Marc Revisiting the Song Conversation

Here's why Itunes song play statistics are all wrong:

1) It doesn't account for duplicates in your library. I have some songs twice or even three times because they are on an original album, a compilation, a soundtrack, or a greatest hits album. If they all cycle through your Ipod then you would need to add the individual plays to get the actual play count.

2) Itunes only counts the song as "played" if the track comes to an end and actually moves to the next song. So, it you like a song a lot and listen to it over and over (i.e. rewind it to the beginning again before it goes to the next song) it doesn't register as "played" as it should.

3) I particularly like remixes, so although a remix is technically a different song, it's really the same song, just with different back beats or grooves. It should still count cumulatively as far as play count on that song.

4) Although I do a majority of my music listening on my Ipod(s), in case I forget I keep a few of my favorite or newer CDs in the car. So I am often listening to songs over and over or complete albums that don't get "recorded" in Itunes because I'm playing them from a CD.

5) Some songs I loved at one time and listened to repeatedly, therefore running up the Itunes count, although I haven't listened to them for months. They shouldn't be considered in my favorite songs list.

6) The Beastie Boys had a song (one track) on their Paul's Boutique album that was actually several short songs put together. The name of the song was "B-boy Bouillabaisse" and when they released the 20th anniversary remastered edition they split those songs into separate tracks. Some of them I love and had previously just fast-forwarded to those parts, but didn't listen to all twelve and a half minutes.

As a result of one or more of the above rules, "Three MCs and One DJ" by the Beastie Boys would jump up to #2 with 94 plays, "Root Down" by the Beastie Boys would jump up to #3 with 80 plays, "Check It Out" would extend its lead with nearly 120 plays, "Root Down" would be up around 70, and there are a number of Third Eye Blind songs that would undoubtedly be in the top 10 (they are on in my car all the time). I don't think "O.P.P." would be in my top 10, and neither would "Rhyme the Rhyme Well".