Discussion on:

Average iTunes user only listens to 19% of music library

Link to original post:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/average-itunes-user-only-listens-to-19-of-music-library/8485

Hardly surprising. Even in the pre-iTunes years, I only listen to about 1/5th of my CDs/vinyl, etc. It's just how it goes. Cookie-cutter, instant-smash, by-the-recipe, top-40 hits are not set up for long term success or replayability... and if these singles become over-played and worn out, they may remain in your collection, but hardly played (if ever again). Albums, on average, contain 3 good songs and 8 filler songs, and that results in a lot of songs that just don't get played as well.

Take any of my collections: DVD movies and TV episodes, CDs, iTunes library, OGG/WV/FLAC collection... all get about 20% played and the rest left alone. Maybe we humans have "eyes bigger than our bellies" so to speak. Collect 5x more stuff than we'll ever need.

"Sounds like an awful waste of space in the Google and Amazon clouds."

Surely they aren't storing each individual upload of "Ice, Ice Baby". Wouldn't they just store one, and provide each uploader with a link back to that one? If I can think of it...

I don't use these services because they don't fit they way I listen to music or MP3 content, or the devices I use to listen to them. Maybe I would if I was more interested in the mobility of my content, but I'm not.

I believe most people use iTunes Library as a warehouse to transport music to their iPod or other devices. The fact that 19% of people actually listen to their music from their library shows a portion of the people are listening from their computers.