How can I track detailed analytics for my iTunes Library?

Is there a way to view an "iTunes Analytics Dashboard" or some type of plugin that would have similar capabilities?

There's all this really good data locked up in iTunes, from Play Counts to Ratings to Last Played Date, etc... but I'd like a beautiful interface to view detailed charts and graphs that break things down simply yet informatively.

This could hypothetically be marketed as "Personal Media Collection Analytics Software" going above and beyond what conventional media player software currently offers.

Sample capabilities: - proportion of 5-star tracks vs. 3-star tracks - which month do I listen to genre X or artist Y the most - at what hour of the day do I prefer songs with BPM > X - etc...

Solution 1:

Last.fm and its API opened to developers gave birth to some nice web applications. Of course, you must have an account (free) and scrobble your songs to benefit from them.

Two of them related to analytics (I'm not a specialist, I guess there must be other ones) : http://www.mymusichabits.com/visualize/cosmokraymer http://lastgraph.aeracode.org/user/cosmokraymer/

The latter enables you to generate visually impressive timelines of your listening habits ...

... and play history for each of your artists

Solution 2:

I don't know of anything that will do all of what you want, but there is this app that will give you some stats on your library.

Solution 3:

I use Super Analyzer, a handy Java app that scans your "iTunes Library.xml" file. Get it here