I got my first (used) iPod in June 2006. It was and is by far my favourite thing I have ever owned. I upgraded twice since then, but still have a Classic so I can carry my entire music library with me everywhere I go. I have an iPod-compatible car stereo and an iPod-compatible alarm clock. So really, this thing goes everywhere with me!
iTunes is great for number-crunchers like me because there is a PC app, Super Analyzer, that tallies all kinds of stats for you:
- Total play count of all the songs you ever played
- Total accumulated time of all the songs you played
- Total number of tracks (songs) you have in iTunes
- How many artists are in your music library
- How many albums are in your music library, and whether the albums are complete or not
- Time of day you play the most music
- How many songs you have from each release year
- Most played artists and most played albums
- For technical types, a breakdown of your tracks by file type, file size and bit rate
- And for perfectionists, a breakdown of your tags: indicates if you are missing any artist names, album names, release years, etc.
- And many more
Anyone with iTunes should get this now at http://www.nosleep.net !
As of November 2014, SuperAnalyzer is still available as a CNet Download here:
http://download.cnet.com/Super-Analyzer/3055-2141_4-81506.html?tag=pdl-redir
but the date on it is December 2009.
Here is a copy of my current main stat screen:Super Analyzer Stats 2012_01_09
My playcounts were “rebooted” 4.5 years ago and started over at zero because of a buggy upgrade, so this shows 4.5 years of data rather than the full 5.5 years I’ve used iTunes.
I have 36,245 play counts in that time which averages 8054 songs per year, 671 per month, 155 per week, or 22 per day. I don’t leave music playing when I’m out of the room or asleep, so all 36,245 plays are songs I’ve actually listened to. Also, I can’t listen to music at work, so this is exclusively on my own time.
Of course, you can even supplement these stats by letting your playcounts “scrobble” to last.fm – like Facebook and other sites, it shows your listening habits to your friends – but also compiles lots of stats for you and makes them public.
One nice feature is that it shows your all-time most-played artists, albums and songs, but you can also check the last 12 months, 6 months, 3 months or last week. For example, my most-played artists all time are Mew and Tegan & Sara, for the past 12 months they are Bat for Lashes and Broken Bells, and the past 6 months they are Mother Mother and Arctic Monkeys. I’m not sure if my tastes are evolving for the better or worse 🙂
I bet there are other people like me who spend many hours “grooming” their iTunes info, their photo tags, or their book collection on Librarything…
An Exacting Life 