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Do we pick music based on quality or social influences?

Eric Barker
February 28, 2011

A little bit of both:

Hit songs, books, and movies are many times more successful than average, suggesting that âthe bestâ alternatives are qualitatively different from âthe restâ; yet experts routinely fail to predict which products will succeed. We investigated this paradox experimentally, by creating an artificial âmusic marketâ in which 14,341 participants downloaded previously unknown songs either with or without knowledge of previous participants’ choices. Increasing the strength of social influence increased both inequality and unpredictability of success. Success was also only partly determined by quality: The best songs rarely did poorly, and the worst rarely did well, but any other result was possible.

Source: “Experimental Study of Inequality and Unpredictability in an Artificial Cultural Market” from Science 10 February 2006

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Post Information
Title Do we pick music based on quality or social influences?
Author Eric Barker
Date February 28, 2011 6:39 PM UTC (13 years ago)
Blog bakadesuyo
Archive Link https://theredarchive.com/blog/bakadesuyo/do-we-pick-music-based-on-quality-or-social.16131
https://theredarchive.com/blog/16131
Original Link https://www.bakadesuyo.com/2011/02/do-we-pick-music-based-on-quality-or-social-i/
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