Why is it that a remarkably small number of songs become so popular?
In this episode, I feature a paper by Rosati and colleagues who found that download count time series for many popular songs resemble infectious disease epidemic curves. This, therefore, suggests that songs become popular in a similar fashion as infectious diseases are transmitted from person to person.
Full citation:
Rosati, D. P., Woolhouse, M. H., Bolker, B. M., & Earn, D. J. (2021). Modelling song popularity as a contagious process. Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 477(2253), 20210457.
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