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How Long Is Your Tail?

The long and short tail are the percentage of the total amount of tracks played that fall outside and respectivly inside the cummulative tracks played for the top-n rated artists. The short tail is exactly the oposite.
If that's to much to grasp at once: To calculate the Long Tail you take a user's Top50. Calculate the sum of all the playcounts in there. Then divide it by the total amount of tracks played as listed in the user description area. Multiply it by a hundred to get a percentage. Substract it from a hundred to get the short tail. Based on a idea by itazurada.
AEP is the is the brainchild of C26000, he wrote a nice journal about AEP calculation.

Calculate Yours

Use this form to calculate your Long Tails, Short Tails and AEP's.

Last.fm username:


pcmadman has a 46.1% long tail.

This also means the short tail is 53.9%
His ALT (Average LongTail) is 65.87%

You can also include this as a image anywhere you like.
This might look something like:
My short and long tail are:

Use this BBCode:

And while I was on it anyway, I calculated a full list of tail lengths and AEP's for all the top50 positions:
Rank: Artist: Plays: Top: Longtail: Shorttail: Average LongTail: AEP:
1Daft Punk1012197.6%2.4%97.6%5
2Ladytron931295.5%4.5%96.55%3.96
3The Prodigy887393.4%6.6%95.5%3.9
4Vive la Fête883491.3%8.7%94.45%4.13
5Air802589.5%10.5%93.46%3.84
6Moby767687.7%12.3%92.5%3.84
7Underworld747785.9%14.1%91.56%3.9
8Fischerspooner740884.2%15.8%90.64%4
9Felix da Housecat716982.5%17.5%89.73%4.01
10Coldplay7151080.9%19.1%88.85%4.09
11Motor5971179.5%20.5%88%3.82
12Maria Mena5561278.2%21.8%87.18%3.78
13Faithless5431376.9%23.1%86.39%3.82
14Justice5421475.6%24.4%85.62%3.87
15Razorlight5301574.4%25.6%84.87%3.9
16The Chemical Brothers5131673.2%26.8%84.14%3.91
17Richie Hawtin4961772%28%83.43%3.92
18Nouvelle Vague4911870.9%29.1%82.73%3.96
19Katie Melua4891969.7%30.3%82.05%3.99
20Dido4642068.7%31.3%81.38%3.98
21Jack Johnson4562167.6%32.4%80.72%4
22Miss Kittin4492266.5%33.5%80.08%4.02
23Peaches4342365.5%34.5%79.44%4.02
24St. Germain4262464.5%35.5%78.82%4.04
25Mylo4102563.6%36.4%78.21%4.04
26Norah Jones4092662.6%37.4%77.61%4.06
27Röyksopp3882761.7%38.3%77.02%4.05
28The Knife3812860.8%39.2%76.44%4.06
28The Beatles3812959.9%40.1%75.87%4.08
30Lo-Fi-Fnk3703059.1%40.9%75.31%4.08
31Kings of Convenience3593158.2%41.8%74.76%4.09
32Vitalic3553257.4%42.6%74.22%4.1
33Alter Ego3403356.6%43.4%73.68%4.1
34Bauer3223455.9%44.1%73.16%4.09
35Ghinzu3113555.1%44.9%72.65%4.09
36Uffie3033654.4%45.6%72.14%4.09
37Simian Mobile Disco2993753.7%46.3%71.64%4.1
38Modeselektor2923853%47%71.15%4.1
38Joss Stone2923952.4%47.6%70.67%4.12
40Digitalism2694051.7%48.3%70.19%4.1
41Boys Noize2614151.1%48.9%69.73%4.1
42IAMX2564250.5%49.5%69.27%4.11
43Patrick Wolf2534349.9%50.1%68.82%4.11
44Booka Shade2444449.4%50.6%68.38%4.11
45Electrocute2424548.8%51.2%67.94%4.12
46ADULT.2384648.2%51.8%67.52%4.13
47Audio Bullys2354747.7%52.3%67.09%4.13
48Tiga2344847.2%52.8%66.68%4.14
49Emilíana Torrini2294946.6%53.4%66.27%4.14
50Aphex Twin2185046.1%53.9%65.87%4.14

Created by Paul Cornelissen (pcmadman)
Visit pcmadman's last.fm profile or contact him at pcornelissen -at- gmail.com
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