Earlier this week, a map showing every state’s favorite artist virally circulated around the ol’ Internet. Here it is:

The map was created from the listener data of any streaming service operated by The Echo Nest, through some mathematical calculatings outlined on this blog. Every artist was ranked based on stream data, and those ranks were calculated for both individual states and for the nation as a whole. Whichever artist had the largest differential between state and nation, that’s who appears on this map.

For example: In Vermont, Phish is ranked #5. In the US, Phish is unfortunately ranked at #353 (America: listen to more Phish). Thus, Phish is the chosen band for VT.

The one caveat: if an artist appears on a more populous state, that that artist can no longer appear on a less populous state. By this approach, the statistical anaylsis can weed out regional differences along the way, and avoid repeats.

But, this approach left people yearning for more. Thus, the featured photograph, which I will copy again below for your convenience, shows the #1 artist in each state:

As you can see, basically the entire Eastern half of the United States is listening to Jay-Z constantly.

Commenting on the different approaches, The Music Machinery blog explained with the following statement: “This map shows the most played artist in each state over the last year. It is interesting to see the regional differences in favorite artists and how just a handful of artists dominates the listening of wide areas of the country.”

So, as it turns out, the entire state of New York isn’t only listening to James Blake.

-David Melamed (@DMelamz)