Listening to music at work boosts productivity by 15%, study finds

A study has found that listening to music at work boosts productivity. 

During the study, 2,000 workers were asked to completed a 600-word transcribing task. During the first task, the workers completed the transcription in silence, and averaged a complete time of 20 minutes and 59 seconds. Music was played during the second task, and it was completed, on average, in 17 minutes and 42 seconds. The difference in the time it took workers to finish the task worked out at a staggering three minutes and 17 seconds, or 15%.

After the study, Scala Radio spoke with Psychologist Dr. Becky Spelman about the positive effects of listening to music at work. Dr. Spelman explained she was shocked by the three minute difference, but believes that music has "a very powerful impact on the brain" and "affects mood, mental performance and physical performance."

Research collated by Music For All highlighted numerous physical and mental health benefits to making and playing music, and suggested that things like learning an instrument as a child makes you more intelligent relation to memory, verbal ability, spatial ability, processing speed and attention.

Earlier this year, a different type of study from European Union Intellectual Property Office, found a decline in young people illegally downloading music. The research noted that only 49% of people between the ages of 15 and 24 said they accessed pirated digital content in the last year.