Music for someone working in the next room

There's a brief that comes up a lot in households where one person works from home and the other doesn't, or both do but at different rhythms. One person is in focus mode; the other isn't. The music has to keep one room productive while not annoying the other.

This is harder than 'music for focus,' because the picks for the person doing the work assume nobody else is around. With someone else in the room, the brief tightens. Anything ambient is good for the worker and a low boring hum for the other person. Anything melodic is interesting to the non-worker and distracting to the worker. The right pick is, frustratingly, neither.

Lo-fi at low volume tends to be the compromise that works for the largest share of households. It's structured enough that the worker can dismiss it; it's textured enough that the other person can have it on without feeling like they're being subjected to white noise. Neither person gets the room they'd choose alone, but both can use the room they're sharing.

Headphones for the worker are usually the right answer when the compromise stops working. But before headphones come out, there are a few hours per day where the shared room is worth trying. The lo-fi room is where most of those hours live.