How is Hit Predictor a thing?
I mean, I guess there is an algorithm for everything nowadays.
Not algorithm. Crowd sourcing?
Of course, it makes sense on some level. For the closer you are to X, Y, and Z with your song, the more likely you are to succeed.
Just put it all into a multivariate regression, I guess.
BY THE EARLY 2000S, record men routinely used advance testing to measure the hit potential of prospective singles. One of the leading testing services, Hit Predictor, was created by Guy Zapoleon, together with Rick Bisceglia and Doug Ford. Whether or not Hit Predictor really worked, it was accurate enough that some labels came to rely heavily on Zapoleon’s method of testing songs. The labels’ interest in Hit Predictor made the company so valuable that Clear Channel eventually bought it and began using Zapoleon’s system in its own internal research as well.
-John Seabrook, The Song Machine
