2012 Year-End Stats

Johnny Cash is taking more time to evaluate than I expected. I didn’t know his career very well, and he has a lot of songs under consideration. Add in holiday festivities and a bit of project fatigue, and I couldn’t turn it around before the New Year. I should have the profile up within a week.

20 profiles will complete the initial phase of the artist countdown. I created 25 in 2012, so completing the project next year is within reach. These top artists have so many songs, but I am more familiar with many of these artists, so coming up with a final rating for songs should be easier for them. Some will be arduous, though; how do you decide what to keep of the Grateful Dead?

Ultimately, the plan is to select 48 more artists to profile, for a round total of 200. The extra 48 profiles would be shorter, but might still take a year or more. After spending some many evenings evaluating songs, I’m growing a bit weary of the process. I have little time or energy to find new music, outside of the profiled artists. After finishing the initial set of profiles, I will likely take a break, so I can return to my other writing project, a book about modern golf course architecture and maintenance.

As of August 27th, 2009, I finished rating all the songs in the original collection. Here is the original breakdown of song ratings:

8244 songs
97 five star songs: 1.2%
915 four star songs: 11.1%
2615 three star songs: 31.7%
3492 two star songs: 42.4%
1112 one star songs: 13.5%
12 zero star songs: 0.1%

Average Song Rating: 2.436 stars

One year ago, the collection looked like this:

9246 songs
98 five star songs: 1.1%
895 four star songs: 9.7%
2659 three star songs: 28.8%
4100 two star songs: 44.3%
1483 one star songs: 16.0%
11 zero star songs: 0.1%

Average Song Rating: 2.297 stars

Today, December 29th, 2012, the breakdown is as follows:

9465 songs
98 five star songs: 1.0%
843 four star songs: 8.9%
2534 three star songs: 26.8%
4106 two star songs: 43.4%
1832 one star songs: 19.4%
52 zero star songs: 0.5%

Average Song Rating: 2.221 stars

549 songs were added in 2012, so 330 songs were removed. I estimate there are about 100-125 songs that were replaced with versions that sound better. Of the 52 songs rated zero stars, about 40 are unrated songs that need to be rated or discarded. A additional 100 or so songs were purchased from iTunes for review and discarded to the “iTunes Songs That Failed To Make The Cut” folder.

The average rating per song continues to fall. I’m concerned that I grow more critical as the project evolves; it feels that way. There may be other factors. Song ratings were generally higher before the blog countdown started; many songs get downgraded when reviewing these great artists at the top of the list. Also, it would be fair to suggest that virtually all of my favorite songs are already included in the collection, so a large percentage of new songs get a one or two star rating.

I hope everyone has a happy, sober and productive 2013.