How it works

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What is BestEverAlbums.com?
BestEverAlbums.com is a website that aggregates over 1,800 different greatest album charts to provide an easy way for visitors to look up and find out the greatest albums in history.

Where can I find the overall rankings?
The greatest albums of all time as ranked by BestEverAlbums.com are listed on the Overall Chart page.

In addition, if you want to see how the overall chart has changed over a period of time, you can view the chart as it would have looked on a previous date and see how many places an album has moved.

I'm thinking about registering. What are the benefits?
Members can create their own greatest album chart using the My Chart functionality. They can also participate in the forums, make comments on the various album, band and chart pages; and assign ratings. The ratings are displayed throughout the site and are a good indication of whether the greatest music albums in history can still hold their own. Tables showing the top-rated tracks, albums, bands and charts are shown in the statistics section of this site.

Registered members can also add albums, bands and charts to their favourites and this is a great feature for discovering other great music albums from people who have similar tastes to your own.

Another feature that members can take advantage of is the ability to monitor or track the albums that you have listened to (or that are in your collection). If you spot an album that you'd like to purchase, you can add it to your wish list. When you are ready to buy it, BestEverAlbums.com will then provide you with real-time availability and prices from a range of music stores allowing you to choose the lowest price. In addition to all of the above, you will become part of a community of well over 8,400 members.

How big is this website? 
To give you an idea, we currently have over 8,400 members who have submitted 1,800 charts. From the 9,000 albums submitted to these charts there are 110,000 tracks, and 4,300 bands. In addition, members have submitted 150,000 ratings and 13,000 comments.

How are the albums ranked?
The overall rank of each album is determined by calculating the aggregate position of each album from over 1,800 different greatest album charts. In theory, the more greatest album charts that a music album has appeared in and the higher it's rank score, the better an album will be.

What is the 'rank score'?
An album or band's rank score is BestEverAlbums.com's own measure of how important an album or band is in the all-time rankings. The rank score gives percentile points based on an album's position within a greatest albums chart and the points are evenly distributed regardless of chart size. The formula used on this site does not penalise albums on smaller lists and a top-ranked album will always get 100 points. The rank score is listed as a reference statistic on the individual album and band pages as well as on the statistics pages.

I don't like the way the albums are ranked - is there any way to customise this?
You are able to customise the overall chart to your own tastes by using a series of user-definable filters including nationality and year of release. You can also choose whether to include or exclude member charts.

I'm not interested in albums, I'm more interested in songs
It kind of follows that some of the best music ever written also appears on the best albums. A 'track pick' is a top-rated track appearing on one of the best albums in history as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members. For each album, the top-rated tracks are highlighted and denoted with a 'track pick' symbol.

The top-rated tracks on the best albums in history, as voted by BestEverAlbums.com members, are listed in the statistics section of the site.

Am I able to view any of the 1,800 individual charts which make up the overall rankings?
You can view any of the 'Greatest Ever Album' charts individually from the The Charts page. This section of the site also allows you to view any of the member charts submitted via the My Chart page. You are able to subscribe to any of the charts via RSS feeds, or (for members only) export a chart to a CSV file.

I don't agree with any of the charts, can I submit my own?
Yes, we encourage you to do so! The My Chart functionality allows registered members to create and share their own greatest ever album charts with the community. No more listening to what other people say, this is your chance to have your say! Your chart will appear on the site and form part of the overall aggregate album rankings. Once the chart has been added to the website, it gets automatically cross-referenced with all of the other charts on the site making it easy for you to see who else has chosen the same albums.

I want to monitor or track which albums I own, or have listened to
For registered members, we display a 'collector's summary' within each chart so that you can track the albums that you have listened to, or that you have in your collection. If you spot an album that you'd like to purchase, you can add it to your wish list.

I want to buy the albums (or tracks), can I buy them from you?
BestEverAlbums.com provides a price comparison service which searches iTunes, eBay and Amazon for music CDs and MP3 downloads and then dispays real-time pricing and availability so that you can buy from your favourite store.

I'm interested in seeing how my favourite band is doing in the overall rankings - can I do this?
Try using the Search page, or browse a list of artists on this site using the A to Z index. In addition, the top-ranked bands pages show the bands that feature most frequently in the greatest album charts and it's a great feature for those people that are interested in discovering the greatest music albums in history.

If your favourite album or band isn't listed on this site, it means nobody has yet included it in a chart. If you think an album or band should be on this site, you can always add it into your own greatest album chart using the My Chart page!

Where can I see the greatest albums in a particular year or decade?
You are able to view the rankings for every year or decade since 1938 from the year and decade section of the site. For example, from here you may view the best albums of 2010, or the best albums of the 2000s.

Isn't this just a popularity contest? Where can I see the *top-rated* albums?
You can view the top-rated albums as voted for by BestEverAlbums.com members from the top member-rated section of the site. From this section of the site, you are also able to view the top-rated tracks, bands and charts.

How is the average rating calculated? 
The average rating is not a simple arithmetic mean, instead it is calculated using a Bayesian average:
Average Rating = (n / (n + m)) x av + (m / (n + m)) x AV

where:
av = mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

A Bayesian average helps to stop items with only a few high ratings from being ranked too high in the charts. It also helps to dampen the effects of a few bad ratings on the overall average.

I have a suggestion to improve this website
If you have an idea that could help improve the site, please let us know in the suggestions forum.