2020 – The Numbers

By: Trevor Wilkes / bleep@isoprax.com

Hey folks! I usually don’t get this out until the first week of January, but considering that is only a few days away AND I declined a New Year’s Eve stream to just spend time with my family, I figured it was a safe bet that I won’t be playing in the next few days. I do owe two podcasts, but they’re already recorded and their info is included.

It’s time once again for my end of year wrap-up. This is the 4th year I have carefully recorded the info for each record mixed. I can once again say that this year was another flawless year. I missed no track-lists! Although that may be because of the global pandemic which drastically reduced them. Kind of puts a damper on things doesn’t it? At least my last gig before shut-down was a fun one with The Lick crew in Scotland (Hi Lee!). I almost got stuck over there as travel restrictions were starting to roll out at that time (Ze Mig L was supposed to play that night too and didn’t make it due to such restrictions), but none of that is record statistics talk and if I know anything its that you’re all a bunch of nerds like me and want the numbers!

For those who may not have caught this previous years, here is the summary.

I dislike top 10 lists. I don’t believe they’re more than what you remember at the time. Memory sucks, bias exists, take a hike and all that. It occurred to me though (the 1st year I did this) that I write track-lists out for every mix I record. I could analyse them and see what popped out from the actual data. I really enjoyed doing that (I like playing with data, it’s a bit like my day-job which I like) and from that point forward I didn’t just write out track-lists for recorded mixes, but every mix. I am careful to put records back in my bag at gigs in the order I played them so I can type them up the next day, or if it’s a long night I’d pull out my tablet right then and there.

The only other piece of info to add is the cut-off points. The full data table is over 1500 lines and while there is plenty of repetition in it there are also plenty of artists, labels and the like who only got 1-2 plays. Just like last year I’ve adopted a 5 play minimum. Entities only make the year end top list if they got at least 5 plays during 2020. I think that’s fair and makes this post more likely to be finished by me and read by you.

That’s the gist. Now let’s get into it… I break it down into relevant sections each year. They are as follows: Year of Release, Top Artists, Top Labels, Top Tracks and Top Releases. There are usually other bits that fall out as I’m moving the data around and find little quirks and generally have a wrap up section at the end which could be considered a sixth and final section.

2020 Numbers Misc.
# of mixes: 77
Tracks recorded: 1551
Average # of tracks per mix: 20
# of artists played: 176
# of labels played: 486
Average year of release: 2009
Mix every n days: 4.64

Year of Release

Diving right in, we’re talking year of release. The numbers don’t add up to the same number of rows of total data here, just to get ahead of the keeners, but that’s because not everything has been released. For my own projects (like Bleep 500) where I’ve played a few prior release I inserted a year because I’ve already paid for the pressing and am pretty confident it’ll be out in time for 2021 (which explains the future numbers….). Others I played are not released and may never be released. Until the information is known, I could only leave that column in those rows as “N/A”. At least for now. Considering it totals 10 rows affected. I think you’ll be fine.

Last year was my first year doing the year of release distribution like this and I noticed the peaks in the mid to late 90’s (duh – golden years amiright?) and the dip in the late aughts which surprised me. There is always going to be a huge spike for the 2-3 most recent years as new releases always get a lot of play. Aside from that I’m not gaining any new insights here. Same as last year in terms of information gleaned, just with a different sample set of data. It just may be accurate.

Chart: Year of Release

Top Artists

Each year there is some finagling of the artist numbers. Some folks go by multiple names and some folks work with others. To keep things transparent here is what was done in each case.

1. If an artist uses more than one name, only one is used, but the count from each alias is added to the one used. In the Release section you’ll see aliases so you don’t lose out on any info, it just helps to do the artist counts.
2. If there is more than one artist credited to a song or release then for the purpose of the artist count they are split up. Again, they will be properly attributed in the Release section as they are on the release so the vital information isn’t lost.
3. If there is a song that has been remixed, it’s handled similarly to when two artists co-produce a song (bullet 2). I was tempted to not even point that out as I think it stands to reason, but I did notice that there are several artists on the Top Artists list who I’ve never played an original song by. If you see a surprising name this may be why. The remixer will get those play counts beside their name of course, but I couldn’t bring myself to remove those who made the originals only because I didn’t play one of their originals. They should still get credit. 

In the below chart you’ll find an ordered list of 2020’s Top Artists. You’ll find the name(s) followed by several columns to the right. The columns are: 

"Plays" which are the total number of times that artist was played in 2020,
"2020%" which shows the percentage of total plays this artist received,
"2019%" same as above, but with 2019 stats to show if there was an overall increase/decrease,
"2018%" same as above.... you'll figure it out from this point.

The columns for each year shows the increase/decrease, but it also shows if an artist is a new addition to the Top Artist section as previous years will show 0%. This does not mean they didn’t get played before, just that they didn’t get the number of plays required to be in the Top Artist section.

# of Top (+5 plays) Artists: 51
Total Artists: 176
Top Artist Plays: 698
Top Artist % of Total: 45%
New to Top Artists in 2020: 19
This year saw a lot of new artists making the Top Artist section. 19 compared to last year’s 6. That’s pretty evenly split between people whom I’ve just started playing and those who have long been in my box, but had some of their releases pulled out for a while during the year. Either way, always fun.

Top Labels

The label listing worried me a bit at first. It looks like I’ve consolidated down to playing fewer labels; like I’ve not found new ones, or worse, ignored new ones. However, I think it’s just a result of the Pandemic biting into people’s willingness to start new projects. I’ve record shopped this year the way I always have. Sure I have certain artists and labels I look for first, but I really do listening to everything when shopping. I did have some pandemic related down-time due to Pandemic, in terms of record buying that is. When things first kicked off I ceased buying for 3 months. I still browsed and looked for new things, but instead of adding them to my cart I compiled a spreadsheet of things to buy when income was a little more reliable. In the beginning none of us knew if we’d be working, but it turns out the food industry where I work is considered essential and I ended up missing nothing. I proceeded to catch up on my missed list ASAP.

Top Tracks

The top spot this year was a track/record I had never heard of until Jerome Hill shared it on IG. It was right up my alley and I found a copy for sale. I yoinked it without a second thought. It’s the oddball sort of Wonk I love and there isn’t enough of in the world. joeFarr’s “Hanger 1” makes it onto the list again. This is a digital only song which I had pressed by https://vinylart.co/  so I could play it.  The same applies to Jerome’s remix of Destruction by Cuften. It was shared by Jerome on Bandcamp (link below) as it was intended for release, but it fell through. I needed to play it. I pressed it.

Top Releases

Finally we get to the full release section. I was tempted to dig all of these up and do an end of year mix featuring all the year’s most played releases. But that…is for someone else. I don’t even want to guess how long it would take me to find them all and even if I got them all in a bag and ready to go – would the info from that set go into the stats for the year? It makes things cloudy.

Wrap-up…

So there you go. The year 2020 boiled down to the Techno, House, Electro, and Acid played by some guy from Canada to ears and feet around the world. I know some people out there hide their selections. I think that’s criminal. We all need to support those who create what we listen to. We don’t all buy records of course, but digital versions purchased are almost always an option. If none of us shared the music we listen to/play, then the artists and labels wouldn’t get enough exposure to continue doing what they do. Support them by sharing their info when you dig what they’re doing. Buy their music, attend a show, or for now just watch a stream.

I’ll keep doing what I do. Bleeping as it were. Each Friday at 11;45 am EST via Mixcloud. Or if you’d rather just listen to the archived version via Soundcloud, be my guest. Also keep your eyes peeled for Bleep Radio show #500 and the associated vinyl release going hand in hand with it. It’s a 4×12″ Boxed Set full of artists from these very Top Lists 😉

Finally, here is a Discogs list made that contains all of the Top Releases and Top Tracks.

https://www.discogs.com/lists/Bleep-Radio-Top-Tracks-2020/645846

See you in the streams. See you in person. Eventually.

Trevor Wilkes