2011 Music I Listened To The Most

For the last three years (2010, 2009 and 2008) I've looked at what albums I've listened to the most during the year. This year I thought I'd also look at it by artist. The numbers in parentheses show the number of times I listened to a song by the artist. (All based on iTunes stats.)

1. Tom Waits (1,947)
2. Fleet Foxes (928)
3. U2 (746)
4. Miss Li (672)
5. Tori Amos (622)
6. The Decemberists (551)
7. The Tallest Man On Earth (550)
8. Adele (528)
9. Ida Maria (522)
10. Ani DiFranco (518)

Not surprisingly it's a mix of artists that released new albums this year and artists with large back catalogs.

Here's a statistic: these 10 artists make up 19% of my total listening this year. Which means that over 80% of the time I'm listening to something else.

Onto the most played albums:

1. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (721)
2. Adele - 21 (495)
3. Ida Maria - Katla (429)
4. Jay-Z and Kanye West - Watch the Throne (357)
5. Miss Li - Beats & Bruises (353)
6. James Blake - James Blake (301)
7. R.E.M. - Collapse Into Now (297)
8. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (294)
9. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (285)
10. Joan As Police Woman - The Deep Field (279)

I acquired all albums in 2011 except The Suburbs which took the 11-spot last year. Had it been released early in either year it would likely have made the top 3.

A few more observations:

• 50/50 distribution between female/male vocals this year. 6, 5.5 and 8 female vocals in previous years
• James Blake is the only new discovery on the list. In the previous years that number has been 3, 4 and 7. Less new discoveries every year, it seems
• If I limit the list to albums acquired in 2011, Drake's Thank Me Later would take the last spot
• These albums make up 9% of my total listening this year. So, over 90% of the time I listened to something else