I've played guitar and bass for 15+ years, and I can't work without listening to music. Sometimes it feels like there is 20 voices in my head when working, like while trying to develop a report I'm constantly juggling the all thoughts of the queries, design, database updates, etc. Music makes my brain tend to focus on the task at hand.
Though I cannot listen to anything spoken word like podcasts or talk radio. Drives me absolutely nuts.