Thursday, 23 August 2007

The wisdom of crowds and the emperor's new clothes

Much excitement in various blogs and newspapers about the fact that Music Week is going to publish a new music chart based on Last.fm user's aggregated listening behaviours - the wisdom of crowds! Previously, of course, music charts only focused on ummm people's aggregated buying behaviours - the wisdom of crowds!

I know it's not the same, and I utterly welcome it - not that I've bought a "record" since Bacharach and David fell out.

But the fundamental difference isn't that it's user generated - it's that it's based on - presumably - the limitless music store.

We will ignore the US propensity for basing charts on radio airplay. What's that all about?

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