Data+Music: which tracks and artists do I listen to most?

At Tableau, we’ve just launched a Data+Music campaign, and the latest Iron Viz feeder is all about music. If you’re looking for inspiration for Iron Viz – perhaps these ideas might trigger some quantified self music exploration?

In my first post in this series, I showed how you can begin collecting your data. Go check it out if you haven’t yet.

Oh man – 7 of my top 10 listened to tracks are from Frozen

In this post, I’ll look at who I listen to most. First of all: look at the image above, it shows the 10 tracks I’ve listened to the most in 10 years. Seven – yes, SEVEN – are from Frozen! That movie came out in the same year my eldest daughter learnt how to use Spotify on my phone… my dataset still hasn’t recovered. No, I can’t Let it Go anymore! But do feel free to singalong:

Or check out Matt Francis’ Tableau take on this song:

Fortunately, when we zoom out to Artists, there’s more to life than Disney soundtracks. Who are my top 10 artists?

Who do I listen to most?

Queen, Pink Floyd and Gabby Young.

Wait. Gabby who?

Gabby Young and Other Animals were a wonderful band I saw in 2014. I then get kinda obsesses with them. Below are the number of Gabby Young tracks I listened to in that year. Yes – I listened to 200 Gabby Young tracks in one week in November!

Check out Gabby’s beautiful voice below:

But the top 2 are Queen and Pink Floyd: bands I fell in love with as a teenager and still love today. The chart below shows cumulative listens to each of those bands, and you can see that even in 2019 I listen to them a lot:

Oh boy I love Queen. Which track in particular is my favourite? It’s probably no surprise that Bohemian Rhapsody comes out on top, but I’m delighted to see Keep Yourself Alive at number 4. That opening riff is surely one of the best ever?

Best opening riff ever?

That’s all for now! Next time, I’ll look at the data behind NEW artists I discover each year. †

If this has given you some ideas for your own analysis go check out how you can start tracking your digital listening, or get hold of 3 months of your Spotify data near-instantly by reading the first post in this series.

You can interact and download my workbook from Tableau Public by clicking here.

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