My most played artists

It struck me recently that I’ve been keeping statistical data about the music I play on my show for three years now. It is as geeky as it sounds, the product of a misspent youth and a BBC Micro but it also provides an interesting overview of what I have played on the show in that period.

Since 1 January 2011 the baseline statistics are:

160 shows

39 songs per show

4,334 different songs – 6,250 songs in total

2,020 artists

93% Welsh artists

I’ve played 4,334 different songs from 2,020 different artists, 93% of whom are Welsh or based in Wales. I hope that shows that the programme doesn’t rest on its laurels and that I do my utmost to find interesting new artists to showcase and support.

2,020 is a boggling figure. I would be surprised if I was fortunate enough to support 200 different Welsh artists in a comparative time period when I started presenting a music show on BBC Radio Wales back in 1993.

I think that’s evidence that music-making has become a much more democratic affair and that the digital age has enabled exponentially more people to record and distribute their music.

Quantity doesn’t equate to quality, of course - but this still represents only 10-20% of the music that I receive. The benchmark of quality is, I think, high.

Clearly Wales is a remarkable breeding ground for musical creativity.

How many of these artists have gone on to international acclaim, or been able to make a living out of their art? I don’t know. That’s a much tougher question to answer.

Here are the top 100 artists played on my show in that period, together with the number of times they have been played.

If you have any questions, observations or suggestions, please feel free to leave them below.

Meanwhile I’ll get back to being a geek.