I am catching up (on my iPod) on the current series of In Business the wonderful BBC Radio 4 half hour show presented Peter Day.
The show was called Computers are taking on show business, and was about how Platinum Blue are using combination of databases of previous hits and an analysis of their musical components to predict future hits for record companies.
What annoys me is that these approaches seem to assume we all have narrowly defined musical tastes and forget there is such a thing as music for a particular mood.
My iPod collection ranges from obvious tracks from the likes of the Beatles on to Leonard Cohen and Regina Spektor, but also includes Queens of the Stone Age and System of a Down. So how is a computer going to successfully predict what I am going to like next.