Welcome to Coldplay in Technicolor.

I've spent the last few weeks immersed in more than 17,000 Coldplay-related data points.

I wish I could say it is because I'm somehow employed by their record label and am gathering insights — but really it's because I've been a Coldplayer for half of my life and every time I learn new things, I apply it to my favorite artist*. I recently took a Data Analysis course and I decided to look at 20 years' of Coldplay live performances for my final project.

That's why this week, as Coldplay kicks off the second leg of the A Head Full of Dreams tour in North America, I will kick off a Coldplay data analysis series. Every week for 10 weeks I'll share an analysis on different themes and aspects of Coldplay's 20 year trajectory.

The data

The bulk of the data was gathered from setlist.fm. It contains details from every concert Coldplay has ever performed, from their busking days in London, to the latest European dates. It does not include the upcoming scheduled concerts in North and South America.

I've also added manual data points around Coldplay's discography — including singles, EPs, live albums and b-sides — and eras.

Therefor, this analysis will focus on Coldplay's live performances, not albums sold, awards won or love stories soundtracked.

The series

Every week, for the next 10 weeks, I will write an analysis based on the data. They'll be grouped by themes. This is my current plan for the few weeks:

1. The Overview: 20 years of Coldplay
   Overview of all tours. Total number of songs, concerts, places, etc.
2. The Eras
   When and where each era started and ended. Length and number of concerts.
3. The Albums
   Most popular albums over time, popular albums per tour, etc.
4. The Songs
   Most popular songs, popular songs from each album, popular songs per tour, etc.
5. The B-sides
   Most popular b-sides, tours with most b-sides played, etc.
6. The cities and the countries
   Total of countries and cities, cities and countries per tour, popular cities and venues, etc.
7. The Setlists
   Average setlist sizes, setlist size per tour, setlist order and structure, etc.
8. Covers and collaborations
   Most popular songs covered, popular artists covered, popular collaborations, etc.
9. ???
   Any requests?
10. Summary and misc

Let me know if there is anything else you'd like to see that I'm missing — any other analysis, numbers or correlations — and I'll add it to the list.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading this as much as I’ve enjoyed looking through this data.

*Other examples of Coldplay-related projects include the first Coldplay fansite from my country (to which I learned PHP and other dynamic webdesign tools and systems) and my undergraduate thesis about how artists use social media do engage with their fans (Coldplay was my object of study)