So it turns out that not only are most pop hits being composed in a robotic fashion, they’re also being crafted to suit the tastes of a robot. The Guardian reports today that a computer program from Spain is now the preferred tool of music labels to pick the likelihood of a hit.

All you do, apparently, is upload your track to Hit Song Science, and it’ll generate a report for you that scores your likelihood of a hit record.

It costs, but compared to the multimillions you can extract from tennagers if you underestimate them by just the right amount, the price is well worth it.

At least, that’s what the industry seems to believe:

“Some of the biggest names in the industry – such as the former head of Sony Records UK, Muff Winwood, and Tommy Mottola (the man who has put more divas on the map than anyone – and in the case of Mariah Carey, married one) – have backed the software. Labels within all of the major corporations are now using the software. It seems only a matter of time before it reaches tipping point to become an industry standard, like Dolby or ProTools.”

Now, I’m all in favour of technology being central to the making, marketing and distribution of music. I think it’s way past time the music industry embraced the possibilities of digital technology – but I’m unconvinced that software is a worthy substitute for good A&R.

“Aha!” say the enthusiasts, “but HSS picked that Norah Jones would be a smash hit. That proves its effectiveness. Norah’s no stock standard girl band phenomenon.”

Actually, it proves that the most reliable (though hardly infallible) indicator of the likelihood of success is simply the proportion of marketing spend allocated to that particular record. Assured by a piece of machinery that Norah would be a success, Blue Note (by which I mean Capitol… by which I mean EMI) threw a truckload of cash into one of the biggest marketing success stories in years.

The biggest industry success in the Norah story? Convincing the world that Norah became a star without marketing. Every press story around the release of Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me album followed the industry line that it was a runaway smash success on word-of-mouth alone – which was far from the case.

So – it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Are you going to spend good marketing money on a song the machine says is going to be a flop anyway? Hardly.

Are you going to throw your weight behind a song the machine says is going to be a runaway success? Of course! You don’t want to miss that boat…

I’m not saying that computer algorythms can’t assess music – or even pick its core ingredients. After all, I’ve been impressed as all hell by the Shazam service that will identify songs within seconds of playing it down your mobile phone.

But as Roger Penrose will tell you, it doesn’t matter how complicated the algorythms get. You can’t program for a ‘soul’ – and nor can you program a machine to identify – much less create – Art (with a capital ‘A’).

Still, it looks like the machine’s job is getting easier. Elvis Presley just had the 1,000th number one hit single (can anyone now believe that the charts aren’t entirely manipulated by the industry?) – and it was the lowest-selling number-one single of all time – even under-selling Eric Prydz’s record (the apostrophe in that is wrong wherever you put it).

Presley’s number one single didn’t even make the top 20 in the download charts – which suggests that the single, as a cultural artefact, may indeed be long dead.

Meanwhile, I’m finding my ‘singles’ on the mp3 blogs. Hand-selected tasters of bands you may not have heard of, but which have behind them the one recommendation that makes most sense to me: other people, whose taste I have come to respect over a period of time, recommend I try them out. At no cost.

Try these: 3hive, Scenestars, Largehearted Boy and, what the hell – just generally scroll down the long blogroll at the Tofu Hut.

Keep doing the robot dance, by all means – just don’t let the robots pick all the tunes.

Image at the top of this post is the work of Jeff Spoonhower. Watch his spectacular animation ‘Intelligent Life‘.

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48. John McLaughlin – Extrapolation Polydor 1969

49. Kelis – Tasty Arista 2003