“The computer can go out on the internet and read a bunch of weblogs and record reviews and get a grasp on trends and buzz and hype and that sort of thing. At the same time, it also can listen to the music – do some signal processing to figure out stuff like dominant key and pitch and rhythm and structure. For record company executives, this raises the tantalising possibility of knowing in advance whether their latest pop act will hit the charts at a strong position. Hit prediction is possible.