Music: A Mixed Method Look at How It’s Going...
I’ve been writing a lot about bringing music back into my life in 2021. The last 3 posts have focused on this topic. In this post I want to provide a quantitative account of how things have been going along with a bit of qualitative thinking about “the numbers.”
Music Consumption...
Week ending January 10th- 9 hours 26 minutes
This was the first week back to school from our Winter Break...which started on Tuesday, January 5th. At the time, this felt like a lot of time spent listening to music. January 4th was a teacher workday so I was able to listen to more music on that day than on a “normal” workday. Each day this particular week started with a change in routine, I’ve started listening to music during my treadmill workouts instead of podcasts. I’m pretty consistent with this too so I’m assured that on days I do do this...I will get 25 more minutes of music in a day than I would otherwise.
Week ending January 17th- 6 hours 30 minutes
This was the second week that school was back in session from the Winter Break...the first full week. I’m choosing to “anchor” the qualitative portion of this post with what’s going on with work because the amount of time I work during the day seems to have a direct impact on how much music I can enjoy on any given work week. As you can see, a full work week seems to have limited the amount of time I was able to listen to music by about 3 hours. Where might I “find” or “recoup” those 3 hours moving forward. Skip over the next paragraph to find out or…keeping reading through…it’s your choice.
Week ending January 24th- 12 hours 10 minutes (3 hours 39 minutes on Monday the 18th...MLK Jr. Day)
This was the third week back to school and included a day off for MLK Jr. Day. So of course, I took advantage of the extra time and listened to a LOT of music during the day off! If I took away the amount of time I listened on my day off that would put me right around the amount of time I spent listening to music the first week I started keeping track. Interesting. Another really interesting thing happened this week. The Apple Music algorithm started to kick in.
I got a suggestion in the Top Picks section to listen to an interview that Matt Wilkinson, from Beats 1 did with The Rolling Stones. I thought the interview was all I’d hear. Wrong. Wilkinson eventually got to the interview but along the way played a whole bunch of music. Some of the music he played came from artists that he felt were influenced by The Rolling Stones, some not. The interview ended up being cool…just as I expected. However, and more importantly, the really cool thing that I walked away from the experience with was exposure to some artists I’d never heard of including Lo Moon, Pond, and Angel Olsen. Each of these artists have worked their way into my music consumption.
Week ending January 31st- 12 hours 24 minutes (3 hours 49 minutes on Saturday, January 30th...putting a puzzle together with my wife)
Week four that we were back in school...another full week of remote learning. I decided to change the title of my treadmill playlist from My Treadmill Walk to My Treadmill Mix. I did this because I am running again and I’ve figured out that this playlist works just as well when I’m walking as when I’m running.
Week ending February 7th- 7 hours 44 minutes (3 hours 5 minutes on Wednesday, February 4th...took advantage of asynchronous day with students)
I’ve been trying really hard to capitalize on the fact that my asynchronous days (teaching days where I am not with the students all day) provide me the opportunity to listen to A LOT more music, working on my “teacherly” things, than I can on a typical remote learning day. Listening to over 3 hours of music really made the time go by fast.
Final thoughts…for now…
I’m not sure where I’m going next with this topic. I will continue to keep track of the amount of time I’m listening to music daily...allowing the insights I gain to come organically…from the numbers my music consumption generates.
