Easy listening covers lounge, light orchestral, soft vocal and the general category of music designed not to demand attention. It is a functional format rather than an artistic one, and judging it by the standards of a genre station misses the point: the question is not whether it is exciting but whether it stays out of the way for four hours.
The category overlaps heavily with chillout, instrumental and lounge tags here, and the boundaries are not worth policing. What does differ is the presence of vocals. Music with lyrics competes with reading and writing in a way instrumental music does not, which is why the instrumental and classical channels in this directory tend to serve better for work even when the easy listening channel is technically calmer.
Easy listening streams are usually consistent in level, which makes them a good choice for sleep timers, background in shops and offices, and any situation where a sudden loud track would be a problem. The trade-off is that the rotations are often shallower than they appear, and a long session will start repeating.
