Imagine if there was a way to bet on which bands were going to be popular. If you thought a band had what it takes to be a huge hit then you could bet on their ascent to the top of the charts. Likewise if you thought a currently successful band was on the way out then you could bet on their decline. It would be like a ‘stock exchange’-style market where you could long or short bands. Wouldn’t that be neat?

This thought came to me because I think The Baseballs are going to be huge this summer but there is no way for me to profit from my conviction. Incidentally this is Simon Cowell’s awesome skill: he has an innate sense of what will be popular.

Anyway, I tweeted this thought out to anyone who cared to listen:

This prompted Oli to tell me about a guy who had created an entire exchange such as I was imagining. Oli also pointed me to the book about this incredible tale: Rigged by Ben Mezrich which I promptly added to my wishlist:

No sooner had I tweeted that than the author Ben Mezrich himself had replied with the following:

What a fantastic example of Twitter making the world a smaller place!