Have you ever struggled with maintaining focus or felt your productivity slipping away? Brain.fm might be a solution. It works for me. By combining neuroscience and AI, this platform creates audio tracks designed to boost your mental performance. Whether you need better concentration or restful sleep, Brain.fm offers an easy, scientifically backed solution that fits your routine and budget. As you might expect, my focus sessions are geared towards productivity.
Knowledge You’ll Gain:
- Learn how functional music can enhance your focus, relaxation, and sleep.
- Discover Brain.fm soundtracks and customize your listening experience for optimal results.
- Explore the benefits of Brain.fm for boosting productivity.
- Utilize Brain.fm’s timer settings to optimize your focus sessions and work breaks
The Science Behind the Sound: Brain.fm’s Origins
Founded in 2014, Brain.fm researched how sound can influence your brain’s performance. The process, known as brainwave entrainment, involves using specific sounds to help guide your brain into a preferred state, like focusing or relaxing. In other words, your brainwaves sync to the music.
By working closely with neuroscientists and music engineers, Brain.fm develops soundtracks that target different mental states, supporting activities like working, unwinding, or sleeping. They call this “functional music” or “music without distraction”. There are no vocals or lyrics.
Functional Music vs. Binaural Beats
At first, I thought their approach was the same as biaural beats. While both leverage sound to influence the brain, they do so in distinct ways. Functional music provides a comprehensive audio experience, whereas binaural beats focus on frequency manipulation. Binaural beats play two slightly different frequencies, one in each ear, and you perceive the differences as a new one.
Functional music is specifically composed to support specific mental tasks, such as enhancing focus or relaxation, by using carefully designed rhythms and harmonies. This type of music may include elements of traditional music to remain engaging while subtly promoting desired outcomes. You can read more about their studies and science.
Easy Onboarding with Brain.fm
One of the service’s best features is its accessibility through both a web platform and mobile apps (Android and iOS) The two programs have very similar features. One difference is the mobile app offers an offline feature which is helpful for sleep mode. For most of this article, I’ll be discussing the web version.
The service starts with an easy onboarding process consisting of 5 question panels like the one below.
Apart from one marketing question, the onboarding determines your:
- first objective
- focus goal
- if you have ADHD (you don’t have to answer)
- environment type
- genre (music styles)
Several of the questions involved additional information to assist your selection. As someone who is musically challenged, I liked seeing the examples.
Note: You can go through this onboarding process anytime by selecting Library > Profile > Settings and then clicking the Personalize button.
Based on your activity selection (1), the system will filter the audio tracks to match your profile. In my case, the system selected Wanderer and showed more details (2). I can refine the program by indicating if I dislike the track or want it to be a favorite. I appreciate these options because some soundtracks don’t appeal to me.
In the center (3) you have a timer and options to switch to uplifting quotes. I find myself switching these based on my mood. For example, some days when I’m in Focus mode, I may use the “Timer” option instead of “Infinite Play”. Regardless of your time option, you can always pause the session with the control bar (4) or adjust the volume (7).
In the upper right, you have links to Preferences (5) and your Library (6). Both these options allow you to get granular.
Tailoring Your Soundscape: Preferences and Genres for Optimal Focus
However, my preferences for Deep Sleep differ. I appreciate the options and variations. A feature allowing users to hear a short genre sample would be a welcome addition.
Discovering Your Ideal Sounds with Track’s Details
When I find a soundtrack that works for me, I click to see its details. This gives me additional meta-information. Not only do I see descriptive terms for moods and instrumentation, but I can see similar tracks. Over time, I’ve noticed patterns in my preferred tracks for better clarity.
I also like to use the Similar tracks section. Typically, I’ll click several items to hear what they sound like. If I like them, I’ll favorite them.
Get More Done with Timer Settings
Another area where Brain.fm helps my productivity is with Timer Settings. Unlike other focus music services, you have three distinct timer settings: Infinite, Timer, and Intervals. I will adjust based on my time, energy level, and task.
Infinite Play: Your music plays continually and the timer counts up. You can still pause and resume the music. I like this option if I need to spend several hours on a project because I can see the cumulative time spent. There is also a toggle that shows quotes instead of the timer. I typically don’t use this feature since I’m running Brain.fm in the background.
Timer: You can think of this as a countdown timer. You can set your duration and the music will stop when you hit 00:00. I like this option when I have less than an hour before some other obligation like a conference call. There are presets of 30min, 1 hr, and 2 hrs. You can also define a custom value.
Interval: This setting appeals to me when I want to use something like the Pomodoro Technique. I can set a time for the music to play and then a rest duration. The app will remind you with an auditory signal. There are presets, but you can also set custom ones.
Brain.fm Pricing and Free Trial
Like many services, the company offers several plans. My suggestion is to begin with a free trial if you’ve not encountered functional music. I didn’t like it when I first tried it years back. The service and app have improved greatly and now, it’s my constant work companion.
- Monthly Plan: 7-Day free trial and then $9.99
- Yearly Plan: 14-Day trial and then $69.99
The yearly plan is considerably cheaper. It’s 19.1¢ vs 32.8¢ on a daily. There is also a 20% student discount. Both plans allow unlimited sessions and access to all genres. And yes, you can cancel anytime.
It’s hard to say whether the service would be right for you. I can only speak from my experience and I would say that it helps me stay focused. That doesn’t mean I like all the suggested tracks. While you can favorite soundtracks, you can’t create specific playlists. Instead, you need to use the thumbs-down and heart icons.
Another change I would like to see is with the onboarding. For some reason, there are no controls to move you forward or back a question. If you initiate it again through settings, you’re asked the “How did you hear about us” question again.
If you’re looking for a scientifically backed and personalized way to enhance your cognitive performance, it’s worth exploring what Brain.fm has to offer. Try the free trial and see if it resonates with you – it might become your new tool for conquering your daily tasks and achieving peak mental states.
Disclosure: I am a Brain.FM affiliate and may receive a commission if you buy a product from the link below. It does not impact your sale price.