Polyphonic HMI is a music analysis company jointly founded in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

, Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 by Mike McCready

Mike McCready (music entrepreneur)

Mike McCready is an entrepreneur in the music industry, CEO of Music Xray, a blogger on Huffington Post and musician. He is most known for having pioneered the science of hit song prediction using acoustic analysis software to analyze the underlying mathematical patterns in music...

 and an artificial intelligence firm called Grupo AIA. Its principal product is called "Hit Song Science

Hit Song Science

Hit Song Science concerns the possibility of predicting whether a song will be a hit, prior to its distribution using automated means such as machine learning software.-Scientific Background:...

" (HSS) which uses various statistical

Statistics

Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....

 and signal processing

Signal processing

Signal processing is an area of systems engineering, electrical engineering and applied mathematics that deals with operations on or analysis of signals, in either discrete or continuous time...

 techniques to help record companies predict whether a particular song will have commercial success.

Polyphonic HMI and HSS have caused some controversy in the music industry because of fears (denied by Polyphonic HMI) that it removes the "magic" from music production.

Several stars are suspected to have used the system to improve their chances of having a hit, including:

• Norah Jones
  Norah Jones
  Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress.In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away With Me, which was certified a diamond album in 2002, selling over 20 million copies...
  
  
• Anastacia
  Anastacia
  Anastacia is an American singer-songwriter. Anastacia has been highly successful in Europe, Asia, South Africa and South America, but has had only minor success in her native United States...
  
  
• Maroon 5
  Maroon 5
  Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. While they were in high school, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bass guitarist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick formed a garage band called Kara's Flowers and released one album...
  
  

The software correctly predicted the success of Norah Jones' debut album Come Away with Me

Come Away with Me

Come Away with Me is the debut album of pianist and singer Norah Jones, released February 26, 2002 on Blue Note Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at New York City's Sorcerer Sound Studio and Shokan's Allaire Studios in 2001...

months before it topped the charts, contradicting skeptical studio executives.

In December 2005, amidst disagreements with Polyphonic's parent company, the senior management team, including co-founder Mike McCready

Mike McCready (music entrepreneur)

Mike McCready is an entrepreneur in the music industry, CEO of Music Xray, a blogger on Huffington Post and musician. He is most known for having pioneered the science of hit song prediction using acoustic analysis software to analyze the underlying mathematical patterns in music...

 and the advisory board made up of music industry veterans, left the company and formed Platinum Blue Music Intelligence

Platinum Blue Music Intelligence

Music Xray is a digital music company based in New York City. The company's official name is Platinum Blue Music Intelligence Inc but it began operating under the name Music Xray in July 2009. The company bills itself as "a platform that enables musicians to interact directly with top music...

, a competing company based in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

External links

• www.polyphonic.com
• Article in Le Monde about Polyphonic HMI
• Hit Song Science Is Not Yet a Science - a study that appeared in ISMIR 2008.