Spotify - Year in Review 2015

It's my favorite time of the year! Spotify has released its annual year in review data visualization.

My first track this year was Plug Me In by Squarepusher. I think this actually came off of a "Best of" thread from here. Squarepusher is one of those that is exactly adjacent to a lot of my other favorite artists and yet I never seem to stick with. Maybe in 2016.

Top Artists:
1) Ellie Golding
2) Aphex Twin
3) Porter Robinson
4) Mrs Jynx
5) Tiesto

Last year Ellie Golding, Aphex Twin, and Mrs Jynx were all on this same list. At the time I remarked that Aphex Twin and Mrs Jynx were particularly notable because each of those were artists whom I owned much of their catalog and still found them in my top streams. This year I made a major switch, deciding that if I was going to plunk down the $9.99 a month for Spotify premium, I was not going to spend money purchasing music.

I tried to denounce Ellie Golding last year, as I got stuck on some Burn Remixes which I thought influenced the stats, but I guess at some point I have to admit that I am sucker for female bubblegum pop, and without major releases from Kesha or Madonna this year, and with Kelly Clarkson a sad shell of her former self, there really isn't much to choose from.

I was also a little late to the Worlds party, however the commentary tracks really gave it some new life for me. Mrs Jynx and Aphex Twin are two of my favorites, so no surprises there, but I was a bit surprised to see Tiesto. I scratched my head about this for a bit, then realized he is credited with the Spotify running mix "Burn" which I think is phenomenal.

Top Albums:
1) Worlds by Porter Robinson
2) Burn by Tiesto
3) Shark Carousel by Mrs. Jynx
4) 5 Years of Mau5 by Deadmau5
5) The Standoffish Cat by Mrs. Jynx.**

Interestingly my most played artist doesn't even hit this top 5, and that Mrs Jynx can have two albums on my top 5 but still ranked only #4 on my artist list.

As I mentioned above, I listened to Worlds last year, but not heavily. This year I really started to discover it and enjoy it. I then discovered the commentary version and it helped peel back even more layers to the album, which I really enjoyed.

My top track this year was On My Mind by Ellie Golding. A fairly recent release, I think this is a return to form if you view her discography as cheesy pop radio bait, and not, as some would have you believe, a second coming of Bon Iver. The video for this song is great as well. According to the stats presented here, I streamed On My Mind 173 times...

My number 2 track was Borderline by Tove Styrke. I heard this on Kimmel or SNL or some other late night show, and almost dismissed it as just another hipster world music band. The song stuck with me though, and I really like the heavy dub influences. It actually reminds me "post-Sublime" Sublime (when they were known as 'The Long Beach Dub All Stars').

The rest of my top 5 were Worlds tracks with 15 plays each, so I don't think much more needs to be said.

Yearly stats with YOY growth: I listened to 17,000 minutes, or 291 hours, which is up 154% from last year. 1,276 different artists, which is apparently 806 more than last year. My total track count was 2,949, up 1,634 over last year.