Most of the time, Hype Machine focuses on what’s exciting in the moment. The most blogged artists of the day, the tracks getting the most attention from our members—everything on the site sorted in reverse-chronological order. Things move quickly, and this is the only way to stay on top.
Recently, though, we’ve been thinking more about the past. Reading essays like “Archive Fever” and playing with the amazing TimeHop app got us thinking: What bits of history does Hype Machine data contain? Our yearly Zeitgeists are fun, but they only paint with broad strokes: the top 50 artists, albums and tracks of the year. This approach misses moments and memories, replacing them with larger trends.
Realizing this, we went to work. We recovered over 5 years of weekly Popular charts on the site (that is an immense 272 weeks!), starting from the week of Oct 22 2007, the first full week that the site was live with the then-new favoriting feature (remember that?)
Enjoy!
Love this. That “archive fever” essay is spot on. Why am I listening to so many songs from this week when there is so much awesome stuff over the past five years?
Love how I can play until I get tired of where it’s at, and then just hit “random week” and move right back to top-tier stuff from another point in time.
January 25, 2013 2:57 pm
Such a great addition to the website. You have all been killing it on the updates lately – fantastic job
January 30, 2013 1:37 am
great idea! Loving going back and adding older but awesome songs to the collection. Surprisingly (or not?) I found that I had already hearted lots.
January 30, 2013 12:17 pm
As an avid listener since Oct 2007, it’s been a real joy to see this website progress and continue to be my sole source for new music. Thanks!
February 6, 2013 10:52 am
hi guys, talking about missing moment and memories, I checked out the september 2009 list and, on sep 13th, I should have my first fight with a girl i used to date because I have the like on ‘La Roux – I’m not your toy’. hahah wasnt funny that time but you made me smile.
Nice work!
April 6, 2013 7:56 am
The site was already quality but this feature takes it to another level. Nice one guys.
June 4, 2013 3:30 am
Great stuff, how much money do the artists make per play?
M
May 3, 2017 6:09 pm