I've been around music my entire life and it's at a point where I don't know what I would do without it. So If I had to pick I'd say music over gaming.
Music only seem to take away my concentration if it's something unusual that I'm not use to hearing happens, for instance I can do homework/play age of empires at a high level if it's a simple song, for instance any four chord song. The only thing it really has that can throw me off is that fact it only has four chords, and I'll bored. Put something by Tool or any other complicated band on and I will have trouble concentrating as there is to much going on at one time. In my opinion it comes down to the style, complexity and layers of the music to how it will effect your concentration.
Music only seem to take away my concentration if it's something unusual that I'm not use to hearing happens, for instance I can do homework/play age of empires at a high level if it's a simple song, for instance any four chord song. The only thing it really has that can throw me off is that fact it only has four chords, and I'll bored. Put something by Tool or any other complicated band on and I will have trouble concentrating as there is to much going on at one time. In my opinion it comes down to the style, complexity and layers of the music to how it will effect your concentration.