Researchers at New York University recently studied the correlation between articles, blogs, and MySpace friend counts to the success and volume of album sales. Professor Vasant Dhar has come to the conclusion that if 40 or more normal people had written blog posts prior to the album release, the rate of sale of the album ended up being three times the average album sales. Though not as substantial an effect as blog postings, Dhar addressed the fact that the more MySpace friends a band had, the greater their album sales were. Still Dhar reported that the traditional reviews from mainstream critics still have the most potential to affect album sales as “a good review in Rolling Stone can’t be beat.”I think this topic is very important and brings an application to some concepts discussed in early lectures.  For example, the Strong Triadic Closure Principle, used in this example, will make a huge impact in spreading the word of a new album release. Similar to MySpace, Facebook, very popular with companies and college communities alike, contains applications which allow users to post their favorite artists and albums.  Then, enhancing the spread of information on this social network, the “newsfeed” feature reports the recent activities of the user’s friends. Though not mentioned in class, this could be viewed as the rapid creation of edges on a social network.An important thought brought up was the question of manipulation.  For example, could band managers manipulate blogs in hopes of generating more sales in the declining music industry.  Or worse, could rival bands use blogs to send out negative review’s of their competition’s album?  Especially with the rampant piracy and widely available online downloads, blogs and social networks could soon over-power traditional sources of album publicity.