Short survey for university project

[Tommy_r]

To Whom It May Concern:

As a team of third year technology students we are developing a database aimed at those independently involved in music and media. See below a description of the service we offer:

Overview:

“The database consists of an online music database aimed at assisting members of the film, advertising and media industries to find and select suitable musical compositions for their productions. If a suitable track is available on the database then the end user can obtain the necessary track licensing through our service for immediate use in their work.

Each track submitted will be analysed and categorised by its underpinning features, Mood, Style, Tempo etc. This allows the user to browse music in relation to the material on which they are working.”

Short Survey

If at all possible could you fill in a short questionnaire/survey to help us refine the service we intend to create?




Thanks for your time

 

[Bob Kessler]

Choosing one would not be helpful. Being able to drill down using all of those and many other criteria in any order I designate is what might attract me to one vendor over another.

Also keep in mind that many who would be using such a service have no musical knowledge.

They would have no idea what a songs key would be, at best they might know major/minor. What about songs that modulate?

Most wouldn't have a clue what BPM would mean. The tempo would be slow or fast or somewhere in the middle. How about time signatures; 3/4, 4/4, 12/8, 7/4, etc.?

Forget about many knowing the differences between Romantic and Baroque, Country and Bluegrass, etc. And how would you categorize crossover material? How would you differentiate between, for example, 20th century composers like Alberto Ginestera who wrote mostly for traditional instruments and Morton Subotnick who wrote mostly for electronic media? And where would a composer like Phillip Glass fit into that mix? All three wrote vastly different types of experimental material as well as more traditional works. Are you going to subcatagorize? Delta Blues vs. Chicago Blues? Emo vs. Screamo? What about "World" music?

Are you planning on showing the lyrics of the songs that have vocals? That would be a huge timesaver. Then again, they may not listen to it based on the content of the lyrics. And what if it's just vocalization and no lyrics?

Mood? One persons "dark" is another persons "haunting." One persons "happy" is another persons "silly." Comedic is often just the way a particular track is juxtaposed against the visuals and not comedic in and of itself.

How about listings by instrumentation? A guitar and a violin are both stringed instruments, one is fretted and the other is bowed. Electric guitar, acoustic guitar, dobro, slide guitar, mandolin, banjo, pedal steel? Do your prospective clients know the difference? Piano is technically a percussion instrument, would it be listed with the tympani, triangles, ouds, clay pots and box drums? How do you catagorize and list synthesizer sounds? Many orchestral sounds can be synthesized; is it an orchestral track or a synthetic track? What about songs that combine synthesizers, orchestral instruments and exotic instruments?

Just some food for thought.

 

[Tommy_r]

Yeh, to be honest we are going to try and keep the criteria quite loose, yet concise, in a similar way to www.allmusic.com and thier way of defining the two