Last updated: October 17, 2026
The best music for studying is music without lyrics. In the research we read, songs with lyrics made reading and memory slightly worse, while instrumental music mostly made no difference compared with silence. A small 2025 study found that instrumental music helped attention. So keep it instrumental, keep it quiet, and save your favorite songs for the break.
We make StillTune, an app that plays instrumental music for focus and sleep, so we have an obvious interest in people studying with music on. We've tried to report the research as it stands, including the parts that don't flatter background music.
Does music help you study, or does it distract you?
On average, it does neither, and that average hides the useful part. A 2011 meta-analysis in Psychology of Music pooled studies of background music in adults and found no overall effect. The authors think specific effects cancel each other out. When they looked at specific outcomes, background music disturbed reading and had small harmful effects on memory. It also improved emotional reactions and sports performance.
So music can make a task feel better without helping you read or remember more.
Why do lyrics make studying harder?
A 2018 meta-analysis of 65 studies on reading with background sound found that noise, speech, and music all had a small but reliable harmful effect on reading. Speech you could understand and music with lyrics caused the most distraction, and the effect didn't generally differ between adults and children.
A 2023 study from the University of Porto tested this with more than 100 psychology students, online. They did verbal memory, visual memory, reading comprehension, and arithmetic tasks in three conditions: silence, instrumental lo-fi hip-hop, and popular songs with Portuguese lyrics. Compared with silence, the songs with lyrics lowered scores on both memory tasks, and the authors report that lyrics also hurt reading comprehension. The reading test was easy for this group, though, with average accuracy around 93% to 95%, which leaves little room to see differences.
The students noticed. They rated the lyrics as harmful to their learning. Many also rated the lo-fi as helpful, even though their scores didn't show a benefit.
Is instrumental music better for studying?
It's the safer choice. A 2024 set of four experiments had people read short paragraphs at their own pace. They read in silence, with a song playing, or with the instrumental version of the same song. In three of the four experiments, the lyrics slowed reading down. The instrumental versions either didn't change reading time or sped it up slightly compared with silence. The authors called the lyrics effect "quite mild" and concluded that instrumental music doesn't distract during reading.
In the Porto study, instrumental lo-fi didn't credibly hurt or improve any of the four tasks compared with silence. Taken together, instrumental music looks like a fine background for reading. We haven't seen good evidence that it helps you learn more.
What's the best music for studying math?
For math, the choice of music may matter less than for reading. In the Porto study, the authors found strong evidence against any effect of music on arithmetic: neither the songs with lyrics nor the lo-fi changed scores compared with silence. That's one study with simple arithmetic, so we wouldn't stretch it to calculus. If music keeps you at the desk for a long problem set, instrumental music is still the safer pick, since reading word problems is still reading.
Can music help you concentrate?
There are some signs it can. A 2025 study in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications had 34 French-speaking adults do an attention test and a word-fluency task. They worked in silence, with a calm instrumental ambient piece at 60 beats per minute, and with a livelier one at 120. The authors report that background music helped attention and word production over the session, and both pieces made the tasks more enjoyable than silence. The livelier piece made the attention task feel like more effort.
That was a small study using two pieces of music, and it wasn't preregistered, so treat it as a hint. The authors' suggestion was to match the energy of the music to the demands of the task.
What we'd do with music for studying
Play instrumental music for reading, writing, and memorizing. Save songs with lyrics for breaks or for routine work.
Pick calm music for dense reading. If a track makes you feel wired, try something slower.
Skip songs you know by heart. To our ears, a favorite song is much harder to tune out than something new.
Keep the volume low, especially with earbuds. The NIDCD at the National Institutes of Health says sounds at or below 70 dBA are unlikely to cause hearing loss, even after long exposure. Long or repeated exposure at 85 dBA or more can cause it.
Test it on yourself. Study one session with music and one without, then quiz yourself on each. Trust the quiz more than how the session felt.
Choose silence if even instrumental music bothers you. It's a perfectly good way to study.
If you find it hard to concentrate most days no matter what you try, it's worth talking to a doctor about it.
How StillTune fits
StillTune's Focus mode plays instrumental music with no lyrics, built from bells, glass, handpan, flute, and soft pads. It never repeats and has no loop point, so you can leave it on through a long session without picking the next track. You can add rain, wind, or café sounds, or a white, pink, or brown noise layer, in the Mixer. It works offline after you've played a mode once while online, and you don't need an account. We haven't seen StillTune itself tested in a study, so the research above is about instrumental music in general. You can hear what Focus mode sounds like on our focus music page, or get StillTune on the App Store. It's free with ads, and an optional Pro plan removes them.
Frequently asked questions
Is it bad to listen to music while studying?
Not if the music has no lyrics. In the studies we read, instrumental music mostly didn't change reading or memory compared with silence, while music with lyrics made both slightly worse. Keep the volume low, and judge by what you remember rather than how the session felt.
Does classical music help you study?
We haven't found good evidence that classical music beats other instrumental music. The studies we read that measured reading or memory used lo-fi hip-hop and instrumental versions of songs, and neither clearly improved memory or reading comprehension compared with silence. Classical music without singing is a reasonable choice for the same reasons.
Is lo-fi good for studying?
Lo-fi without vocals is a fair choice. In a 2023 study with more than 100 students, instrumental lo-fi hip-hop didn't credibly hurt or improve memory, reading, or arithmetic compared with silence. Watch for lo-fi tracks with vocal samples, since speech and lyrics are the biggest distractions when you read.
Should I study in silence instead?
Silence is a perfectly good choice, especially for difficult reading. If music helps you start and stay put, quiet instrumental music is a reasonable compromise. Noise isn't neutral either: a 2018 meta-analysis found that background noise also slightly hurt reading. For bedtime listening, see our guide on whether it's bad to sleep with music on.