Sep
01
2010

Album Longevity

(Add / View Comments) (0)Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - 01:46:17 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music)
Some albums have it, and some don't. One that came up in an argument recently is Major Lodge Victory. In light of that, I just consulted Hitter to see if it would back up my point, pretty sure that it would. Indeed it does. Over the past 5 years, Major Lodge Victory sits as my 8th most played album. Which doesn't seem right. But if you look at each year breakdown, it makes a lot more sense.

Chart positions from when it came out stack up a little like this.


2006 - #3
2007 - #20
2008 - #41
2009 - #146
2010 - #41

What is clear is that it's an album I played the hell out of. But only when it first came out. Of the 784 track plays that gets it to sit at #8 overall, a whopping 79% of those occurred within the first two years. 61% in the first year. And the most staggering statistic of all, is that 50% of those plays had happened in the first 3 months of having the album.

I grant you that 2010 looks like a resurgence in the album, but 42% of that placement comes from the two songs on that record that I still like an have on playlists I play often. Actually, it still looks like an inflated figure. But it's I guess not, every other song on the album has been played twice this year, rather than once last year. Of course, except for California Sun, which is banned in these parts. [lol]

We can compare it with an album that does have longevity. What better example that Dead Hot Workshop's Heavy Meadow? A fair contender, as it came out around the same time as Major Lodge Victory. An album that is my #2 played album of the past 5 years. Here's the per year rundown.


2006 - #2
2007 - #1
2008 - #14
2009 - #8
2010 - #7

What speaks volumes about this is that Heavy Meadow came out in the second week in November 2006. Which gave Major Lodge Victory a good 3 month head start on it in 2006, yet Heavy Meadow still piffed it for the #2 slot. Five years later, the spins keep flowing, and the album barely drops out of the top 10.

And there you have it. The difference between an album with longevity, and one that clearly doesn't.

I'd really love if my Hitter stats went back to before 2006. Not only because I'd have beaten lastfm to the punch and would be making millions off it [wink], but to see where New Miserable Experience would come up. Well, not so much that, I know where it would, but to see to what extent it would crush every other album in plays since 1993. [smile]

For the record, for the past 5 years, it sits at #21*. And we're talking about an album I have been playing the hell out of for 12 years previous to recording plays.

Now there is an album with longevity for ya!

* It's worth mentioning that plays of other versions of this album (Deluxe Edition, Rarities Edition etc.) I have are not aggregated and hence don't count to this figure, so the position is probably actually higher than reported.
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