DataPlusMusic: what’s the impact of all these biopics and musicals?

In my previous post, I wrote about binge listening. In this post, I’m focusing on Queen, Elton John and The Beatles. In the last 12 months, we’ve had the biopics Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, along with the romcom/musical Yesterday. They’re all fantastic.

I’m intrigued about the impact on the revenue these movies generate for the artists and their estates. I can only really quantify my own listens.

As you can see above, after each film I spent the following day or so diving into their back catalogues.

For Queen, it was 36 consecutive listens following seeing Bohemian Rhapsody on 8 March. For Elton John: 39 listens. And for The Beatles? I listend to 76 straight tracks by them that weekend!

Which tracks kept me going?

These are the tracks I’ve listened to by each artist in the last 6 months. Click here for an interactive version.

There was a bigger variety among The Beatles, but what jumps out is Rocketman by Elton John: it’s no surprise that’s the biggest listen, because it’s pretty much my favourite song of all time. I love this live version:

In fact, if you look at my all-time top 15 tracks by these three artists, it’s no surprise that Queen totally dominates. But there’s Rocketman – my number 2 most listened to track among these 3 artists. It’s racked up 70 listens over the years.

Only one more listen of Rocketman will take it to the top!

The Beatles only have one track in the top 15 of these three artists: Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. Why’s that one in there? My youngest daughter is called Lucy, so she’s been hearing this many times since she was born.

I’ve got interactive versions of this workbook available here, feel free to download and see how I built these.

I’d also love to see what insights you can find in your own music listening history. Feel free to share them with me on twitter (@acotgreave)

Leave a Reply