How Can Music Help Groups Reflect During Collaboration?

As a musician, I have music continuously playing in the background. 
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If it’s not ambient instrumental music while I’m writing or working, it’s a song (earworm) that won’t leave my brain until I play it nice and loud for everyone else to hear.

When I was writing and performing music, I would wake with a melody in my head and it would stay there until I recorded it as a voice memo. Sometimes an entire song, including the lyrics, would come to me fully formed. All I had to do was write it down.

But, not everyone appreciates, hears, or feels the language of music the same way I do. Those who read and write musical notation hear it much the same way they would hear words. And working to music (even in the background) for them is no different than trying to have a conversation while someone else is talking.

Many times in my life, I’ve acted as if something is true for me, then it must be true for everyone. It has gotten me into trouble every time. This example is no different. 
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I used to assume that since I enjoyed working with music in the background, everyone must feel the same. I assumed that music with words would be too distracting, but that classical or new age music would help to increase focus and productivity. I assumed that just the right volume or intensity was the “correct” sweet spot for working.
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I’ve come to find out that because of neurodivergence, different learning styles, past trauma, or individual taste, music is not the salve for everyone that it is for me. 
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Unless you plan to use music in a very intentional manner (i.e. “We will now silently sort the stickies from our team in Russia while I play two minutes of Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto”), ask your participants if they would prefer music while they ideate, write, or post up – or whether they prefer silence.