2015 is well underway, so it is time to reflect on last year’s music landscape. I dusted off summarizr to grab a data-centric view of my music world in 2014.
To start off…
Which artists did we listen to the most?
- Pink Floyd (262)
- C418 (235)
- Nine Inch Nails (200)
- John Mayer (176)
- Daft Punk (160)
- Less Than Jake (150)
- David Bowie (133)
- Led Zeppelin (127)
- Carbon Leaf (126)
- Metallica (123)
No surprises here. Pink Floyd came out with their mostly-ambient album The Endless River towards the end of the year and I listened the hell out of it. No shame there - they’ve been my favorite band since high school and I’m perfectly fine without Roger Waters’ egotism in the band. My favorite modern band, Nine Inch Nails, is always going to be on the list as well. They’re a perfect fit for the kind of work I do at the computer. David Bowie is the only relatively newcomer on the list. I got into his greatest hits by chance and found myself going back to it again and again as the year went on.
How many different artists did we listen to?
727 (versus 591 last year)
This one was eye-opening. Every year I promise to myself to expand my musical horizons and end up listening to the same stuff. Last year I bucked that trend and I believe I have Spotify and Soma.fm to thank. I’ve never been a big fan of Pandora due to the lack of an official thick client, so Spotify fills that need quite nicely. Their radio advertisements are a small price to pay for an awesome app overall and it shows. I keep those streams a-streamin and my musical taste expands.
How many tracks did we listen to per month?
January: 1056
February: 533
March: 740
April: 922
May: 642
June: 1062
July: 1073
August: 483
September: 882
October: 862
November: 528
December: 621
I can’t really draw much from this statistic, but I like to look at it nevertheless. I can only theorize that May and August are low in the totals department because of my yearly hike and vacation, respectively. Those are entire weeks where I’m not hitting a web-accessible playlist. That’s by choice and I’ll keep doing the same next year.
Which artists did we listen to the most by month?
January: Carbon Leaf (40)
February: Nine Inch Nails (34)
March: John Mayer (61)
April: C418 (89)
May: Nine Inch Nails (72)
June: The Doobie Brothers (67)
July: C418 (72)
August: Queen (26)
September: Daft Punk (37)
October: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (43)
November: The Rolling Stones (49)
December: Pink Floyd (58)
This is probably my favorite set of stats because they really show my listening habits throughout the year. January began with a heavy dose of Carbon Leaf with their album Ghost Dragon Attacks Castle. Although the album came out just about one year prior, we weren’t on their mailing list then and didn’t notice. I certainly noticed in January. March is when I discovered a ton of free live shows from John Mayer on archive.org, so I was putting those to work. I like how you can pick shows from your area in particular - it is almost like being there! In July we watched Minecraft: The Story of Mojang and I fell in love (all over again) with C418. I ended up purchasing his albums Minecraft: Volume Beta and One and that meant a lot of logged tracks. October saw the release of the movie Gone Girl and along with it the soundtrack by two of my favorite artists, so that got heavy use as well. December saw the long-awaited release of Pink Floyd’s The Endless River which had me immediately drooling. I’m still drooling now over it, as a matter of fact! I’ll probably play that album later today…
What song did we listen to the most?
The Doobie Brothers (It Keeps You Runnin')
I don’t really have anything else to add here. What a weird track to have listened to the most! I have no explanation other than the Doobies are awesome in general. No shame.
How many different artists did we listen to, per month?
January: 193
February: 112
March: 85
April: 96
May: 72
June: 125
July: 76
August: 69
September: 169
October: 106
November: 79
December: 131
This is another category which I like but against which I can’t draw many conclusions. Who knows what can explain July’s relative lack of diversity. Perhaps I was too distracted by the spike in work that comes yearly during this time.
What album did we listen to the most?
Minecraft - Volume Beta (108 tracks)
I can’t recommend C418 enough for the programmers out there reading this. He’s a phenomenal artist, and he will help you get in the zone. His tracks have just enough tempo to keep your head bobbing but not enough to create a distraction. I find it completely conducive to deep thinking, so you can imagine why the listen-count is so high.
In Conclusion
It was a great year of music. I think we used Spotify and Soma.fm to the fullest. I’m happy with what I listened to, and I can only look forward to what 2015 brings to my ears!