Welcome to Company31 Radio. Lo-fi for focus and code, 24/7.
Keyboard controls
- Space or K
- Play or pause
- N / P
- Next or previous station
- ↑ / ↓
- Volume up or down
- M
- Mute
- R or W
- Change the weather
- F
- Start or pause the focus timer
- B
- Breathe with Byte for a minute
Tip: tap the round dial on the radio to skip to the next station.
A focus timer, and Byte
25:00
Twenty-five minutes on one thing, then five off. Every fourth break is fifteen minutes. A soft chime marks each change, and the music keeps playing through it all.
Tap Byte on the desk to say hello.
Nudges are gentle, at least ten minutes apart, and stay in this browser; notifications come from your own browser, only if you allow them. Byte is a cat, not a doctor: go easy, and skip anything that doesn’t feel right.
Pick a station
Six stations on the dial are our own, all original music composed as you listen: C31 Radio, 30 hours of lo-fi for coding; Good Vibes, 12 hours of warm, easy music for reading, relaxing and a good mood; Uplift, 12 hours to push you through a workout, a big challenge or crunch time; Sax.js, 12 hours of chill saxophone jazz for the late and quiet hours; 8-bit.bap, 12 hours of boom-bap hip hop for gamers and skaters; and kAI, 24 hours of melodic chillstep and future garage. Press the radio on the desk to choose, or turn its dial to the next, then keep it on.
C31 Radio: 30 hours of music, made here
Up next
Four sets take turns: late-night jazz, a sunny upbeat set, Songs of Country, inspired by the land, sea and sky, and a sax set from the late show in a jazz room, a tenor out front over brushes, a swinging ride and a walking bass. Every track is composed by the station as it plays: chords that lead into one another, a hook that comes back, drums, a bass line, keys and a lead, with vinyl crackle and tape wobble over the top. The station keeps time like a radio: everyone tuned in hears the same bar of the same track.
Good Vibes is our easy-going station, for reading, a slow afternoon or just feeling good: unhurried tempos in bright major keys, felt piano and soft Rhodes, a nylon guitar, vibraphone and flute, light brushed beats (and some tracks with no drums at all), with waves on the shore and the odd bird. Composed by the station as it plays, and kept in time like a radio: everyone tuned in hears the same bar of the same track.
Uplift is our station for effort: a workout, a deadline, a hard problem at 2 am. Lo-fi house at 108 to 124 bpm, four on the floor, offbeat hats, pumping bass and bright chord stabs, with builds that drop back into the chorus. Composed by the station as it plays, and kept in time like a radio: everyone tuned in hears the same bar of the same track.
Sax.js is our chill jazz station, and the saxophone never leaves the room: a tenor out front, murmuring the melody low in the verses and opening up in the choruses, with a slow solo late in every track. Under it, a jazz trio keeping it soft: brushes and a feathered kick, a ride cymbal, Rhodes or felt piano on the changes, and a bass in two that starts to walk. Most tracks are ballads; the rest are late-night bossa nova. Composed by the station as it plays, and kept in time like a radio: everyone tuned in hears the same bar of the same track.
8-bit.bap is hip hop with a controller in one hand and a board under the other. Hard, swung boom-bap drums to nod along to, a funky bass and jazzy Rhodes, and an 8-bit square-wave lead on every hook, with chiptune arpeggios running through. A board rolls in and pops an ollie at the top of each track, the DJ scratches into the hooks, and a coin chimes as each one lands. Composed by the station as it plays, and kept in time like a radio: everyone tuned in hears the same bar of the same track.
kAI is our most melodic station: a whole day of chillstep and future garage, every track built around its tune. Chillstep at 136 to 144 bpm in half time, or future garage, the kick skipping in two-step under swung hats. Wide pads breathe with the kick over a sub bass, a glassy lead sings the hook through a long echo, vocal chops answer it in the drops, and in each breakdown a felt piano plays the melody alone before the riser brings everything back. Composed by the station as it plays, and kept in time like a radio: everyone tuned in hears the same bar of the same track.
Show the whole tracklist
Byte, the desk cat
Byte is the blue cat on the desk, and Byte looks out for you. Long sessions are where focus turns into stiff shoulders, tired eyes and a cold cup of tea, so while the music plays, Byte keeps half an eye on the clock.
- Every twenty minutes or so, Byte hops up to the window to watch the world. Join in: look at something far away for twenty seconds and let your eyes rest.
- About every fifty minutes, a long cat stretch. Stand up and stretch with Byte, two minutes, one move at a time.
- About once an hour, a paw on your mug: time for some water.
- Late at night, Byte yawns and turns in, a hint that you might too.
- With the focus timer on, Byte naps and leaves you to it, then stretches with you on every break.
- Now and then, while the music plays, Byte hops over the radio onto your monitor, dangles its tail over the code and paws at the screen. Shoo it off, or take the hint and look up for a moment.
- You’ll hear it from any window: the music dips and Byte rings a soft bell, two notes for a small nudge, three falling ones when it’s time to stop. The music comes back when you answer. Minimised or in another app? The tab shows a 🐾, and if you let it, Byte sends a notification.
More free places to listen
Not ours, but we like them. These stations are run by their own people, and they play right here in the player.
From Radio Browser, a free, community-run directory of internet radio.
Sites worth a visit
Some of the best focus music lives on its own sites. They open in a new tab.
- Lofi GirlThe famous 24/7 “beats to relax/study to” live streams, on YouTube.
- freeCodeCamp Code Radio24/7 music designed for coding, from the people at freeCodeCamp.
- Chillhop MusicAn independent label for jazzy, lo-fi hip hop, with its own radio and playlists.
- musicForProgramming();Long, quiet mixes made for concentration.
- SomaFMListener-supported, commercial-free radio from San Francisco, with dozens of channels.
- Nightride FMSynthwave stations, with Chillsynth and Datawave for working late.
- lofi.cafeA tiny lo-fi player with animated scenes.
How the radio works
Our station, and theirs
The six stations on the dial are ours: C31 Radio, C31 Good Vibes, C31 Uplift, C31 Sax.js, C31 8-bit.bap and C31 kAI. Their music is composed and played in your browser, so nothing is downloaded and nothing is streamed. The other stations are independent internet radio, free to listen to; their music streams from their servers to your browser, and song names come from their own now-playing feeds. If you love one, visit it and support it.
The desk and the weather are ours
The view is drawn live in your browser, and it follows where you are: Sydney Harbour until it knows, or the skyline of Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart, Auckland, London, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo or Singapore, and anywhere else a city or the mountains. A ferry goes by, flags fly from the Harbour Bridge in the wind, and on the desk there’s Byte, a blue cat with plans of its own (tap it), and a wooden tabletop radio, which is the radio: press it to choose a station, or turn its dial. The weather is made in your browser too: rain on the glass, wind that gusts and howls round the frame, a southerly buster, a thunderstorm. Set it to Live and it follows the real weather where you are (or a place you choose; Sydney until then), from Open-Meteo. When it knows your place, the sky outside follows the sun there too: sunrise, day, sunset, night. Otherwise it stays night.
Nothing to sign up for
No account and no download. Your volume, your station, the weather, whether Byte may nudge you and how often you've petted Byte are remembered in this browser only; Byte's timing never leaves it. When you press play, the station you chose receives your connection like any other listener’s. The privacy policy covers the rest of this site.
Acknowledgement of Country
Company31 Radio is made in Sydney, and its home view looks over Sydney Harbour, on Gadigal land of the Eora Nation. Company31 acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters and skies where this radio is made and wherever you listen, and pays respect to Elders past and present. Sovereignty was never ceded.
Songs of Country is our own music, inspired by the land, sea and sky. It uses no First Nations language, story, song or instrument.