Posted on 05/17/2021 9:37:03 AM PDT by Alberta's Child
I recently purchased a new computer, and over the last few weeks I've been transferring files from the old one to the new one. While doing this I've been combing through some of these files and checking to ensure that they will work with new versions of various applications I commonly use.
One of the things that caught my eye was the "Play Count" number for each of the MP3 and MP4 files I am moving from one computer to the other. As I went through these tracks on iTunes, I decided to rank them in the order of their play frequency to see if there were any interesting patterns in the number of times I've played them over the years. Then I figured -- based on some of the great conversations I've had over the years with Freepers who are music buffs -- I'd take the Top 50 songs on this list and present them here on a series of FR threads. I'll post them here on a new thread that compiles the growing list one day at a time over the next couple of months. I'll probably only post them on weekdays and may miss a day or two here and there, so it will take at least ten weeks to do this.
One of the things I noticed is that these songs do not necessarily show up in an accurate order of preference for me. Sometimes a song ranks high on the list just because I downloaded it a long time ago, and it's been played more times than others that were downloaded more recently. Other songs have been played more frequently because they’re on multiple playlists I've set up over the years -- Iconic Classic Rock, Hits for the Highway, Country Classics, Best of the 80s, etc. Over a period of years it's also possible that longer songs are less likely to appear higher on the list because they're more likely to get cut off before it plays completely -- when I'm playing them in my vehicle and stopping on a road trip, for example -- and therefore not registering as an additional "Play" in iTunes.
Any insight and commentary would be welcome! Feel free to post items from your own "Favorite Songs" list on these threads. You don't even have to post about your favorite song of all time right now. We have fifty days to go -- so take your time and consider posting one from your digital music collection that roughly corresponds to the list I post here. What's ranked #50 in your list of most frequently played songs on your app with iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, etc.? #45? #40? What is it about that song that makes it stand out to you over many years? This could be an interesting series of threads, for sure.
And to show my gratitude to the FR management for giving us all a forum to post vanity threads like this, I'll be following up this first post by making a contribution for the current quarterly fundraiser. I would encourage everyone on these threads to do the same! :-)
Have fun with this, folks!
Computers suck in general at randomness. If you want real randomness out of a computer you have to work hard at it or have a true source of entropy to tap into. A call to RAND() does not really do the job. I feel fairly confident in the pseudo randomness of my methods of playlist generation as they are effectively based on sha hashes. Works pretty good for me mainly because of the size of my playlist of over 19K tunes.
Haha, looks like my #50 is Self Control by Ms. Branigan. I think I like mine better. :P
81,000 for me. I had to buy a phone with 1TB internal storage so I could fit them all on it.
Wow!!
At some point I will stop downloading. I mostly download from Freegal. Might was well get something from my tax dollars.
I only have some on my phone and really don’t listen to a lot of music on the phone.
I use my phone to listen to music in my car. Android Auto makes that quite a seamless experience. I use the JetAudio app as the music player. With the available DSP addons the sound quality is very good, much better than any other player app out there.
A lot of great music on your list!
Thx!
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