Similar Artists and the Quest for Relevance.

As I mull around the idea of a cool way to plot interconnections from similar artists, I’ve noticed something.  There are only about 14k bands that actually have info on similar artists.  Of those ~2k of them haven’t released a full length album.  At first I thought that I had captured the data wrong, but sure enough each band I check in the list don’t have any similar artists.  Also, keep in mind that references do not show up until there are at least 3 votes.

What’s more, this may be another metric by which to judge “relevance, value, success, etc.” because the more people listen to a band, the more likely they are to enter in data on similar artists.  Anecdotally, I looked at my own stash and I find that almost all of the band I listen to are included in this 14k list.  The ones that are not are really out there, random,  or demo-y or ep-y bands that probably aren’t that “successful”.  Bands I thought somewhat obscure turn out to have plenty of hits in sim arts.  Turns out I’m just some un-kvlt surface dweller I guess?

Taking this info, what is the most linked to band?  Here are the top 10:

Band	# Links
Testament	321
Kreator	250
Exodus	242
Sodom	216
Iron Maiden	210
Slayer	210
Death	206
Bathory	197
Judas Priest	197
Morbid Angel	194

What does this mean?  I’m not sure exactly.  I would not call this “most influential bands” or “most emulated bands” necessarily.  Perhaps it tells a story of the pervasiveness of the sound these bands represent: older and thrashier, and how it relates to the user base of the website.

Now, what about number of ratings given to a band?

Band	# of votes
Black Sabbath	4798
Venom	4675
Death	4674
Judas Priest	4479
Slayer	4467
Kreator	4464
Bathory	4415
Sodom	4322
Testament	4220
Exodus	4163

This looks more like it could be a “popularity” index for MA.  Then again, bands that have more similar bands listed may pull in more votes overall if people just go “yup, yup, yup” down the line when they agree, compounding the scale.

So, what if I take this list and use it again to look at bands per capita?  Before you go look at this massive table that you should copy and filter yourself, here are top tens given different setups:

Rank	All/All/All	Full/Active/All	All/All/SA	Full/Active/SA
1	Finland	Finland	Finland	Finland
2	Sweden	Iceland	Sweden	Sweden
3	Iceland	Liechtenstein	Iceland	Liechtenstein
4	Norway	Sweden	Norway	Iceland
5	Liechtenstein	Norway	Liechtenstein	Norway
6	Greece	Malta	Monaco	Andorra
7	Monaco	Greece	Andorra	Greece
8	Denmark	Estonia	Denmark	Malta
9	Malta	Czech Republic	Greece	Denmark
10	Estonia	Slovenia	Austria	Austria

The big take away here is no matter how you slice it, Finland wins out per capita.  Sweden, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein then trade the next 4 slots with norway typically at 3/4 and Sweden almost always 2nd.  The last 5 slots are a bit of a mish-mash with bands coming in and out of the ranking, Greece being the only mainstay.

Here’s all the daters:

Country	Population		Total Band Count	Bands/100k		Full Active Bands	Bands/100k		Total SimArts	Bands/100k		Full Active SimArts	Bands/100k
Faeroe Islands	2912		13	446.43		8	274.73		4	137.36		3.00	103.02
Finland	5523904		3566	64.56		1023	18.52		637	11.53		371.00	6.72
Sweden	9851852		4273	43.37		1234	12.53		1016	10.31		560.00	5.68
Liechtenstein	37776		11	29.12		5	13.24		3	7.94		2.00	5.29
Iceland	331778		117	35.26		44	13.26		29	8.74		17.00	5.12
Norway	5271958		1575	29.88		541	10.26		428	8.12		243.00	4.61
Aland Islands	29013		6	20.68		2	6.89		2	6.89		1.00	3.45
Andorra	69165		4	5.78		2	2.89		2	2.89		2.00	2.89
Greece	10919459		1863	17.06		672	6.15		275	2.52		195.00	1.79
Malta	419615		62	14.78		28	6.67		7	1.67		7.00	1.67
Denmark	5690750		901	15.83		214	3.76		163	2.86		82.00	1.44
Austria	8569633		1100	12.84		370	4.32		156	1.82		86.00	1.00
Netherlands	16979729		2193	12.92		530	3.12		275	1.62		158.00	0.93
Australia	24309330		2284	9.40		738	3.04		371	1.53		217.00	0.89
Czech Republic	10548058		1351	12.81		562	5.33		132	1.25		87.00	0.82
Slovenia	2069362		259	12.52		99	4.78		23	1.11		17.00	0.82
Canada	36286378		3591	9.90		1246	3.43		498	1.37		295.00	0.81
Switzerland	8379477		960	11.46		354	4.22		108	1.29		65.00	0.78
Germany	80682351		10189	12.63		3083	3.82		1004	1.24		617.00	0.76
Estonia	1309104		192	14.67		77	5.88		11	0.84		10.00	0.76
United Kingdom	65111143		4611	7.08		1368	2.10		755	1.16		426.00	0.65
Portugal	10304434		1229	11.93		312	3.03		101	0.98		67.00	0.65
Italy	59801004		6035	10.09		2124	3.55		537	0.90		385.00	0.64
Curaçao	158635		1	0.63		1	0.63		1	0.63		1.00	0.63
Chile	18131850		1913	10.55		614	3.39		187	1.03		114.00	0.63
United States	324118787		24246	7.48		7904	2.44		3623	1.12		1,997.00	0.62
Belgium	11371928		1171	10.30		318	2.80		121	1.06		68.00	0.60
Poland	38593161		3199	8.29		888	2.30		330	0.86		210.00	0.54
Hungary	9821318		1065	10.84		301	3.06		78	0.79		53.00	0.54
Ireland	4713993		379	8.04		93	1.97		37	0.78		25.00	0.53
New Zealand	4565185		354	7.75		112	2.45		39	0.85		24.00	0.53
Luxembourg	576243		82	14.23		22	3.82		5	0.87		3.00	0.52
Latvia	1955742		105	5.37		55	2.81		13	0.66		10.00	0.51
Cyprus	1176598		67	5.69		27	2.29		8	0.68		6.00	0.51
Slovakia	5429418		540	9.95		194	3.57		39	0.72		27.00	0.50
Croatia	4225001		392	9.28		120	2.84		32	0.76		20.00	0.47
Lithuania	2850030		168	5.89		60	2.11		15	0.53		12.00	0.42
Spain	46064604		3258	7.07		1244	2.70		298	0.65		193.00	0.42
France	64668129		4707	7.28		1412	2.18		412	0.64		255.00	0.39
Israel	8192463		255	3.11		84	1.03		35	0.43		24.00	0.29
Serbia	8812705		382	4.33		155	1.76		40	0.45		25.00	0.28
Belarus	9481521		364	3.84		172	1.81		32	0.34		25.00	0.26
Bulgaria	7097796		365	5.14		122	1.72		26	0.37		17.00	0.24
Bosnia and Herzegovina	3802134		120	3.16		32	0.84		13	0.34		9.00	0.24
Singapore	5696506		247	4.34		75	1.32		19	0.33		13.00	0.23
Botswana	2303820		9	0.39		7	0.30		5	0.22		5.00	0.22
Bahrain	1396829		12	0.86		4	0.29		4	0.29		3.00	0.21
Uruguay	3444071		182	5.28		56	1.63		12	0.35		7.00	0.20
Armenia	3026048		18	0.59		11	0.36		6	0.20		6.00	0.20
Russian Federation	143439832		3490	2.43		1729	1.21		349	0.24		251.00	0.17
Colombia	48654392		1379	2.83		522	1.07		122	0.25		83.00	0.17
Costa Rica	4857218		204	4.20		74	1.52		9	0.19		8.00	0.16
Puerto Rico	3680772		147	3.99		43	1.17		11	0.30		6.00	0.16
Ukraine	44624373		886	1.99		431	0.97		111	0.25		68.00	0.15
Argentina	43847277		1901	4.34		712	1.62		110	0.25		62.00	0.14
Japan	126323715		1756	1.39		651	0.52		276	0.22		165.00	0.13
Brazil	209567920		5444	2.60		1510	0.72		436	0.21		261.00	0.12
Mexico	128632004		2428	1.89		904	0.70		236	0.18		156.00	0.12
Georgia	3979781		22	0.55		15	0.38		5	0.13		4.00	0.10
Jordan	7747800		30	0.39		13	0.17		7	0.09		7.00	0.09
Ecuador	16385450		334	2.04		139	0.85		18	0.11		14.00	0.09
Mauritius	1277459		2	0.16		1	0.08		1	0.08		1.00	0.08
Paraguay	6725430		145	2.16		43	0.64		6	0.09		5.00	0.07
Romania	19372734		363	1.87		148	0.76		19	0.10		14.00	0.07
Taiwan	23395600		67	0.29		37	0.16		22	0.09		16.00	0.07
Bolivia	10888402		228	2.09		77	0.71		9	0.08		7.00	0.06
Peru	31774225		452	1.42		136	0.43		34	0.11		19.00	0.06
Lebanon	5988153		45	0.75		19	0.32		6	0.10		3.00	0.05
Nicaragua	6150035		24	0.39		10	0.16		5	0.08		3.00	0.05
Macedonia	2081012		98	4.71		39	1.87		3	0.14		1.00	0.05
Venezuela	31518855		384	1.22		150	0.48		20	0.06		15.00	0.05
Albania	2896679		10	0.35		4	0.14		3	0.10		1.00	0.03
Mongolia	3006444		6	0.20		4	0.13		1	0.03		1.00	0.03
Malaysia	30751602		574	1.87		115	0.37		17	0.06		10.00	0.03
Republic of Korea	50503933		227	0.45		75	0.15		27	0.05		16.00	0.03
Syria	18563595		31	0.17		14	0.08		6	0.03		5.00	0.03
Turkey	79622062		488	0.61		128	0.16		30	0.04		21.00	0.03
Panama	3990406		71	1.78		15	0.38		2	0.05		1.00	0.03
United Arab Emirates	9266971		25	0.27		5	0.05		2	0.02		2.00	0.02
Tunisia	11375220		23	0.20		13	0.11		3	0.03		2.00	0.02
Kyrgyzstan	6033769		7	0.12		3	0.05		1	0.02		1.00	0.02
El Salvador	6146419		137	2.23		34	0.55		3	0.05		1.00	0.02
South Africa	54978907		194	0.35		70	0.13		14	0.03		8.00	0.01
Lao PDR	6918367		5	0.07		1	0.01		1	0.01		1.00	0.01
Nepal	28850717		22	0.08		12	0.04		4	0.01		3.00	0.01
Azerbaijan	9868447		8	0.08		6	0.06		1	0.01		1.00	0.01
Dominican Republic	10648613		30	0.28		9	0.08		1	0.01		1.00	0.01
Saudi Arabia	32157974		12	0.04		7	0.02		3	0.01		3.00	0.01
Indonesia	260581100		1548	0.59		551	0.21		33	0.01		24.00	0.01
Cuba	11392889		78	0.68		21	0.18		1	0.01		1.00	0.01
Iraq	37547686		9	0.02		6	0.02		4	0.01		3.00	0.01
Iran	80043146		71	0.09		44	0.05		10	0.01		6.00	0.01
Philippines	102250133		240	0.23		67	0.07		8	0.01		7.00	0.01
Egypt	93383574		33	0.04		20	0.02		9	0.01		6.00	0.01
Guatemala	16672956		134	0.80		41	0.25		1	0.01		1.00	0.01
Thailand	68146609		168	0.25		47	0.07		7	0.01		4.00	0.01
Kazakhstan	17855384		49	0.27		22	0.12		1	0.01		1.00	0.01
Sri Lanka	20810816		33	0.16		5	0.02		4	0.02		1.00	0.00
Bangladesh	162910864		64	0.04		27	0.02		15	0.01		5.00	0.00
Algeria	40375954		23	0.06		6	0.01		2	0.00		1.00	0.00
Kenya	47251449		4	0.01		1	0.00		2	0.00		1.00	0.00
China	1382323332		283	0.02		127	0.01		40	0.00		26.00	0.00
Pakistan	192826502		49	0.03		10	0.01		5	0.00		3.00	0.00
India	1326801579		185	0.01		61	0.00		14	0.00		8.00	0.00
Monaco	37863		6	15.85		1	2.64		2	5.28		0	0.00
Barbados	285006		2	0.70		0	0.00		1	0.35		0	0.00
Belize	366942		6	1.64		3	0.82		1	0.27		0	0.00
Jamaica	2803362		1	0.04		0	0.00		1	0.04		0	0.00
Oman	4654471		2	0.04		1	0.02		1	0.02		0	0.00
Morocco	34817065		22	0.06		7	0.02		1	0.00		0	0.00
Svalbard	2667		2	74.99		1	37.50		0	0.00		0	0.00
Guernsey	63026		13	20.63		8	12.69		0	0.00		0	0.00
Greenland	56196		5	8.90		3	5.34		0	0.00		0	0.00
San Marino	31950		2	6.26		1	3.13		0	0.00		0	0.00
Maldives	369812		8	2.16		5	1.35		0	0.00		0	0.00
New Caledonia	266431		6	2.25		2	0.75		0	0.00		0	0.00
Brunei Darussalam	428874		20	4.66		3	0.70		0	0.00		0	0.00
Montenegro	626101		10	1.60		4	0.64		0	0.00		0	0.00
Suriname	547610		2	0.37		2	0.37		0	0.00		0	0.00
Moldova	4062862		31	0.76		13	0.32		0	0.00		0	0.00
Honduras	8189501		44	0.54		23	0.28		0	0.00		0	0.00
Trinidad and Tobago	1364973		7	0.51		2	0.15		0	0.00		0	0.00
Kuwait	4007146		6	0.15		5	0.12		0	0.00		0	0.00
Turkmenistan	5438670		3	0.06		2	0.04		0	0.00		0	0.00
Madagascar	24915822		9	0.04		5	0.02		0	0.00		0	0.00
Uzbekistan	30300446		7	0.02		5	0.02		0	0.00		0	0.00
Tajikistan	8669464		5	0.06		1	0.01		0	0.00		0	0.00
Vietnam	94444200		39	0.04		7	0.01		0	0.00		0	0.00
Qatar	22913668		2	0.01		1	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
Angola	25830958		3	0.01		1	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
Afghanistan	33369945		1	0.00		1	0.00		0	0		0	0.00
Uganda	40322768		2	0.00		1	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
Guam	172094		5	2.91		0	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
Isle of Man	88421		2	2.26		0	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
Aruba	104263		1	0.96		0	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
French Polynesia	275688		1	0.36		0	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
Guyana	770910		2	0.26		0	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
Namibia	2513981		2	0.08		0	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
Libya	6330159		3	0.05		0	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
Cambodia	15827241		2	0.01		0	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
Mozambique	28751362		2	0.01		0	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
Zambia	16717332		1	0.01		0	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
Myanmar	54363426		3	0.01		0	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
Ethiopia	101853268		1	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00
Gibraltar	0		4	0.00		2	0.00		1	0.00		1.00	0.00
Jersey	0		5	0.00		4	0.00		2	0.00		2.00	0.00
Unknown	0		48	0.00		14	0.00		11	0.00		4.00	0.00
International	0		611	0.00		298	0.00		173	0.00		113.00	0.00
Reunion	0		6	0.00		3	0.00		0	0.00		0	0.00