Try the MusicLab Experiment

Following is a call for participation in MusicLab, a new project by Duncan
Watts and others in the Sociology Department at Columbia.

Some info on the project from Watts:

My colleagues and I in the Sociology department at Columbia
University are doing an experiment about pop music which might be
interesting to your readers. If they participate they will have a
chance to discover and download new music for free.

After listening to the music of Britney Spears, we became interested
in why some musicians become superstars while other seemingly
similar musicians don't. To understand this process better, we
decided to find out how people form their musical tastes. We have
created a website where people can listen to, rate, and download
songs by cool, up-and-coming artists. All the downloads are free and
legal so the site is a great place to find new music, help support
emerging artists, and help out science – all at the same time.

Once the research is completed we hope to be able to shed light not
just on the popularity of music, but also on the popularity of other
cultural objects like books, movies, and works of art.

MusicLab site: http://www.musiclab.columbia.edu/


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Lauren Cornell
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New Museum of Contemporary Art
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