Chill songs, explained

What makes a song chill

Search for “chill songs” and most results are lists of mellow pop, indie and soft R&B hits. They work because they share a handful of ingredients, and none of them depend on the lyrics. Take the words away and you are left with the things that actually make music feel chill.

1. A gentle volume

Chill music sits low in the mix. Loud, compressed tracks feel urgent; quieter ones let you breathe. We measure each song’s average loudness, and the stillest songs on this site are the quietest.

2. A sparse beat

How often the beat hits matters more than how fast the song is. A busy hi-hat pattern keeps your brain engaged; a slow, sparse pulse lets it settle. The chill meter counts how dense each song’s beat is.

3. A warm tone

Rounded keys, soft pads and a little tape warmth feel relaxed. Bright, sharp sounds feel awake. We measure the brightness of each track and give warmer ones a higher chill score.

4. A slower tempo

Most chill songs sit between roughly 60 and 100 beats per minute, though a song can feel slower than its tempo if the beat is sparse. Tempo counts, but a little less than the other three.

5. Space between the notes

Long notes, gentle decays and pauses give the ear somewhere to rest. This is the difference between music you can relax to and music that merely plays quietly.

6. No lyrics

Words ask your brain to follow a story. That is lovely on a Friday night and a problem during a study session. Every song on this site is instrumental.

The chill meter: five levels

Instead of one “chill” bucket, we give every song a chill score from 1 (the lightest) to 100 (the stillest). The score blends four measurements from each song’s audio: average loudness (30%), beat density (30%), tone brightness (20%) and tempo (20%). The lightest 6% of our tracks were left out, so everything here is at least gently chill. The remaining 215 songs split into five equal levels.

1. Cool Breeze: light and upbeat chill 1–20

The brightest end of chill: easy grooves, warm keys and a little bounce. Good music for tidying up, cooking, a walk or a sunny afternoon at your desk. See the 43 Cool Breeze songs.

2. Easy Going: relaxed and flowing chill 21–40

Relaxed, flowing songs with a soft pulse. Nothing pushes or pulls: it carries on in the background while you read, scroll, draw or do the dishes. See the 43 Easy Going songs.

3. Mellow: soft and settled chill 41–60

The middle of the dial: mellow, settled and a little dreamy. This is what most people mean by chill songs, soft enough to relax to and warm enough to enjoy. See the 43 Mellow songs.

4. Deep Chill: slow and spacious chill 61–80

Slow, spacious and hushed. The beat nearly disappears, the pads stretch out and your shoulders drop. For when you really need to switch off. See the 43 Deep Chill songs.

5. Ice Cold: still and weightless chill 81–100

The stillest songs on the site: almost no beat, the softest volume, and long floating textures. The most chill music we have, made for sleep and total quiet. See the 43 Ice Cold songs.

You can drag the meter on the home page to any score between 1 and 100, and it builds a mix of the songs around that point. The full playlist is ordered the same way.

Chill vs lofi vs ambient

Chill is a mood, not a genre: it can be pop, folk, jazz or electronic. Lofi is a style: soft drums, warm tape sound and mellow chords, often instrumental. Ambient drops the beat altogether and uses long textures. The music on this site is lofi-flavoured chill. At the Cool Breeze end it has a light groove; at the Ice Cold end it is close to ambient. If you search for “lofi” you will find the same artist at purrplecat.com.

Chill playlists by moment

Each of the eight playlists is picked for one moment and one kind of sound. All of them are instrumental.

• Chill Songs for Studying A long desk session. 18 songs, 51 min.
• Chill Songs to Relax The end of the day. 18 songs, 50 min.
• Late Night Chill Songs After midnight. 18 songs, 49 min.
• Chill Morning Songs The first hour of the day. 18 songs, 50 min.
• Chill Songs for Driving On the move. 18 songs, 49 min.
• Chill Sunday Songs A day with no plans. 18 songs, 51 min.
• Rainy Day Chill Songs A grey day indoors. 18 songs, 52 min.
• Chill Songs for Sleep Bedtime. 18 songs, 52 min.

How long should a chill playlist be?

Match it to the activity. A bath, a walk or a lunch break needs about 40 to 60 minutes: any single playlist here fits, and so does the 1 hour mix. A study session or a film-free evening suits the 2 hour mix. For streams, road trips and whole afternoons, use the 3 hour mix or the full 10 h 15 min Chill Songs Playlist. Everything loops, so length is only a starting point. The long mixes start light and wind down to nearly still, which is why they work for evenings: they follow how you feel as the night goes on.

Using chill music in videos and streams

All the music here is by Purrple Cat and licensed under CC BY 4.0: free to use with credit. Put “Music by Purrple Cat” in your video or stream description. It is fine on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitch and other social media, in livestreams, shops and games. It is not registered with Content ID. Please don’t upload it to music streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music. See Free to use for the full rules.

Questions