MusicTrends.net FAQs
Answers to common questions about MusicTrends, imports, updates, genres, and feedback.
So… what is MusicTrends?
MusicTrends is something I’ve wanted to build for a while to get better insight into my own music listening habits. While sites like Last.fm and ListenBrainz provide charts and analysis, they never quite gave me what I was looking for.
I wanted to see when I discovered an artist, or when a particular track really scratched an itch. I wanted to see when I went through my electronic phase (which happened to line up with doing a lot of distance running and appreciating those steady beats), or when my listening suddenly threw me back into my teenage angst.
Basically, I wanted to slice and dice my listening history in more ways—and start combining it with other data—to find patterns and insights I wouldn't necessarily notice on my own.
So I built MusicTrends.
I'm sharing it because I figure I'm probably not the only person who's curious about this stuff. I already have plenty of ideas for where I want to take it, but I'm also interested in seeing what other people discover and what ideas they have for making MusicTrends more interesting along the way.
I just signed up, but I can’t view my data yet. Why?
MusicTrends does quite a bit of analysis behind the scenes, so it can take some time to gather and process your listening history—especially if you have a lot of it.
We collect and process data while respecting rate limits and other guidelines from the services we integrate with, and some of the initial setup may involve processing fairly large amounts of data. Because of that, it can sometimes take up to 24 hours for your data to start appearing.
Once that initial work is done, updates should happen much more quickly.
Why isn’t the song I just listened to showing up yet?
MusicTrends isn’t intended to be a real-time listening tracker. It’s more interested in the bigger picture: how your listening habits change over time, what you’re discovering, what you keep coming back to, and the occasional interesting outlier.
Your listening data is updated at least once a day, with some updates happening more frequently. So if you just listened to something and don’t see it yet, give it a little time—it should make its way in.
Why do I see so many “Unknown” genres?
Genre information usually isn’t included directly with your listening history, so MusicTrends has to do some extra work to figure it out.
That analysis happens separately from importing your listening data and is processed in batches. If you’re seeing a lot of “Unknown” genres—especially after first signing up—it usually just means that process hasn’t caught up yet.
And, of course, some artists and tracks stubbornly refuse to fit neatly into a genre. We respect their independence.
What if I want to report an error or suggest a new feature?
MusicTrends is a hobby and passion project, so there isn’t a support department hiding behind the curtain. It’s mostly just one developer building things, fixing things, and occasionally wondering why something that worked yesterday has stopped working today.
If you find a bug, have an idea for a feature, or just want to share some feedback, reach out to Greg Nilsen on Mastodon (@GregNilsen@mastodon.gregnilsen.com) or Bluesky (@gregnilsen.bsky.social).