The Flagship Music Analysis Project

Plot the Plays began with one objective: understand my varied music tastes by jotting down one song per day. In that time, the project has evolved into a multi-playlist, spreadsheet-tracked library of music, each track and each chart sharing something about me.

Playlists

All playlists curated by Plot the Plays are available on YouTube Music, and by extension, YouTube itself.

How Plot the Plays Works

Plot the Plays is a one-man endeavour. Music curation, branding, metadata parsing, and the terms below are all calls directly made by me!

Scoring

As the slogan suggests, one track is added to the current Plot the Plays playlist each day. It must be a track that I listened to or thought of on that day, but it does not need to be the track with the greatest daily playtime. Each track must be justifiable in at least one way, and it must not be a track that already appeared in the same playlist cycle. Additionally, reselecting tracks from previous cycles is discouraged, but not prohibited, and tracks from the same album may no appear within the same three days of each other. Selections can not be retroactively edited without evidence, and skewing or favoritism is not permitted. Tracks may not be chosen prior to 3:30pm Eastern Time, and for the sake of the general audience, nothing expilcit may be found in the album art or titles. This does not guarantee that the content of the tracks are appropriate, however.

Charts

Also as the slogan suggests, Plot the Plays produces two charts: the Biweekly Charts, and the Top 120. The one Biweekly Chart is released for every fourteen day period since the current cycle begins, and during each Biweekly, five High Fives and one Sixth Spot are awarded. The Top 120 is a compilation of all these biweekly charts, spanning four months and a smidge over 120 tracks. These offer a representation of the cycle as a whole and are also where Track Spotlights are awarded.

Awarding Tracks

Three awards exist for tracks with exceptional merit, decided biweekly and every quadrimester (aligning with the Biweekly Charts and the Top 120 charts). These are the High Fives, Sixth Spots, and the Track Spotlight.

★ High Fives are awards given to five of every fourteen Biweekely tracks. The merit to be selected for a High Five is based on the subjective criteria of aggregated playtime, activity in playlists and queues, personal significance, melodic value, lyricism, cultural significance, and repeatability.

⏺ Sixth Spots are given to tracks that are blocked from earning a High Five during that Biweekly Chart. There may only be one sixth spot per fourteen-day period, and these are evaluated on the same criteria as the High Fives.

▶ Track Spotlights intend to represent the pinnacle of the Plot the Plays on each Top 120 chart. For a song to become an eligible selection candidate, it must either have earned a High Five or a Sixth Spot. From this narrowed list of nominees, one track will be chosen for the quadrimester on the same basis as the rest of the awards, as well as on how accurately each track is related to and portrays the Top 120 cycle.

Information Disclaimer

Beneath album covers on Biweekly and Top 120 charts, the title, artist(s), album, and release year will be shown. Information is tied to the specific release pictured, so if I listened to the single version of a song that later released on a proper album, the metadata of the single version is what you will see. Dates are adjusted when it is clear that they are wrong (as in the case of songs being remastered and re-released), but I am not perfect. All tracks are linked via images (simply click/tap on them), so feel free to check my work.