Play it Forward

Do you guys know about Spotify's My Year in Music? If you use Spotify, they'll compile the music you listened to throughout the year and generate a stat sheet about your personal music tastes/habits. You can generate yours here. It's really interesting to look at. Here are some stats from mine:

• This year, I listened to 26,430 minutes of music through Spotify alone, the majority of which was played on my phone (which means I listen to the most music either in the car or while working out. So mostly in the car, ha.)
• I listen to the most music on Monday (which makes sense, since Monday is the day I use mostly to write/get things done/clean/cook). 
• The vast majority of the music I listen to is created in the US (81%!) followed by the UK, Canada (!), Australia, and Sweden (this was a stat that's apparently only generated for premium users? Which, thank god I'm getting my money's worth there. I don't really know why I still pay for premium - I don't know what features I have that people that have free subscriptions don't. When Spotify first came to the US, the only way to get it streaming to your phone was to pay for premium, but that's not the case anymore. I should probably look into that.)
• Remember when I talked about how I hate when people ask me what kind of music I listen to, because I don't know how to answer? Well, Spotify has me covered! According to them, my most-listened to genre of music is "Indie Pop", followed closely by "Indie Rock", and then "Chamber Pop". Neither Jeff nor I knew what the hell that meant, so I looked it up - apparently, "Chamber Pop", or "Baroque Pop", according to the Wikipedia article, "Stylistically fuses elements of pop and rock with classical music, often incorporating instruments not common to popular music such as harpsichords, clavichords, violins, cellos and other strings, oboes and French horns. It is also generally characterised by highly orchestral,^[4] lush instrumentation. Common elements of baroque pop also include layered melodies, sophisticated productions and prominent harmonies." So, like Grizzly Bear, I guess. They listed Belle and Sebastian and Regina Spektor as the two most well-known artists in this genre, but I haven't listened to either hardly at all in the last year.

 In addition to stats, Spotify will also create a playlist taylor-made for you of music that they think you'll enjoy to start off your year. Not every song on mine was a home run, and quite a few of the songs I already had on various playlists, but a few songs that I hadn't previously head were right up my alley:

• Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings -  Father John Misty...this song is SO DAMN GOOD. Can't stop, won't stop listening to it. Hit it out of the park with this one.
• Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)  - Oscar Isaac, Marcus Mumford - this one's from the Inside Llewyn Davis Soundtrack, and is right up my folky little alley.
• Line of Fire - Junip - This song is very spacey, kind of similar to Beach House. I dig.
• Bloom - Paper Kites - So pretty.
• Bloodstream - Stateless - This reminds me a little bit of the French band Air, which I used to love.
• Song for Zula - Phosphorescent - This almost has a Bruce Springsteen vibe, in the best way possible.

So anyhoo, I highly recommend checking out your year in music. And then sharing your stats with me, because I'm nosy.