Stop listening to music while you work

Maybe the enjoyment you get from listening to the music is valuable in itself. There are worse things than pleasure. Just a thought.

The real conclusion is that, all else equal, music decreases cognitive performance (memory tasks, mostly) a bit. It doesn't conclude that actual workers are more or less productive. Enjoying yourself more, even at the expense of cognitive performance, might be far more valuable in maintaining motivation and productive work.

A quick search didn't turn anything up in the literature, but my guess is that some distraction is beneficial in real-world scenarios. The challenge of productive work, for me, is generally staying on task, not summoning my cognitive abilities. If music can redirect or 'absorb' stray attention, it may assist in staying on task. Certainly a wealth of experience seems to support this; I have a very hard time getting things done without music.

TL;DR: I wouldn't extrapolate real productivity from memory tasks in a study.

I notice this effect really strongly when there are lyrics in a song but without lyrics and with electronic music that is very repetitive it can be more so on the beneficial side for myself, the effect that the complexity of the music has on the listener is something I'd like to see in one of these studies.