My Record Collection By the Numbers
One upside (downside?) to all this free time in lockdown is that when a weird idea strikes me I can act on it. Sunday night I wondered which artist was most represented in my record collection, so I did some quick counting, and here's what I came up with:
I have 277 unique artists in my CDs, not counting soundtracks or compilations or my couple of pieces of vinyl or my small number of cassettes. I also counted double albums once, and didn't muck about with the DVDs or other weirdness in my collection.
CDs Per ArtistNumber of ArtistsTotal CDs
1188188
24794
31545
4520
5945
6530
7321
800
9327
1000
11111
Assuming I typed it correctly, that adds up to 276 artist, which is pretty close to 277. Given that given that I did a manual count in ten minutes, close enough. It adds up to 481 CDs. I didn't count each individual CDs, but since I've estimated my collection at around 500 and this total doesn't have the soundtracks of compilations, that feels pretty reasonable.
Note that I long ago stopped ripping my CDs, mostly because I stopped taking my iPod to work when I stopped having time to listen to music at work, so a manual count will have to do. I also erased most of the MP3s, so I can't even get a partial count. Alas for automation.
In any event, this gives me a clear top 7 artists in terms of CDs owned. Unsurprisingly, I've seen everyone in the top 7 at least twice.
1 - Josh Ritter - Seen six times.
T2 - The Black Keys - Seen ten times.
T2 - The Decemberists - Seen four times.
T2 - U2 - Seen twice.
T3 - Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - Seen seven times.
T3 - Moxy Früvous - Seen six times.
T3 - Bruce Springsteen - Seen three times (twice E Street Band, once solo).
If I went down to 6, I've seen 3 of those 5 bands, with the other two not existing when I could see them, unless you count the "half of The Doors reunion tour", which I don't.
With that said, when I counted albums up I mostly listed solo projects and different incarnations separately. For example, if I had counted the Black Keys solo projects all together that would have pushed the number to twelve, and would have upped the number of shows to thirteen. Counting Mike Doughty & Soul Coughing as one would have pushed him to nine, against ten times seen (9 + 1). I can't think of anybody else besides Freekbass (two CDs) and the Cleveland Orchestra (zero CDs) who appears so many times on my concert lists, which would seem to indicate reasonable overlap between my music buying and my concert going.
Another fun fact: as stated previously, I never did a 2005 concert year in review, but I still have my lists. When I double-checked them to get my Sharon Jones count (2005 was the year I saw her three times), I saw that the one time I saw her at Wilberts, the opener was none other than William Bell. Wait, William Bell? Was it the same William Bell who I put in my top 3 must see artists in 2017 after I found him via the radio encyclopedia project?
Alas, I cannot say. I remember the show at Wilberts, but not the opener beyond the name on my list. Some quick searching didn't find a set list or other tour info from that show. I've got an inquiry out to someone who was probably at the show too. Either way, memory is a pain. This is why I do show by show capsules now! It's also why purging my CD collection further is unlikely - almost everything left is tied to a memory of some sort.
I have 277 unique artists in my CDs, not counting soundtracks or compilations or my couple of pieces of vinyl or my small number of cassettes. I also counted double albums once, and didn't muck about with the DVDs or other weirdness in my collection.
CDs Per ArtistNumber of ArtistsTotal CDs
1188188
24794
31545
4520
5945
6530
7321
800
9327
1000
11111
Assuming I typed it correctly, that adds up to 276 artist, which is pretty close to 277. Given that given that I did a manual count in ten minutes, close enough. It adds up to 481 CDs. I didn't count each individual CDs, but since I've estimated my collection at around 500 and this total doesn't have the soundtracks of compilations, that feels pretty reasonable.
Note that I long ago stopped ripping my CDs, mostly because I stopped taking my iPod to work when I stopped having time to listen to music at work, so a manual count will have to do. I also erased most of the MP3s, so I can't even get a partial count. Alas for automation.
In any event, this gives me a clear top 7 artists in terms of CDs owned. Unsurprisingly, I've seen everyone in the top 7 at least twice.
1 - Josh Ritter - Seen six times.
T2 - The Black Keys - Seen ten times.
T2 - The Decemberists - Seen four times.
T2 - U2 - Seen twice.
T3 - Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - Seen seven times.
T3 - Moxy Früvous - Seen six times.
T3 - Bruce Springsteen - Seen three times (twice E Street Band, once solo).
If I went down to 6, I've seen 3 of those 5 bands, with the other two not existing when I could see them, unless you count the "half of The Doors reunion tour", which I don't.
With that said, when I counted albums up I mostly listed solo projects and different incarnations separately. For example, if I had counted the Black Keys solo projects all together that would have pushed the number to twelve, and would have upped the number of shows to thirteen. Counting Mike Doughty & Soul Coughing as one would have pushed him to nine, against ten times seen (9 + 1). I can't think of anybody else besides Freekbass (two CDs) and the Cleveland Orchestra (zero CDs) who appears so many times on my concert lists, which would seem to indicate reasonable overlap between my music buying and my concert going.
Another fun fact: as stated previously, I never did a 2005 concert year in review, but I still have my lists. When I double-checked them to get my Sharon Jones count (2005 was the year I saw her three times), I saw that the one time I saw her at Wilberts, the opener was none other than William Bell. Wait, William Bell? Was it the same William Bell who I put in my top 3 must see artists in 2017 after I found him via the radio encyclopedia project?
Alas, I cannot say. I remember the show at Wilberts, but not the opener beyond the name on my list. Some quick searching didn't find a set list or other tour info from that show. I've got an inquiry out to someone who was probably at the show too. Either way, memory is a pain. This is why I do show by show capsules now! It's also why purging my CD collection further is unlikely - almost everything left is tied to a memory of some sort.