What is the best algorithm to calculate the most scored item?

Question

I have an music items that are scored by users between 1 to 5, and I need a formula to get the 5 most scored items.

But obviously an item that get 3.5 average score

Answer 1

A simple way to balance the system is to add a fixed number of hypothetical users (say the count is H) who all vote for the long-term average A of all your pieces. Say that average is 3; then the formula becomes

Score = (votesCount x votesAverage + H x A) / (votesCount + H)

Now when votesCount grows, the relative impact of the hypothetical average-voters diminishes.

You can set H experimentally, or by thinking about it. E.g. if you think that 20 votes is sufficient to establish relatively strong rating, you could set H=5. Say.