Wud Records: 20 Most Played Tracks of 2023

Posted in News on 15/01/2024

20 Most Played Tracks of 2023

We thought it might be fun to make two playlists of the 20 most played tracks of 2023, one each for SoundCloud and Bandcamp. We felt that such playlists would enable fans of our bands to hear what has been hot and to have the opportunity to enjoy listening to some of our most popular tracks of recent times.

SoundCloud

Wud Records had a moderate year on SoundCloud. Streaming activity was slightly down on 2022. We gained around 300 new followers overall, ending the year with just over 3750 followers. It is very pleasing that more new fans across the world are discovering and enjoying the great music made by our amazing artists.

Making a SoundCloud playlist of the tracks that were popular there is easily done. To listen to the 20 Most Played Tracks of 2023 playlist at the SoundCloud website, simply click here to open that page in a new tab.

The 20 Most Played Tracks of 2023 was dominated by The Bastard Sons of Dennis. They enjoyed having ten of the top twenty songs. Nine of those ten songs are from their Cosy Lube Turtle album. The only song from there to miss out was Before the Kiss a Redcap. One song from their Cherry Smoke Empire album completes the ten.

Last year’s most streamed song, Astronomy, has been at the top of our monthly charts for an amazing nine months by now. The only month in which it was not at the top of our charts in 2023 was March, when it dropped to number two to make way for Short and Sweet by The Subterraineans.

Appearing alongside our dynamic duo and The Subterraineans in 2023 we see Flicker, Dark Company, Alchemeon and Rough Terrain. This means that the three active bands we have on SoundCloud are all represented, as is the most recently retired legacy act.

A band whose Demo EP was remasterd and re-released in 2023 regained a surge of popularity throughout the year. Short and Sweet by The Subterraineans was our second most streamed track on SoundCloud and our most streamed on Bandcamp. It’s a truly extraordinary creation from the beautiful and unique mind of Dean Trotter. Rest in peace, old friend.

All four of the Flicker tracks are wonderful instrumentals from their much-loved album At Least 1000 Words. We managed to remaster and re-release this fantastic album in 2023 following our long awaited control room upgrade.

The most streamed track at SoundCloud in 2022, Oily Road Hideaway by Flicker, was also the most streamed SoundCloud track in 2020. In 2023 it dropped down to number four.

We are working on more tracks for Flicker’s second album, HappySad, and hope to bring some of them to you before long.

Dark Company achieved two of the top twenty songs, with both of them coming from their forthcoming Alien Heat album.

Alchemeon managed to have two of the top 20 most played songs of 2023. Both are from their splendid Live in Session Spring 2009 recording.

That leaves a solitary Rough Terrain song, and a rather surprising one at that, to round out the year’s chart.

It is worth noting that these are only the most streamed tracks at SoundCloud, rather than the most popular. The total amounts of likes, reposts and comments have been ignored. Taking these other factors into consideration would inevitably yield different results.

Top 20 Most Played SoundCloud Tracks 2023

Bandcamp

It’s been a reasonable year for Wud Records on Bandcamp. Sales and streams were fairly even across the whole year, with The Subterraineans, Laughing Sun, Flicker and The Bastard Sons of Dennis all enjoying spikes in sales soon after their albums were released to Bandcamp, or in the two latter cases, re-released.

Bandcamp is the platform with the best ethos in the business. If you are not a member yet, it’s time to join.

One of the great features of Bandcamp is its Communities. You can join ours by clicking here. ;-)

Overall in 2023, both our streams and sales were down very slightly compared to 2022. The best-selling album was Dark Company‘s Rage in Heaven, and the best selling individual track (but it was a very close call!) was Moonpath from Flicker‘s At Least 1000 Words album.

The 2023 chart of most streamed tracks on Bandcamp sees a good spread of different artists, with no particular act claiming domination for the year’s Bandcamp streams.

Over at Bandcamp it is not so easy to make a simple playlist of our popular tracks yet. Instead, what we have done is created some sort of playlist here, within this very news post, for your listening pleasure. Simply clicking on the links below will allow you to play the various tracks.