----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joel Bresler" <[log in to unmask]>
> Hi, Mike, could you please amplify a bit on your answer? I thought the 
> Wired article was thought provoking.
>
> WorldCat, perhaps the largest repository of discographic information, is 
> not a database. It grows willy nilly, and there is no attempt at a 
> controlled vocabulary of songs, artists, and so forth. No tying together 
> of 78s with their re-release on LP, CD, etc. The Rigler-Deutsch database 
> is a worthy try, but the contents are a rats nest. Dick Spottswood's 
> wonderful EMOR is in print form only, and is not a database per se.
>
> If they are talking about reinventing the wheel, please point us to the 
> wheel!!
>
There exists (or existED, anyway) a set of text-based musical data files 
assembled
by one "Steve Abrams." They use 160-byte, 8-field data records, and can be 
opened
in Windows WordPad (or, better if you can find a copy, is Windows 3.x 
Write!).
These files have been "HTML-ized" and posted on the Internet by Ty 
Settlemeir
(he also put them on Facebook!) so a bit of digital searching should turn up
the relevant sites! You could ONCE (but maybe no longer) download all of
the "Abrams Files" at the 78online.com web site.

Since they were mainly taken from extant discographies, they contain 
primarily
pre-AFM-ban (7/31/42) material; AFAIK, nobody has tried the VERY challenging
task of listing all the 78's issued from late 1943 until the demise of that 
format.

As far as tunes issued on commercial CD's, it runs in my mind that there 
is/was
a database listing all the available CD's and their musical contents?

Steven C. Barr