New York - The volume of blog post chatter about a new album can significantly affect future sales, and in turn predict sales for record labels, according to a new study co-authored by NYU Stern professor Vasant Dhar and former student Elaine Chang. The study found that, when legitimate blog posts exceeded a threshold of 40 before an album's release, sales were three times the average, and increased five-fold if the album was associated with a major record label.

When blog activity reached more than 250 posts, sales were six times the average, regardless of label affiliation.

The number of friends on an artist's MySpace page also contributed to higher future sales, but had a weaker correlation compared to blog chatter.

The NYU Stern study tracked changes in online chatter four weeks before and after an album's release date.

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http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/080207/20080207005852.html?.v=1

https://archive.nyu.edu/handle/2451/23783