I thought the music industry already had a standard code - the ISRC
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Recording_Code)
Song titles can't be copyrighted, so there might be a dozen using the
same words but written by different composers. The ISRC ties the song
title to the phonogram - seems to work OK for the trade.
Mike Gray
Joel Bresler wrote:
> 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!!
>
> Thanks,
>
> Joel
> Joel Bresler, Publisher
> www.sephardicmusic.org
> 250 E. Emerson Road
> Lexington, MA 02420
> United States
>
> 1-781-862-4104 (Telephone & FAX)
> [log in to unmask]
> IN CASE OF VERIZON EMAIL PROBLEMS, PLEASE USE MY BACK-UP EMAIL:
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael Biel
> Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 3:37 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Wired on the need for a single comprehensive music database
>
> Reinventing the wheel. What is needed is a knowledge of DISCOGRAPHY
> among these computer geeks who think that nothing has happened outside
> their little world.
>
> Mike Biel [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
>
> From: "Schooley, John" <[log in to unmask]>
>
> http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/12/4-ways-one-big-database-would-help-music-fans-industry/
>
> 4 Ways One Big Database Would Help Music Fans, Industry
>
> "The solution to this and other problems dogging the music industry
> could be forehead-slappingly simple: one big, free, public database
> with, at the very least, song titles in one column and unique
> identifiers in another. When online and mobile music services build
> their own content databases out of the labels' catalogs, they would have
> incentives to use the same numbers to identify each song, for the
> reasons laid out below. Music services already apply their own unique
> identifiers to songs in their catalogs, so the use of numbers is not the
> issue - they just need to be the same numbers.
>
> This database would have to be free, readily available and totally
> transparent, visible to music fans and industry people alike, because
> the barrier to entry for startups to use the system would have to be
> zero. Open source software making use of the data set, available on the
> same website, might encourage services to use the numbers."
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>
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