The End of “Golden Ears” and the Rise of the Fan
In the late 20th century, million-dollar decisions relied almost exclusively on the “golden ears” of A&R executives rather than actual market research. This era of guesswork began to crumble in 1974 when music executive Larry Heller realized that the real-time dial-testing methods used for movies could be applied to records. By bringing the “voice” of the audience into the boardroom, Heller aimed to determine if a song had an “inspired” connection with listeners before its release. This pivotal move towards democratizing popular culture marked the early technical foundations of modern music research and analytics.
