Wouldn't it be great - feed a new tune through a computer program.....and the computer says no... it won't be a hit. Try again.

With record companies spending a fortune on promoting artists and their new albums, a revolutionary piece of software from two Massachusetts PhD grads could be just what they need to ensure money is spent only on records that will become hits.

Brian Whitman and Tristan Jehan's software listens to a song, then predicts how humans will react to it - either loving it or hating it.

"Some people really care about instrument sounds and complexity of the music," Brian Whitman said. "But the 14-year-old teenage girl could care less, as long as her friends are listening to it."

The researchers pull data from weblogs, chat rooms and music reviews -- anywhere a song is being discussed -- and feed it into the computer, which allows the software to gauge the popularity of a certain sound.

Globe Technology reports:

Once all the information is tabulated, the computer can listen to an entirely new album and predict how people will respond based on what it knows about the latest reactions to the music it has already heard.

If it sounds far-fetched, consider this: the system has been predicting Billboard hits with surprising accuracy over the past several months.

While people may think their musical tastes are unpredictable and whimsical, they are actually quite traceable, Mr. Whitman says.