Do you have any quantitative methods for ranking the artists you like or listen to?

[sjpolyguy]

I wrote a little bit about this when I added my favorite artist entry.

I have wrestled with this problem for a while.  I have rated all of the songs I own by most of the artists I love.  I'm working on rating all of my songs.  I have them in a spreadsheet so it's easy for me to come up with quantitative values for each artist that I can use in my ranking, but I'm not satisfied with the results yet.

If an artist has put out more music than another artist they will probably have more favorite songs in their catalog.  If the artist doesn't experiment and try different styles or sounds then I might like more of their work but might get tired of them later.  On the other hand if an artist does experiment they might have more work in their catalog that I didn't like even if they have a lot that I do like.  That would bring down their average.

Of course the issue might be that I think too much and I'm making this more difficult than it needs to be.  Maybe my favorite artist at any given time is the one that I feel like listening to.

All thoughts and feedback welcome.  Thanks!

[CRAZY-HORSE]

stop analysing mate...
slip in a disc, put on the cans, turn up the volume and simply enjoy!!

but yes, I get where youre coming from, I always used to try to work out a scoring system for albums and Music Head had a simple one which I adopted and frequently use on the forum

[Ruby]

No Guru, No Method, No Teacher ... 

I never rank anything - don't have the inclination or the time, and in any case, I sometimes change my mind. As we do. 

I just listen to whatever I'm in the mood for, mostly.