by James Wallace Harris, 5/27/24
During May, Apple released the Apple Music 100 Best Albums list. This is always a controversial thing to do because few people ever agree on Greatest of All-Time lists. Such lists are fun to study, but hard to make. I wish Apple had given us the exact details of how they curated their list. Let’s just say, if you were born in the 20th century, you’ll probably won’t agree with Apple’s list. But that’s cool. All the streaming services offer lists that reflect current popularity.
I’d like to know more about which older albums are played the most.
Wikipedia offers a quick way to look at Apple’s new list. Over the years I’ve bought 34 of the 100. And through Spotify I’ve heard several others. But there were quite a few that I never heard of the album, or the album/artist.
I continually look for such lists to help me discover new albums to listen to on Spotify. Music streaming services offer a tremendous bargain that few subscribers take full advantage of. I try to listen to as many albums I’ve listened to in hopes of finding new favorite songs for my playlists. And I think that’ the intention of Apple with their 100 Best Albums list.
I wish all music streaming services would offer lists that would help us find older albums. I really don’t care if they are ranked. It only stirs up trouble claiming some albums are better than others. What I would like is a variety of lists that were constantly updated that revealed the attention that older, forgotten music was getting.
Top 100 Albums That Are Played Since 1948
Give us a monthly list based on which albums are played the most. Limit each year since 1948 to no more than two albums. Cut the least played albums from any year so the list adds up to 100 albums.
Sales for vinyl records began in 1948, but it took a few years before they became regular sellers. There have been 74 years since then, so we could have one record from every year, and 26 years could also have the next most played album for that year. The bonus 26 could be determined by which were the most popular.
This would encourage subscribers to try out old music. As they explore new albums each month, the list should change. Over time, the solid favorites will be revealed.
Top 10 Albums by Year That are Played the Most
Then for every year, offer a monthly update for which ten albums were played the most. This will help subscribers find albums by year to listen to. Over time, it will reveal which albums from every year are the most popular.
Right now, the website Best Ever Albums does this the best. They aggregate lists to reveal the rankings. But I’d love to see streaming services reveal their statistics by what’s being played every month. Here’s an example for 1965.
Top 100 Albums by Genre That are Played the Most that are Over 1 Year Old
Keep statistics on each genre of music and list the albums that are currently played the most but exclude recent albums. There are plenty of charts for current hits.
Streaming services tend to promote listening to hits. But if you’re a real music lover, you want to listen to whole albums. If each streaming service offered these lists they would promote album listening, and album history.
There are sites that give more statistics on streaming, such as Chartmasters.org, but they focus on current music and popularity. What I want to learn about is old albums. I imagine that lots of great old albums are mostly forgotten and get very few plays. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worth discovering.
Wikipedia offers List of Spotify Streaming Records which charts the songs that have been played the most on Spotify. It statistically breaks down the most played songs in numerous ways. It’s great for understanding what is popular now. Of the 100 most played songs on Spotify, only “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, “Every Breath You Take” by the Police, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, “Wonderwall” by Oasis, and “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen are from the 20th century.
JWH
Auxiliary Memory 