Who is the Center of the Music Universe?

Hopefully, you've played around a bit with Six Degrees of Vince Gill and discovered how few steps are necessary to link just about anybody who has ever released a record to Vince Gill, but could there be some performer who is even closer to the center of the music universe? The answer turns out to be: yes.

By processing all of the 2.6 million people in the MusicBrainz Database I discovered that there are currently 810 people who are better centers than Vince Gill! What does it mean for one person to be a "better" center than another? Consider the following breakdown of people by Vince Gill Number (as of July 12, 2025):

Vince Gill Number# of people
0 1
1 1571
2 125937
3 604567
4 450482
5 147190
6 35612
7 8198
8 1927
9 555
10 129
11 36
12 6

That means that there is 1 person who can be linked in 0 steps (Gill himself), 1571 people who can be linked in 1 step, 125937 people who can be linked in 2 steps, etc. So we can compute the average Vince Gill Number as follows:

0 · 1 + 1 · 1571 + 2 · 125937 + 3 · 604567 + 4 · 450482 + 5 · 147190 + 6 · 35612 + 7 · 8198 + 8 · 1927 + 9 · 555 + 10 · 129 + 11 · 36 + 12 · 6 1 + 1571 + 125937 + 604567 + 450482 + 147190 + 35612 + 8198 + 1927 + 555 + 129 + 36 + 6 = 4898251 1376211 = 3.559

So the average Vince Gill Number is about 3.559. We can compare that with the average Dylan Number for Bob Dylan. The breakdown is as follows (as of July 12, 2025):

Bob Dylan Number# of people
0 1
1 7735
2 278870
3 640373
4 329768
5 91604
6 21186
7 4970
8 1245
9 338
10 85
11 32
12 4

By computing the average of these numbers we see that the average Dylan Number is about 3.226 making Dylan a better center than Vince Gill. This is not to denigrate Mr. Gill, and it should be noted that being the 811st best center out of 2.6 million people makes Vince Gill a better center than 99% of the people who have ever appeared in a feature film. A list of the 1000 best centers in the music universe is available for your enjoyment.

Is there a "worst" center (or most obscure performer) in the music universe? Of course. I won't tell you the name of the person who produces the highest average number in the IMDb---won't you have more fun finding him/her yourself?---but his/her table looks like this (as of July 12, 2025):

XXXXXX Number# of people
0 1
1 1
2 2
3 2
4 1
5 1
6 2
7 6
8 12
9 21
10 230
11 5607
12 264307
13 705994
14 303919
15 74450
16 16589
17 3769
18 927
19 277
20 73
21 20

for an average of 13.180!