Year in music

There were a number of News Events during 2011, which were reflected by changes in our scrobble data:

The White Stripes scrobbles for 2011

On the 2nd February, The White Stripes announced they were to cease recording and performing. This saw scrobbles rise from just below 300,000 daily scrobbles throughout January to just over 500,000 immediately after the announcement.

PJ Harvey scrobbles for 2011

Starting at 100,000, PJ Harvey's daily scrobbles took a massive jump inline with the 'Let England Shake' album release on 15th February. Daily scrobbles peaked at 700,000, just before she won the 'Outstanding Contribution To Music' award at the Shockwaves NME Awards on the 23rd February. On 6th September, when 'Let England Shake' won the Mercury Prize, her scrobbles took a smaller, but still visible increase to 200,000 in mid-September, returning to just over 100,000 for the remainder of the year.

LCD Soundsystem scrobbles for 2011

LCD Soundsystem saw a small peak of just over 140,000 daily scrobbles in mid-February; shortly after they announced their last ever show on the 8th February. Their scrobbles dipped to just over 100,000 at the end of March, before rising again sharply to during the build up to their Madison Square Garden appearance on 2nd April, peaking at 230,000.

Bob Dylan scrobbles for 2011

24th May 2011 was Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday. This was reflected by a sharp increase in scrobbles to 450,000 immediately after. Scrobbles quickly returned to 300,000 per day, remaining just under this number for the rest of the year.

David Hasselhoff scrobbles for 2011

We saw a small increase in daily scrobbles for David Hasselhoff, from around 1,200 to 3,000 during his tour from 3rd-25th February. The rest of the year was uneventful for the original Knight Rider, despite his birthday on the 17th July, but we still love him.

Amy Winehouse scrobbles for 2011

When Amy Winehouse passed away aged 27 on 23rd July, her scrobbles shot up instantly from below 200,000 per day to over 1,400,000 by early August. They returned to just above 200,000 daily scrobbles for the remainder of the year.

Beyonce scrobbles for 2011

Beyonce’s scrobbles peaked at 700,000 just before and just after her album '4' was released on 24th June. We saw another smaller peak on 28th August following the revelation at the MTV Music Video Awards that she and Jay Z were expecting. Scrobbles for Jay Z remained constant throughout the year, at around 150,000 daily scrobbles, with no visible peaks.

DJ Mehdi scrobbles for 2011

DJ Mehdi had very few scrobbles for the majority of 2011. When he passed away on 13th September, aged just 34, we saw a sharp increase to 30,000 scrobbles immediately afterwards.

R.E.M scrobbles for 2011

R.E.M continued the trend of scrobbles peaking inline with their 'Collapse Into Now' album release on 7th March. The number of scrobbles went higher than 400,000, which was matched in October, just after they announced their breakup on 21st September.

Steve Jobs

Our 'Year In Music' would not be complete without a nod to Steve Jobs. Over 28 Million people visited Last.fm using a Mac (88%), iPad (4.3%), iPod Touch (2.5%) or iPhone (5.2%) during 2011. Steve Jobs passed away on 5th October aged 56.

The Stone Roses scrobbles for 2011

The Stone Roses announced in 'The Sun', on the 13th October, that they were to reunite. This saw their scrobbles instantly jump from around 40,000 a day to almost 160,000. They've remained higher for the rest of the year at 50-60,000 per day.

Heavy D scrobbles for 2011

Heavy D passed away on 9th November at the age of 44. This saw Heavy D & The Boyz scrobbles go from approximately 1,000 per day to 10,000 by mid-November. There was a slight increase in Heavy D scrobbles to 2,000 at the same time.