Outside of making music, I also do a ton of work related to the intersection of music and data. Much of this work occurs in my capacity as a senior product manager at the streaming service Audiomack, but I also do a good deal of writing on the side. Check out some of it below.

Books

  • Can’t Get Much Higher: I’m working on a data-driven history of popular music that chronicles how I listened to every Billboard Hot 100 number one hit over the last few years. I am still search for an agent and publisher. Check out the first chapter here.

Articles

  • Can’t Get Much Higher: Subscribe to my Substack! Each week I write for thousands of subscribers about the intersection of music and data, along with recommending both a new and old song. Weekly

  • Jackie Gleason: I hopped on the newsletter Flow State to talk about the unexpected musical career of comedian Jackie Gleason. Flow State - Sep. 2024

  • Meet My Daughter, Cardeigh Cobain: Explored how pop culture has come to influence the naming of children over the last century. Significance (Royal Statistical Society) - Jul. 2024

  • Why do the Japanese love CDs?: I investigated why people in Japan continue to buy CDs while the rest of the world has transitioned to streaming. The Economist - Apr. 2024

  • Big European Countries are Winners in the Latest ‘Glocalisation’ Trends: Will Page and I updated the data for our London School of Economics project that was published in May 2023 with data from the latest year. Music Business Worldwide - Mar. 2024

  • What Makes an Album the Greatest of All Time: We looked at Rolling Stone magazine’s ranking of the top 500 albums in 2003, 2012, and 2020 to understand what shapes our conception of the past and how that conception changes over time. The Pudding - Mar. 2024

  • A Deep Dive Into Bob Dylan Setlist Data: I downloaded Bob Dylan’s entire live setlist history to uncover trends with one of the internet’s most popular Bob Dylan publications. Flagging Down the Double E’s - Dec. 2023

  • Copyright law is living in the past: There is a strange quirk in copyright law where you need the original writer’s permission to sample a song but not to cover it. I wrote about why this absurd and how we can change it. Slow Boring - Dec. 2023

  • Sweet little lies: Deceptive statistics in the album charts: The history of music charts is filled with deception. Some of that is outright fraud. Some of it is just a statistical misunderstanding. In this piece, I explore why it is so hard to make an album chart. Significance (Royal Statistical Society) - Aug. 2023

  • This is how rare it is for a hit song to be credited to an all-women songwriting team: I looked at every top 5 hit from 1958-2022 with The Pudding and found that women never get the opportunity to write songs. When they do, they often have to perform the songs themselves. Furthermore, men almost never perform them. The Pudding - Jul. 2023

  • The rise of political nepo babies: In a rare piece of non-musical reporting, I used data from Wikipedia to track the rise of nepotism in Congress. Insider - Jul. 2023

  • How We Will Recommend Music Tomorrow?: I speculated on how music recommendation algorithms might work in the coming decades and the legal and ethical issues that might arise from the underlying technology. Auto-Tune - Jun. 2023

  • There is One Feature That is Killing Your Enjoyment of Music: We often forget that silence is important to the listening experience. In this essay, I explore how you can optimize your digital listening experience, so you have time to digest your favorite artists and albums. eCoustics - Jun. 2023

  • How Long Must We Sing This Song?: It’s well documented that the average song is getting shorter in the streaming age. In this piece, I outline how that that effect differs widely by genre. Audiomack World - Jun. 2023

  • ‘Glocalisation’ of Music Streaming within and across Europe: I worked with Will Page, the former Chief Economist of Spotify, on a paper for the London School of Economics that explored how music streaming is enabling local/regional artists to have more success in their home countries. London School of Economics - May 2023

  • She’s A Runner, She’s A Track Star: Using data from Audiomack, I explore where the most popular songs typically fall on albums. Audiomack World - May 2023

  • the Balkans: I wrote about the Balkan rapper Elai for Songletter, a song recommendation newsletter. Songletter - May 2023

  • Are you about a size 14?: I’ve always found it odd that “American Girl” closes Tom Petty’s debut record. It’s a wonderful song, but a terrible closer. The Run Out the Grooves - May 2023

  • The Decline and Fall of the Hit Instrumental Song: In this piece, I explore how over the course of 100 years American music went from nearly all pop stars being instrumentalists to all pop starts being vocalists. The Honest Broker - Apr. 2023

  • The Magic Number: Using data from Audiomack, I investigate how using different statistics can lead to dramatic shifts in album charts. Audiomack World - Mar. 2023

  • Level Up, Level Up, Level Up: I showed artists how they can use their Audiomack creator stats to better connect with their fans. Audiomack World - Feb. 2023

  • One Song, Many Writers: In August 2022, songwriter Diane Warren asked how there were 24 songwriters on a song by Beyonce. I took a look into this dramatic shift in how this is possible. Hint: It’s not that songwriters are less talented. Tedium - Feb. 2023

  • Max Martin knows how to make a hit: While he was receiving the Polar Music Prize, famed songwriter Max Martin that since his youth song introductions have become shorter. I investigated this claim with The Economist. The Economist - Feb. 2023

  • It’s Time to Get Phonky: Using playlist data from Audiomack, I tracked the rise of the electronic subgenre phonk. Audiomack World - Jan. 2023

  • The Death of the Key Change: This is about the changes we’ve seen in harmony over the last few decades. It went wildly viral on the internet, was covered by a variety of outlets, and led to me being featured on NPR. Tedium - Nov. 2022

Press

Audio

  • Stats + Stories: Appeared on a podcast to discuss my piece about how popular culture influences baby names.

  • The Economist: Audio companion for my piece for The Economist about CD sales in Japan.

  • One Hit Thunder: Talked with Chris Falios of the band Punchline to discuss one of my favorite one hit wonders, “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles. May 2023

  • Switched on Pop: Joined Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding on their popular podcast to help uncover why so few contemporary songs utilize key changes. This episode was based on the earlier writing that I had published on Tedium. Apr. 2023

  • Plain English: Guested on Derek Thompson’s popular podcast Plain English. The podcast takes an in depth look at contemporary news. We reviewed some of my recent research. Feb. 2023

  • The Intelligence: Discussed the research I conducted with The Economist on their daily podcast. Feb. 2023

  • NPR: Featured on a short segment on NPR’s All Things Considered to discuss my piece about the death of the key change. Nov. 2022

Image/Video

  • TikTok: I post regularly on TikTok to hundreds of thousands of followers about music and data. Weekly

  • Fox 5 News: I weighed in on the cover band craze on Long Island. Jun. 2023

  • The Economist: With The Economist’s video team, I turned my earlier piece for them about how pop song introductions have become shorter in a short film on the same topic. Apr. 2023

  • Rick Beato: Popular YouTuber Rick Beato made a video about the internet debate I ignited about the death of the key change. Dec. 2022

  • The Pudding: Created a short Instagram series with the data-driven publication The Pudding about how popular songs are “shrinking”. Aug. 2022