Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

Even though I've been doing database for three decades, I've never really learned XML. I understand the basics of it, but I've never used it professionally. I knew iTunes kept its library in an XML database, and I understand its format, but I was never able to load it in to a database that I could manipulate.

Until this week.

I finally found some web pages that had code that would load a copy of your iTunes library in to SQL Server. Now the cool thing is that you can get a free copy of SQL Server from Microsoft, not that it's an easy thing to fool with.

Anyway, here's what I learned. This is my top played artists, clearly showing my musical roots to be firmly set in the '70s and '80s, drifting back and forth a bit. I do have newer groups, they just aren't played as much.

Unfortunately I can't get LJ to give me a monospaced font, so the play count is mashed to the left. *sigh*
Pink Floyd 855
The Beatles 813
Queen 764
Talking Heads 616
Paul Simon 569
Monty Python 523
Alan Parsons Project 474
Dire Straits 465
Weird Al Yankovic 463
Devo 424
Led Zeppelin 412
The Who 391
Supertramp 387
Fleetwood Mac 376
Electric Light Orchestra 344
Peter Gabriel 342
Antonio Vivaldi 329
Steeleye Span 310
David Bowie 307
Elton John 298
The Fabulous Forties Compilation 298
Thomas Dolby 288
Mark Knopfler 287
Johann Sebastian Bach 274
The Moody Blues 263

No surprise to me that Pink Floyd is #1, closely followed by The Beatles and Queen. In a permanent place on my iPhone is a few Floyd albums, specifically their latest and final album, Endless River, along with Animals, Dark Side of the Moon, and Wish You Were Here. These are my 'chill and code' things to play: very melodic and few words. I don't listen to the Beatles nearly as much as I used to, but I still dig them out occasionally. I expect Queen to overtake them at some point in the future.

This is my top-played tracks:
Name Artist PC
------------------------------ ---------------------------------------- -----------
Solsbury Hill (Peter Gabriel) 43
Afternoons & Coffeespoons (Cra (Eddie Bauer Collection) 42
Concerto No. 6 in C RV 180 (I (Antonio Vivaldi) 42
For A Rocker (Jackson Browne) 39
Uncle John's Band (The Grateful Dead) 39
Bad Moon Rising (Creedence Clearwater Revival) 36
Me and Julio Down By the Schoo (Paul Simon) 36
The Barry Williams Show (Peter Gabriel) 36
Concerto in G major alla rust (Antonio Vivaldi) 35
I Wish They'd Do It Now (John Roberts and Tony Barrand) 33
Loves Me Like a Rock (Paul Simon) 33
Dead Man's Party (Oingo Boingo) 32
Handel: Sonata G 2 violins & (Johann Pachelbel) 32
Ramble On (Led Zeppelin) 32
Stuck In The Middle With You (Eddie Bauer Collection) 32

The interesting thing is the way the count works. Afternoons & Coffeespoons by the Crash Test Dummies is technically the top played song, but Solsbury Hill tops it when you take in to account that it appears on two albums. I'm quite surprised at the Vivaldi and Handel: they don't appear in the iTunes list but crunching the numbers in SQL Server shows they belong. Knowing what I know about database as it is my profession, I'll accept the SQL Server numbers as more accurate.

If you're interested in the script and in crunching your own data, I can dig up the URL. I thought I had it with me but apparently I don't.

I listen to music pretty much all day long, I should repeat this in a year or so and see what changes have happened.