Uplaya is a software that enables the user to upload their song, check it against a series of algorithms, and learn if their song has hit potential. A hit machine without the human. This is called democratizing music? It sounds more like an unintended dehumanizing of music in the name of science, even though the human has to create the music first. I’ve often read that a sure-fire way to kill your songwriting is to aim solely at writing a hit. Some people can do it successfully and maintain a healthy attitude for their craft, but for many others, it only stifles them. Maybe Uplaya acts as an unbiased screening tool, but crafting a song to be validated by software, in order to then pitch it to an A&R person seems ludicrous. It encourages the highfalutin idea that music is purposed in a TOP 40 hit. I feel that the approach slims the spirit. The software bases hit success on elements of music that have been successful and found to be pleasing, and has been successful predicting new trends in music. However fascinating it is, that Uplaya’s Hit Song Science championed Nora Jones before she swept the Grammy Awards with her debut album, or that The Black Eyed Peas scored an 8.9 with I Gotta Feeling, there are hits that have not scored well with the software such as Trio’s DA DA DA. The towers of hit music have only been a sliver of the great music forced into the alleys and halfway houses as a result of hit music’s cultural bloat.
Is writing hits the reason to make music? How in the hell was the blues or jazz ever developed? The day is a sad day when the mind and soul aren’t able to discern a good thing without first validating it through software.
More to come on this soon…
