The purpose and content

Originally I created this part of my site with the sole intention to present my record collection. I added the artists, the records, the songs, and soon thereafter I started working on a rating system, that would adequately show how I ranked the albums - no mean feat considering that it meant trying to create a system with which I would get a fair comparison between artists as diverse as Frank Sinatra, Death, David Bowie, Enya and Opeth.

As I added the records I owned I realised just how fun it was to have a way to rate and compare albums, so I started to add albums that I thought might be of interest to me - possible future purchases if you will. Then I complemented the discographies of many of the artists in the database. Eventually I arrived where I am today: I'm adding music which I find to be interesting, lately mostly artists whose work are considered to be "musically important" for some reason. The result? Within this database you will find my favourite artists (Yes, Clannad, Kate Bush and David Bowie for instance) side by side with interesting musical innovateurs (like The Beatles and Opeth) along with hopelessly overrated, at best mediocre artists (The Rolling Stones and Kiss being the worst examples).

The database currently contains 3238 albums and 32949 songs.

The focus here is on original albums, not artists or songs. I have consistently excluded bonus tracks, which often are included on rereleased (or remastered) albums. The album rating is based on the song ratings, which weigh differently depending on their respective playing time (thus a 20 minute song weighs more than a 2 minute song). The artist ratings are then based on the album ratings, with the highest rated albums outweighing lower rated ones, as I think that artists should be judged from their top performances.

Current priorities

Preliminary ratings of all albums: currently at 94.97 %.

Finalised ratings of owned albums: currently at 46.20 %.

• signifies albums in my collection
• signifies albums on my wishlist

The album ratings

There are three different stages of album ratings:

Red: preliminary ratings.

Blue: rating is in progress/awaiting final rating.

Green: finalised rating.

For a finalised album rating (as of May 2012; updated May 2013) the following rules apply:

The album has to have a preliminary rating.

It has to be listened to and rated once (and only once) on day one.

Within no more than five days after the above the album has to be listened to and rated twice on the same day, the first of these times more intently and with lyrics (if applicable and available).

At least 14 but no more than 42 days after the above the album has to be listened to and rated a final time.

This means that an album with a finalised rating has been listened to and rated at least five times. If the rating process isn't carried out according to the rules above (for example if the time limits have been breached), it has to start again from the beginning.

Although the new guidelines render the old ratings obsolete, I don't think that most of the new album ratings will differ that much from the old ones, since I know and have listened to many of the albums for a long time. I do however intend to subject all albums, well known as well as lesser known, to the same treatment.

The album ratings are subject to change even after I've gone through the process described above. The purpose of the rules above is to limit the fluctuation of the ratings over time.

These ratings are of course a subjective (everything is; if somebody claims to be objective: be very suspicious!) presentation of how much I enjoy listening to the albums. I do not take any real or perceived historical value into consideration.