For a few months in 2010 there was a Between Two Islands internet radio station. One of the many burdensome tasks associated with this experiment was tracking the number of listeners that heard each song for royalty payment purposes. Because I have the data, I decided to compile a list of some of the most-heard songs:

A Man Called Adam – Porcupine
Afterlife with Cathy Battistessa – Speck of gold
Los Amigos Invisibles – Comodón Johnson
Patricia Barber – Get out of town
Carla Bley – Houses & people
Broken Bells – Your head is on fire
Kenny Burrell – A child is born
Gary Burton – Question and answer
Rosalia De Souza – Bossa 50
Everything But The Girl – Flipside
Ella Fitzgerald – Love for sale
Gelka – The last tree
Al Green – Got To Be More (Take me higher)
Antonio Carlos Jobim – Batidinha
Loose Ends – Hangin’ on a string
Shelby Lynne – Dreamsome
Johnny Mathis – I just wanted to be me
The Modern Jazz Quartet – What now my love (Et maintenant)
Nightmares On Wax – Les nuits
Enrico Pieranunzi – Amarcord
Sonny Rollins with Kenny Burrell and Oliver Nelson – Transition theme
Transglobal Underground with Natacha Atlas – Taal zaman

I’m not sure this means very much – the music was on a continuous loop, so I think who heard what was more or less random. However, it’s interesting that jazz songs are disproportionately represented in list. Does that mean that my listeners were more likely to stay tuned if they were hearing jazz?

I doubt that there’s any statistical basis for that conclusion. Whatever the list means, it’s a cross-section of the radio playlist, and therefore qualifies as something to put on my 2010 playlist page!