# Check your Play Count



## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

I was sorting categories this morning on iTunes and saw the "Plays" option, which tells you what works/songs you've listened to the most. I just reconfigured my iTunes library in October so my data isn't that old. I also realize this thread will only work for digital listeners. So, go to your iTunes (or other music library), add the "Plays" option to column browser, and sort most to least. If you'd like, share your most listened to pieces, or any other interesting things you notice. Feel free to include the number, or why, or to compare classical listening to other genres of music. Your results may just surprise you.

*Note - iTunes sorts by track number, so movements from the same work may have different results. I believe they also track iPod data, once you've synched with your library.


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

As for my results, here are the top few since I configured on my new Mac.

1. *38 times* String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, D. 810, "Death and the Maiden": II. Andante con motto / Pavel Haas Quartet 
2. *25 times* Aria mit 30 Veränderungen, BWV 988 "Goldberg Variations" - Aria - Variations 1-5
3. *20 times* String Quartet No. 3 (Mishima): Mishima/Closing
4. *19 times* Symphony No.2 In C Minor - ''Resurrection'' - 1. Allegro Maestoso. Mit Durchaus Ernstem Und Feierlichem Ausdruck

I had to scroll all the way down, through hundreds of classical works, to find my most listened to, non-classical
*4 times* Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - Details of the War


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## Guest (Jan 12, 2015)

I occasionally reset my play counts to zero then use play counts (and smart playlists) to make sure I listen to every track in my collection. This usually takes me several months.

38 times is high! You're right about the iPod plays counting also when you synch.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Mine won't reveal much about my listening habits. I frequently reset my plays when they start getting too uneven from one another because I'm OCD like that.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Unfortunately if you stop a track before it completely ends, it doesn't count as a "play" and I have a habit of doing that if a track has several seconds of silence at the end.

I have 16 plays of the song "Watercolors" by Swimming with Dolphins. I suppose that makes sense 

As for classical, various movements from Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty have over 12 plays each.

Otherwise, almost everything else is at 2 or lower. Part of it is because I only recently started using this computer and partly because of the aforementioned tendency to stop a track before it actually ends. But I'm not surprised the Tchaikovsky ballets are up there. The march from Weber's "Turandot" also has 10 plays lol. I remember when I was obsessed with it


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

The last time my iTunes play count reset (ahem: I FUBARed my iTunes library and started over) was February 2014. That means I'm three weeks short of a year....

The highest count I have on anything is 3, which I have for: 
- Allegri, Palestrina - Tallis Scholars 1980 
- Bach: Goldberg Variations - Gould 1981 (just got there today) 
- Beethoven: Piano Sonatas #13 & 14 - Kempff stereo (I listened to the rest of the box 2x) 
- Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem - Klemperer 
- Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde - Klemperer
- Mendelssohn, Bruch: Violin Concertos - Chung

Also, some non-classical is at 3:
- Miles Davis: Kind of Blue
- Bennie Goodman: 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert 
- Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, etc.: Jazz at Massey Hall 
- Charlie Parker: Savoy and Dial

You can see I am trying to get myself a nice basic education, and that is a higher priority for me than mere pleasure....

That's just over 12 hours of music at 3. I have just over 9 days of music at 2, just over 38 days at 1 - and almost exactly 88 days still at 0, including 2.5 days of new music that I've never listened to. (I have about 400 more classical music CDs that I've never uploaded or listened to - most of that is the Brilliant Mozart box, most of the rest are parts of the Brahms and Beethoven boxes. In fact, without that Beethoven box stuff that I recently uploaded, I'd have only 1.6 days of unheard new music! You can see, then, why I'm still shopping. It's because I _clearly need_ more music, and not because I have a problem for which I should seek help.)

The works that I've listened to the most in the past year might be Bach's violence concertos, which I've listened to 8 times: Manze and Hahn 2 times each; Fischer, Standage/Pinnock, Grumiaux, and Mutter 1 time each; I also have Wallfisch and evidently didn't listen to that in the past 11 months.

I didn't know I'd listened to it that much. I would've guessed Beethoven's late string quartets, but at 5 listens total (2x ABQ, 1x each Emersons, Tokyo 1991, Tokyo 2008) it's not even close. It just felt like a lot....

I watch my play counts fairly closely, which is one of the main reasons* I get upset when my iTunes library crashes. If I see a work getting a lot of plays, I might consider buying a new recording. I also go through and look for things I haven't listened to often enough, or (using the "last played" information) recently enough.

*Edit: The main reason I get upset is that inevitably reconstructing my library means fixing a lot of things that I'd fixed before - track names and so on - and rebuilding a way of sorting my library because it's too much to scroll through.


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## Guest (Jan 12, 2015)

This is not particularly accurate, because it only registers full plays. I do a lot of intros and blurbs when in my car. (For instance, the Mozart k466 is already up there, but I also find myself playing the intro on the way home and doing some amateur car-conducting)

http://www.last.fm/user/arcaneholocaust/charts?rangetype=overall&subtype=tracks

Also, Shostakovich's 8th quartet has 3 largo sections...

EDIT: Click the "Last 12 Months" option for something a little more representative.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

scratchgolf said:


> As for my results, here are the top few since I configured on my new Mac.
> 
> 1. *38 times* String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor, D. 810, "Death and the Maiden": II. Andante con motto / Pavel Haas Quartet
> 2. *25 times* Aria mit 30 Veränderungen, BWV 988 "Goldberg Variations" - Aria - Variations 1-5
> ...


Do you usually listen to only a part of total works, and what's wrong with the other variations from Bach's Goldbergs?


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

This list doesn't really reflect what I've been listening to lately, because i removed a lot of music from my Itunes library and I've been spending much more time on CDs and youtube; but it shows some of what I was listening to maybe 2-3 years ago:

1. Mozart Symphony #41 "Jupiter" Finale - 26 plays
2. Mozart Serenade for Winds "Gran Partita" - 19 plays
3. Mozart Symphony #40 Finale- 16 plays
4. Mozart Symphony #41 "Jupiter" First movement - 15 plays
5. Mozart Violin sonata in A k.536 Presto - 15 plays
6. Mozart violin sonata in b-flat major k.378 - 13 plays
7. JS Bach Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings in D minor - 13 plays
8. JS Bach Brandenburg Concerto #2 - 11 plays
9. JS Bach Concerto for 3 Harpsichords, Fugue - 11 plays
10-11. Mozart Symphony #36 "Linz" - 10 plays each for both movements
12. Mozart Prague Symphony first movement - 10 plays
13. Mozart symphony #39 - 10 plays
14. Schubert Wanderer Fantasy performed by Alfred Brendel - 10 plays
15. Schubert piano sonata #18 finale movement - 10 plays
16. Schubert arpeggione sonata - 9 plays

Bach's Well-tempered clavier and much of Schubert's sonatas and quartets were also at or near the top of the list until i removed them(to upload better performances).


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## scratchgolf (Nov 15, 2013)

Bulldog said:


> Do you usually listen to only a part of total works, and what's wrong with the other variations from Bach's Goldbergs?


I do listen to individual movements frequently, whether pressed for time or because it fits my current mood. I love the entire Goldbergs but 1-5 get the most complete plays and I don't always get to finish the entire work.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

According to Forkel, even Count Kaiserling, who commissioned the Variations, didn't normally listen to them all. When he couldn't sleep, he'd call out, "Dear Goldberg, do play me one of my variations."


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## Guest (Jan 12, 2015)

science said:


> The last time my iTunes play count reset (ahem: I FUBARed my iTunes library and started over) was February 2014. That means I'm three weeks short of a year....
> 
> The highest count I have on anything is 3, which I have for:
> - Allegri, Palestrina - Tallis Scholars 1980
> ...


Science - I reckon it would take you between 2 and 4 years to listen to your entire collection. Not including new purchases over that time period.

Just sayin!


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## michaels (Oct 3, 2014)

I don't use iTunes to listen on my computer much anymore (Audirvana -> DAC -> Amp -> Headphones typically), but I did find 76 plays for Mozarts clarinet concerto. Of course, my library is many years old, but even then, it was an outlier.


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