New Finnish Startup Claims It Can Predict Hit Song Potential
5 February 2018
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One word: Hyperlive. And no, I am not talking about the line of Nike basketball shoes. Hyperlive is a new startup that claims it can predict a song’s future hit potential. Geoff Luck, the CEO of Hyperlive, is also an associate professor at the Finnish Centre for Interdisciplinary Music Research and is an expert on human cognition and musical perception. Luck’s project captures the experience of music listening by modeling a range of neurological, physiological, and behavioral responses. That informs the algorithm for Hyperlive, which quantifies, models, and predicts our engagement with certain songs. According to Digital Music News, the algorithm has already correctly “predicted how 200 tracks from 10 major artists, including Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift” would do.
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However, this is just the beginning. Luck believes there are plenty of other applications for Hyperlive and that songwriters will be able to write better music because of it. Industry professionals will also reportedly be able to increase audience engagement.
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As one record executive said in an interview with The Journal of Musical Things, “the problem with our industry is that we’re always working blind. We’re totally at the mercy of a fickle public. We think we might know what they want, but when we release a single, we have no idea whether it will catch on. You can throw all the money in the world at a song, but if the public doesn’t bite, it all goes down the toilet.” This app may be an answer to that problem. However, Hyperlive is still in its beginning stages and so far all we know is this: it analyzes each track’s audio signature and can predict actual performance with 84 percent overall accuracy. Aside from that, we do not know much more about how the app will alter the music business.
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But that was my major concern. Will it recommend how an artist can change their song to ensure a higher popularity rating? If we can quantify these songs with a formula, will every track start sounding far too similar? Will tracks consist entirely of hooks? That got me thinking about how boring the music landscape would be if every music exec began quantifying sound. Music often is a “hit business,” but there are still plenty of professionals who value original, grassroot musical efforts.
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At first this app seems revolutionary, but, as most people do, I began to consider the negative effects Hyperlive could have on music. Aside from music homogeny, the app could change the very motivating factors that drive most artists to write music. But for fear of sounding too pessimistic, I will leave you all with this: Hyperlive is certainly a music app to watch and I am interested to see how successful it will be in predicting this summer’s new hit jams. To stay updated about Hyperlive and related topics, take a look at Geoff Luck’s LinkedIn for more information.