[David Herrick]

Recent data for Kansas City:

For January 7th, V = 2750 and C = 6.84. For January 8th, V = 1406 and C = 3.50. For January 9th, V = 997 and C = 2.48. For January 10th, V = 817 and C = 2.03. And for January 11th, V = 864 and C = 2.15.

[David Herrick]

Finally, here’s the top ten videos expressed as percentages of the total number of views for each month. (For example, Please Mr. Postman accounted for about 14% of all views in January, but dropped to less than 5% in July.) The idea here is to divide out variations in the absolute numbers and look at the performance of each video relative to the others.

[David Herrick]

Next is the daily viewing rates for each of the “top ten” videos of the year, not including videos released during 2023. You can see the summertime battle for supremacy between Please Mr. Postman and Drive My Car. The variations bear little resemblance to a similar graph I posted for 2022, so it’s probably safe to say that the time of year isn’t the main reason for the changes.

[David Herrick]

Here are a couple of graphs that illustrate the month-by-month viewing trends for MLT videos on YouTube in 2023.

First is the average number of views per day for all videos combined. The peak in July coincides with the release of all the Cavern Club videos, and the drop in August is probably at least partially due to the “big hack”.

[David Herrick]

Recent data for Kansas City:

For January 1st, V = 11128 and C = 27.7. For January 2nd, V = 5935 and C = 12.8. For January 3rd, V = 3264 and C = 8.12. For January 4th, V = 2602 and C = 6.48. And for January 5th, V = 3238 and C = 8.06.

[David Herrick]

I too am distressed at how homogenized music is nowadays. On long car trips my wife insists on listening to top 40 satellite stations (ugh!), and I’m always thinking how each song sounds just like the previous one.

But I wonder if this phenomenon is really unique to our times. You can listen to virtually any pre-Beatles hit song going all the way back to the 1920’s and guess pretty accurately when it was recorded just from the sound of it, so I think homogenization may historically be the rule rather than the exception, although the extent of it and the reasons for it might be different now.

Jung, the part of that video about the battle between the record labels and the on-line platforms reminds me of this Weird Al Yankovic song from 2006:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGM8PT1eAvY

youtube.com

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Don't Download This Song (Official 4K Video)

Music video by Weird Al Yankovic performing Don't Download This Song. YouTube view counts pre-VEVO: 58,251. (C) 2006 Volcano Entertainment III, LLC

[David Herrick]

Great music can show up in the most unexpected places!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwOipTXvNNo

[David Herrick]

Here are the milestone predictions for the next month or so:

Drive My Car: 7,000,000 views on January 10th

Sound of Silence: 800,000 views on January 16th

And that appears to be all that’s on the horizon. February looks a little busier, though.

[David Herrick]

Averaged over the last hour of 2023, Kansas City is at V = 16032 and C = 39.9. More daily data in a few days.

[David Herrick]

Happy New Year, everyone! Here are the viewing stats for December. All data cover the period from December 1st through 31st, except for Everybody’s Talkin’, which is just for the last four days. And of course, Kansas City is fresh out of the oven and too hot to handle just yet.

.

simultaneous views:

1) Please Mr. Postman / Wipe Out: C = 9.42 (+4.19)

2) Here Comes the Sun: C = 4.24 (+1.46)

3) Vincent: C = 3.86 (+2.70)

4) While My Guitar Gently Weeps: C = 3.73 (+0.42)

5) Drive My Car (2012): C = 3.64 (+0.29)

6) She Loves You: C = 3.05 (-0.14)

7) Everybody’s Talkin’: C = 2.39 (new)

8) You Can’t Do That: C = 2.20 (-0.09)

9) I Saw Her Standing There: C = 2.18 (+0.26)

10) Now and Then: C = 2.12 (-2.41)

11) When I’m Sixty-Four: C = 1.81 (+0.22)

12) Nowhere Man: C = 1.74 (+0.15)

13) If I Fell: C = 1.68 (+0.15)

14) Hey Bulldog: C = 1.56 (+0.50)

15) Look What They’ve Done to My Song, Ma: C = 1.39 (-0.14)

16) Wish You Were Here: C = 1.38 (+0.12)

17) This Boy: C = 1.33 (+0.19)

18) Till There Was You: C = 1.33 (+0.06)

19) I’m a Believer: C = 1.26 (+0.20)

20) She’s a Woman: C = 1.23 (-0.18)

.

views per day:

1) Please Mr. Postman / Wipe Out: V = 3322 (+1477)

2) Drive My Car (2012): V = 1881 (+149)

3) Here Comes the Sun: V = 1744 (+599)

4) She Loves You: V = 1488 (-70)

5) Vincent: V = 1302 (+912)

6) While My Guitar Gently Weeps: V = 1176 (+131)

7) You Can’t Do That: V = 1009 (+40)

8) Everybody’s Talkin’: V = 972 (new)

9) I Saw Her Standing There: V = 929 (+113)

10) When I’m Sixty-Four: V = 895 (+111)

11) Now and Then: V = 872 (-991)

12) Nowhere Man: V = 775 (+68)

13) If I Fell: V = 760 (+69)

14) Till There Was You: V = 700 (+31)

15) Hey Bulldog: V = 675 (+218)

16) In My Life: V = 649 (+85)

17) This Boy: V = 566 (+81)

18) Day Tripper: V = 531 (+42)

19) You’re Going to Lose That Girl: V = 531 (+42)

20) Sound of Silence: V = 513 (+116)

.

Viewership is up almost across the board. (It’s a Christmas miracle!) Mr. Postman has reasserted his dominance, and Vincent has unexpectedly surged into the top five.

[David Herrick]

Averaged over the past week, Everybody’s Talkin’ is at V = 1170 and C = 2.87.

[David Herrick]

I mean when someone hacked into the MLT YouTube account in August, and the videos weren’t available for a number of days.

[David Herrick]

Wow, that was fast! As of December 31st it was on pace to break 7M on January 10th. That’s nearly 7000 views per day since New Year’s Eve!

[David Herrick]

Hey, Juergen. I’ve seen Give My Regards to Broad Street. As much as I love all things Paul, I have to say that the plot and the dialogue are vastly less imaginative than the videos of the songs.

I remember seeing an interview with Paul not long after the release of the film in which he was asked to speculate on why it didn’t do well at the box office. With uncharacteristic glumness he said, “It’s a simple English comedy. No sex, no violence. How’s it gonna be a hit?”

[David Herrick]

Okay, Fred, here you go: the number of views in 2023 of all the MLT original song videos:

136294 = If You Raise Your Head

122777 = Any Other Day

118427 = Questionable

83068 = I Bought Myself a Politician

77447 = June (live)

67856 = Close to You (duo)

55920 = Still a Friend of Mine

52503 = This Boy Is Mine

43080 = Count on Me (duo)

38914 = In It for Love (duo)

37278 = Sweet Lorraine (duo)

34269 = Make Show

33431 = That’s Life

28031 = Songbird

26990 = Janitor Joe

17410 = One More Time

17044 = Won’t You Listen Now

16604 = June

16322 = I Wanna Kiss You

16287 = Once Upon a Time

14678 = The Wide, Wide Land

14036 = Waiting for the Waiter

11949 = Pretty Little Thing

10836 = I Don’t Know Birds That Well

8926 = One More Time

8635 = All I Want Christmas to Be

7529 = When We’re Together

6786 = Nothing Is in Vain

5896 = All About Falling in Love

5554 = Club 27 (lyrics)

5444 = Dreams

5077 = All About Falling in Love (duo)

1627 = I Don’t Know Birds That Well (live)

1316 = Waiting for the Waiter (lyrics)