If you haven’t listened to Synthwave before, listen to this song and thank me later:
Meaningwave
Akira deserves his own section of this piece. Akira has taken two of the greatest things in the world, the recorded spoken word and music, and created a musical genre infusing the two of them into one magical entity. He calls it Meaningwave.
For a premier example of what Meaningwave is, please give one or both of these fine videos a spin:
Almost everyone has heard this commencement speech. Start with this one if you have already heard this speech.
“The Wave” is a perfect representation of what Meaningwave is set out to do, leave you with something to think about.