Can Hits Be Predicted By An Algorithm?

We may like to the think that any one song's success is determined by the preferences and tastes of music consumers, but as artificial intelligence plays an increasingly large role in our lives, the question has been raised if the next hit can be predicted by an algorithm.

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Guest post by Bobby Owinski of Music 3.0

We like to think that everything about music is built around the tastes of the people that are both creating and listening to it, but that outlook seems to be increasingly out of step with reality. Artificial intelligence is being used more and more for all sorts of things that control our lives, so why shouldn’t what we listen to not be one of them? In this video from the BBC series The Secret Science of Pop, you’ll see that there’s already an algorithm that’s predicting the next chart hit. The scary part is that no human actually listened to the songs involved. The world has certainly changed from the old days when a hit could be picked by a local DJ who played a song until the rest of the world caught on.