2021 – The Numbers

By: Trevor Wilkes / bleep@isoprax.com

This is the fifth year in a row I’ve done this. It feels wrong not doing it at this point. Those of you around long enough know I ‘jot down’ every track I play, whether it be in a stream, a private mix session at home, or a show (not that we had any of those this year). What I end up with is a massive spreadsheet at the end of the year that I can parse into what I consider to be a display of interesting information that some people would call a top 10 list. I nerd it up a bit more than that though.

Since I base it on the actual info recorded, it’s not just my memory I’m asking you to go on. Just the facts ma’am. Because this spreadsheet has well over a thousand entries in it I don’t just list it all, the full data table is over 1400 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.

Total 2021 Numbers Misc.
# of mixes: 83
Tracks recorded: 1487
Average # of tracks per mix: 19
# of artists played: 579 (55 with more than 4 plays)
# of labels played: 522 (83 with more than 4 plays)
Average year of release: 2007
Mix every n days: 4.40

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. 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 2021’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 had,
"2019%" same as above, but with 2019 stats to show if there was an overall increase/decrease.

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: 55

Total Artists: 579
Top Artist Plays: 727
Top Artist % of Total: 49%
New to Top Artists in 2020: 28

This year saw a record number of new artists making the Top Artist section. 28 compared to last year’s 19. 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

Labels feels a bit cheaty this year. My own being number one. It’s not usually like that, but this year was the 500th episode of Bleep Radio and the 4×12″ box set that accompanied it. That box set contains music from pretty much the top dozen or so people from last year’s list (that is in fact how I did it…) so I get that it would get heavy rotation. I do feel guilty though.

Some of the usualy suspects are there, some old have moved up, some new have moved down. The ebb and flow of tastes and what labels release. It’s natural!

Top Tracks

Top played track this year was one I heard Luke play in an online stream at some point earlier in the year. I got the info from him and then patiently awaited its release. Peaks and Troughs ftw. Then things go back to me feeling bad about the list having a bunch of stuff from my own label again.

Top Releases

Finally we get to the top full releases of the year. Again, these are all the ones that receivied at least 5 plays across all of the tracks on the release. This is the section I guess I’d refer to as my “Top 10” list of the year. Pack these releaes in my bag and I can jam out a set of all hits, no misses.

Wrap-up…

Et Voila! 2021 is done. The Numbers shared. I hope you find some music to pick up and share yourself from this. If you do, be sure to tell others, share your discoveries, like it, comment on it. Those interactions that take mere seconds mean a lot to the people who made the music. 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 11:15 am EST via Mixcloud. Or if you’d rather just listen to the archived version via Soundcloud, be my guest.

Finally, here is a Discogs list made that contains all of the Top Releases https://www.discogs.com/lists/Bleep-Radio-Top-Tracks-2020/645846

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