WORDS.

Number [number] probably won't shock you.

It’s about that time of year when every Spotify user shares a little picture that tells the world just how much they’ve listened to someone I’ve never heard of, someone objectionable, Taylor Swift, and a couple of others I’ve never heard of, and with that comes the inevitable shitting on people who do that by people who appear to be competing in some sort of “How interminable can one person be?” event, and the subsequent shitting on the people who are shitting on those who were originally being shat on. Whatever, I don’t particularly care. What I do care about is the fact that Spotify Wrapped usually comes out around the end of November, which means it’s pretty much useless for anyone who gives a toss about its accuracy, considering it’s supposed to give you stats for the calendar year, which, as far as I’m aware, doesn’t end in November (unless Woke have banned December because they hate Christmas or something… there’s your comedy for today).

That, and I don’t use Spotify.

However, given my penchant for obsessing over data because I have nothing better to do, at the beginning of December 2023 I decided to create an account on Last.fm, which has seen a bit of a resurgence in recent years for reasons I’m not aware of. Possibly that one Discord bot? Anyway, if you didn’t know, Last.fm is a music tracking website. You connect your music platform of choice (most good ones will have this option), and it dutifully logs (“scrobbles”) everything you listen to, down to the minute. It even works with offline music players and a few mobile apps (Musicbee and Musicolet are my personal choices).

It’s not a perfect platform. The way it works can be a bit annoying (e.g. “Let It Be” and “Let It Be - Remastered 2009” count as different songs), but it does let you change the metadata it logs if you pay for a subscription (£4.99/month or £49.99/year) which has a few other benefits that are worth it if you’re anal about that sort of thing. It can be funny, though. There’s a social element to the website, and the King Crimson shoutbox is always a good laugh because it’s primarly people memeing about the lack of artwork, and there’s that one guy who spends his entire life getting mad in the shoutbox for Rainbow, which is the name of both a British rock band and a K-pop group (Last.fm cannot distinguish between the two). I’ve generally found most people to be nice, and you can simply block anyone else.

Anyway, the real beauty of Last.fm lies in the API, which allows developers to do all sorts of cool things with your data. I’ll share some links to great sites at the end, but I’ll be using a few during this write-up as well. I’ve used Last.fm for exactly one year now, and a few things have surprised me. I think I’ve learned things about myself and my habits that you just can’t get from one annual report.

So, without further ado, here’s “Some Things Wot I Learned About Something That’s Largely Inconsequential, And By Largely, I Mean Entirely”...

█ 1. It's All Old Men

It’s been a year of jazz-based discoveries for me. Let’s be honest, anyone who’s talked to me for longer than about half an hour won’t be surprised at the top three in that order. After that comes Allan Holdsworth, who I’d never even heard of until around March. Discoveries for me also include Jupiter One spin-off Fancy Colors coming in at number 12, Brand X featuring Phil Collins and Joanna Lumley’s cousin at number 21, and Miles Davis at number 23.

Also worth noting Randy Newman just misses out on the top 25, which is bizarre since I only thought I listened to about three of his songs.

Side note: Having exactly 25 artists with 100 scrobbles or more is very satisfying.

█ 2. A Whole Bunch of OSTs

Again, very satisfying that first place in the album chart has 100 scrobbles. That goes to Donald Fagen’s 10 Extras, a compilation of B-sides and other tracks that never made it onto a real album, despite the fact I’ve only listened to four songs from it. I’m also surprised that Hold Your Fire and Test For Echo are my top two Rush albums; I never would have said they were my favourites.

What surprised me the most is the amount of video game soundtracks that show up on the list. The Sims 4 is on there alongside soundtrack albums for Planet Coaster and Zoo, Minecraft, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Age of Empires and Mythology, and Swingin’ Out West, which isn’t actually a game OST, but a few songs from it do feature in Fallout: New Vegas.

█ 3. Bangers & More Bangers

Now, the way I name tracks on Last.fm is to collect all versions under one name, save for a few instances where the odd live or alternate versions appear on studio albums. Don’t get me started. All you need to know is some songs on this list contain multiple versions combined. The joint-winners “Above and Below” and “Falling” are perfect examples. The former includes the studio version and two live versions, and the latter includes two separate studio recordings from different albums.

The highest-placed track that is only one version is the Becker & Fagen-penned “Sail the Waterway” performed by ex-Papa Denny Doherty, which I believe was a huge hit in a different, better universe. Other notable inclusions are Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years”, where most of the scrobbles are from the far, far superior Alive In America version, and “I Know a Place (The Creek Song)” from the TV show Bluey, which has absolutely no right being that good.

█ 4. Why the Hell Is Australia So Pink?

A couple of interesting bits here. Obviously, the USA and UK make up the majority of music I listen to, with Canada and Japan close behind. I never would have guessed Australia would have been so popular, but I suppose Bluey is Australian. As are Courtney Barnett, Donny Benét, and quite a few others which all add up.

The same goes for Sweden, which includes Andreas Waldetoft, Mistakes, Paradox Interactive, Robyn, and… Crazy Frog.

In case you were wondering, that tiny pink country north of Brazil counts as France, for some reason.

█ 5. I'm A Man of Routine

It would appear I’m a very predictable man when it comes to exactly when I listen to music. You can see the large gap around 5-6pm every day when I have my dinner, as well as the hour or so I spend most days listening to music in bed as I wind down for the day. I never listened to anything earlier than 7:46 a.m. (“Highwayman” by The Highwaymen on 25 April) or later than 11:54 p.m. (“Fireflies” by Owl City on 30 January).

So there you have it. Graphs and charts up the wazoo. If you like the idea of endless data, but Spotify Wrapped isn’t enough for you, you can connect your Spotify account to Last.fm and have a bit of fun with it. I have no idea if the Spotify API itself allows for anything similar, but if it did, you wouldn’t even need Last.fm.

As promised, here’s a bunch of other great websites that use the Last.fm API:

• Descent: A nice screensaver-type site that displays your current song with local weather data and some other stuff

• jakeledoux.com: Displays what your friends on Last.fm are currently listening to

• Last.fm Stats: Just an ungodly amount of stats and graphs

• Last.fm Taste Overlap: See mutual artists/albums/tracks with friends

• Mainstream Calculator: Find out how unique and special you are

• Instafest: Displays your top artists as a festival poster

• Receiptify: Displays your top tracks as a receipt