Your personal music search space.
Augment your understanding of music.
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YMUSIC SEARCH ENGINE
Since antiquity, human beings have been conscious of themselves and wanted to fix knowledge to ensure that future generations can also benefit from it. For its part, musical knowledge was first kept on stones: precursors to sheet music include antique cuneiform tablets and medieval manuscripts. Music printing appeared during the 15th century. Today, sheet music can be read and even played on a computer screen. As the ways to keep music changed, the ways to retrieve it changed through time. Besides libraries, musical knowledge can now be acquired on the internet. What is musical knowledge? How can music listeners increase their musical knowledge? What can a music search engine bring to the modern music listener? Know more about these topics by reading the following essays.
MUSIC, KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION AND SEARCH ENGINE TECHNOLOGY
To acquire new musical knowledge, try YMusic. YMusic is a prototype of a music search engine which relies on a new music theory; it is designed for all music listeners who are searching for new music and who are trying to develop their knowledge, be they ordinary listeners or not.
Computer science is seen as a tool for founding knowledge and searching has always been fundamental on the internet, and today, general search engines provide access to petabytes of data that searchers view, evaluate, acquire and transform. Queries returning multiple sets of objects that require serious examination in order to be transformed into knowledge, searching is a process. In this process, serendipity has its place. A sort of mastered luck, it encourages investigative searches made by searchers who take control over the search process instead of being passive recipients. Searchers can become adventurers and pioneers in the world of online information, whatever their areas of expertise and interest are.
In the framework of knowledge-thinking acquisition, general search engines are essential, yet specialized search engines are too. For instance, in the field of music, the YMusic search engine, based on a new music theory and launched as a prototype, is relevant for music listeners who want to discover more about the true nature of music, find out why they love what they love and discover more titles they could potentially like. Offering a small number of features, just enough to discover the main facets of music and not too much so that they do not get lost, YMusic may meet the expectations of the casual listener and those of the researcher. Everyone can interact and even dialog with music, through musical parameters. YMusic is a search engine. It is not a music streaming service. Those services provide listeners with music through words: composers’ and performers’ names or song titles, for instance. YMusic offers music via some elementary musical tools and there is no intermediary between listeners’ ears and music itself. In music as in other fields, knowledge acquisition takes time. Thus it has a cost. On main online services, going beyond the appearances of music is not within the casual listener’s reach, just because it takes time. But Ymusic brings the very musical analysis within the reach of individual casual listeners. Especially when centuries, idioms (lyrics may be understood or not), locations, social pressure and cultural roots prevent listeners from getting acquainted with musical knowledge. Plus individual tastes are not only hard to change, but also difficult to enrich.
Now individuals have an extraordinary ability to acquire new knowledge from birth, but how can listeners acquire real knowledge, instead of deceiving themselves? It can be so easy to listen to music that is already known in a passive way. How is it possible for those who want to listen more actively to develop better capacities to really listen to new music with sustained attention, instead of reducing it to one’s own musical perceptions and knowledge? Containing a musical database that includes thousands of titles and that is constantly improving, Ymusic is here to be a helping hand. It organizes musical information around some elementary musical concepts that music listeners may explore in a direct and active way, getting a direct reward when they receive a result. Listening after listening, they can exercise their ear and spend less time searching for new music they can really like.
A NEW MUSIC SEARCH ENGINE LINKED WITH A REPRESENTATIVE DATABASE TO DEVELOP ACTIVE MUSIC LISTENING
To acquire new musical knowledge, try YMusic. YMusic is a prototype of a music search engine which relies on a new music theory; it is designed for all music listeners who are searching for music that is new for them and who are trying to develop their knowledge, be they casual listeners or not.
To gain new musical knowledge, try YMusic. YMusic is a prototype of a music search engine which relies on a new music theory; it is designed for all music listeners who are searching for new music and who are trying to develop their knowledge, be they ordinary listeners or not.
A MUSIC SEARCH ENGINE TO CREATE A DIRECT SONIC LINK BETWEEN MUSIC AND LISTENERS
Music is like a dwelling place, with a central room and extensions. At the centre, we can find that the various elements that are experienced are acoustics or structure, but also emotions or the body. Yet another room includes elements like harmony, timbre or rhythm. In the annex, more generally, there is style. What does it mean? That music is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. And that in each room, both music composers and listeners can combine the various elements in particular proportions in order to compose or to listen to the music as they wish. For instance, music listeners can concentrate on their emotions and the acoustics they perceive rather than on the musical structure and their body. Or the contrary. When they listen to the music more attentively, they can acquire real musical knowledge. Browsing on music streaming websites, they can listen to music they know or have heard about, entering one or a few keywords to formulate queries, generally searching for a title, a composer or a performer.
Music streaming websites share millions of songs with their users, yet music listeners cannot find music based on musical criteria. How can listeners get more direct access to music? The YMusic search engine, currently under prototyping and based on a new music theory, can help. Offering several features that are easy to manipulate, YMusic creates a direct link between music and the listener. Listeners do not enter queries with words, but using features based on musical criteria, they directly hear the different facets of music, selecting those that are most relevant to them. With YMusic, all music listeners can have fun. When they voluntarily use their free time for music outside their daily routine, listeners may may get immediate rewards like serendipity, which is linked to fun and to pleasant surprises, and well-being. Yet it is not always so easy. As a casual leisure search is not linked to real information needs, the judgment of listeners may be very subjective. It depends on the pleasure that is felt, the hedonistic intentions of listeners or their moods. It is the reason why regular use of YMusic tends to improve the quality of the results.
Listening after listening, listeners get more control over the search process. They can get rewards in terms of cognition, as they acquire knowledge about the true nature of music, and in terms of emotions, for example when they feel an increasing satisfaction. The knowledge they acquire is both tacit and explicit, on one hand, one part of musical messages hits the subconscious only; on the other hand, YMusic’s features help listeners to make very concrete sonic experiences. Doing serendipitous searches, they browse for entertainment and, thanks to YMusic’s intuitive features, they receive surprising and interesting results, unexpected nuggest that come from YMusic’s database, which includes thousands of titles. Now how can music listeners judge the quality of the results they receive when they use YMusic? They just need to let their preferences speak. They can come for musical information snacking and listen to two or three pieces of music; or then for a full meal and spend one or two hours exploring the search engine.
A MUSIC SEARCH ENGINE TO MEET THE EXPECTATIONS OF CASUAL MUSIC LISTENERS AS WELL AS MUSICIANS
Today, music is used everywhere as a commodity, by everyone. The jogger wants a playlist to run to, the student wants several when organizing a dinner party and managers use music to socialize their white collar workers in the context of multi-tasking projects. Yet other music listeners, less casual, want to develop a deeper passion for music, without necessarily having any knowledge on the subject. No matter: rather than being innate, knowledge acquisition is a process. And a process that is individual: there is no unique description of how music listeners hear. How can listeners, instead of listening to a restricted body of music compositions, adopt an approach that is both transhistorical and transcultural? In fact, conceiving music in terms of universals is not obvious. Yet a new music theory now explains the true nature of music, based on all-encompassing music concepts. In combination with the YMusic search engine, it lets music listeners explore the main facets of music through several elementary music features.
As a search engine, YMusic is simply relevant. Based on musical criteria, it offers functionalities that match the best tracks according to what music listeners require. Search after search, listeners can extend their musical mind, whether they are casual listeners that come for their leisure and would like to invest some leisure time in music listening or music researchers. There are three types of leisure: serious, casual and project-based. In the first category, one can find volunteers and hobbyists, in the third one too. Casual music listeners enter in the second one. Casual leisure being linked to a pleasurable activity that is intrinsically and immediately rewarding, it requires no training to enjoy it. Now how is YMusic different from a music streaming service? Online streaming services provide music listeners: listeners use some words to introduce their queries. YMusic, as a search engine, helps listeners to take control of their searches: using its features, listeners can explore various facets of the musical content itself, rather than being influenced by cultural criteria introduced by words.
So music can be directly related to the ear of the listener, without any advice coming from a third-party. Like language, music has a syntax, it presents temporal and sounding elements that YMusic’s features analyze in order to return a result to the searcher. Music is, in some ways, an act of contemplation, and listening after listening, the listener can identify specific musical patterns and get an understanding of what music is and receive more results they will potentially like. Browsing YMusic’s database, which currently includes thousands of titles, they progressively transform musical information into knowledge: knowledge about music itself and knowledge about themselves, whatever their musical and personal background is. Sometimes, the distinction between amateurs and professionals is not always relevant. Everyone may find benefit in YMusic, professionals, and amateur musicians, as well as casual music listeners, and construct their musical knowledge in its existential, practical and theoretical aspects.
To acquire new musical knowledge, try YMusic. YMusic is a prototype of a music search engine which relies on a new music theory; it is designed for all music listeners who are searching for music that is new for them and who are trying to develop their knowledge, be they casual listeners or not.
A MUSIC SEARCH ENGINE TO REDISCOVER THE UNIQUE TASTE OF MUSIC
Definitions of knowledge and descriptions of knowledge’s categories are numerous. One of them is them categorizes knowledge into four forms. The first one is factual knowledge and it is the sort of knowledge that can be accumulated. Then there is a type of knowledge that described as reflexive: it is the use of factual knowledge to solve existing issues. The third sort is creative knowledge, where reality is seen in a new way: new questions emerge. The fourth one is called world knowledge and is awareness of the fact that regional knowledge is part or a wider knowledge and a common culture.
What does this mean? That knowledge acquisition is an iterative process. It is about going deeper and deeper. The human mind is made to go deeper and deeper, in any field of study. Today, general search engines facilitate the information-seeking process, helping users to transform it into knowledge through the reformulation of queries. And specialised search engines too. For instance, the YMusic search engine, based on a new music theory and currently under prototyping, provides listeners with music through features that can be used to explore the main facets of music. Knowing more about these different facets, listeners can understand better the true nature of music as well as discerning their real individual tastes when it comes to listening, far from trends and third-party advice.
Music listening may be something other than a trivial and insignificant experience. Now that all sorts of music platforms are used as music spigots, how is it possible for listeners to rediscover the desire to taste music for itself, independently of dinner parties or jogging? With a music search engine like YMusic, it is sufficient to take some time for music. All it takes is to let oneself be led by music and explore it in its various aspects. Listeners can examine their own emotions and decide if the results they receive correspond to what they really like.
Listening time after listening time, they can acquire elementary notions in the field of music analysis. As YMusic’s database contains thousands of titles, it may be used by researchers who want to work on a large corpus and casual listeners who feel an increased appetite for music. Emotions are not an impediment. On the contrary, emotions and knowledge about emotions can be used in the framework of musical knowledge acquisition and it even reinforces learning. Listeners can develop musicality outside their usual state of consciousness, allowing themselves to see music, themselves and the world from a new vantage point. They can become more open to music and combine active and intuitive music listening, which can bring them relaxation. Music listening makes space for reflection and fantasizing. Finally, listeners often feel that music has the capacity to regulate their surges of energy. It is, in fact, another benefit of music listening.
Do you want to acquire new musical knowledge? Try YMusic. YMusic is a prototype of a music search engine which relies on a new music theory; it is designed for all music listeners who are searching for music that is new for them and who are trying to develop their listening skills!
INFORMATION SEEKING AND MUSIC SEARCH QUERIES: THE YMUSIC SEARCH ENGINE
Rather than a target in itself, search is a means to acquire knowledge through information acquisition. In the internet age, search engines are knowers’ global librarians. Ideally, a perfect search engine would provide the perfect reach, it would process and understand all information published on the internet. Understanding exactly what users mean, it would make a perfect recall, giving them back exactly what they want. Such an engine does not exist at all and even the best general ones actually reach only a small fraction of the documents that are published online. Yet search engines are useful to everything.
In some theories of information seeking, searchers must have at least a basic idea of what they are searching for. They fix a target, execute it and evaluate the result. The standard theory in the field, the dynamic or berry-picking model, presents the information-seeking process as a succession of refined queries that lead to the documents in which the information that was originally searched is found. Anyhow, information seeking generally includes six stages. The first one is initiation: users become aware of the fact that they need information. Then there is selection, the selection of a general topic or approach to know more about the subject chosen during the previous stage. The third stage is exploration: users extend their understanding of the general topic and formulate queries, judging the quality of their results. Then comes formulation: from the first results, users make assumptions. They begin to transform information into knowledge. The fifth stage is collection, during which queries and judgements become more accurate. Finally, the sixth stage is presentation, it is the moment of relief: less relevant elements are eliminated and searches return information that is redundant.
To conduct the information-seeking process, users are helped by a search user interface. That interface being an access door, it must be simple and efficient, in one word, usable. The best general search engines provide a non-intrusive interface and excellent specialized search engines too. For instance, the YMusic search engine, currently a prototype and based on a new music theory, offers some simple tools to manipulate in order to understand the true nature of music and get more potentially likeable music.
Generally, music listeners who want to find new music, like all searchers, need to go through the six stages of the information theory. And when they are not music researchers, the current music platforms which provide them with music may seem really difficult to use. In fact, these tools include millions of songs, but only a very small part of them is discovered at the time, because listeners can only find music through musicians’ names or titles. That said, for its part, because its features are based on musical criteria, YMusic does not have to transform or improve listeners’ queries: listeners select the specific facets of music they want to explore; there is no translation to do from language elements to musical ones and the dialog happens directly between the music and the ears of the listeners.
To acquire new musical knowledge, try YMusic. YMusic is a prototype of a music search engine which relies on a new music theory; it is designed for all music listeners who are searching for music that is new for them and who are trying to develop their knowledge, be they casual listeners or not.
A MUSIC SEARCH ENGINE SO THAT INDIVIDUAL LISTENERS MAY FIND MUSIC THEY CAN POTENTIALLY LIKE IN A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME
Why is a search engine appreciated? First because it works. However, when users are making queries that are not so simple, when they are not looking for a single piece of information, but for knowledge, they can be disappointed. In fact, to get knowledge, it is necessary to align dozens of pieces of information, sometimes hundreds, thousands or even more, and to make sense out of them if one is to be grounded in true knowledge. To bridge the gap between users’ objectives and the results provided by search engines, guessing users’ objectives is not enough and optimizing communication may be useful, be it in the framework of general search engines or specialized ones.
That is why, in the field of music, music listeners who try the YMusic search engine, launched as a prototype and based on a new music theory, are invited to give their feedback. Listeners searching for music expect to get precise results which are returned fast. Thanks to YMusic, listeners now have features at their disposal that will help them to get a better understanding of the true nature of music and take more control over search results. Search after search, music listeners can have a more accurate picture of the principal facets of music and they increase their chances of getting more music they will potentially love.
Manipulating YMusic’s features, listeners actually say more about what they are looking for, whether they are ordinary listeners in quest of smart entertainment or researchers who want to work on a large corpus: YMusic’s database already includes thousands of titles and it will grow. Successive searches remove the risk of focusing only on the surface of music. They help to go deep, searching, in a sense, for cracks in the ice. Searching more and more, listeners do not rely anymore on trends and third-party advice. They develop active listening skills and begin to know their individual music listening tastes. They build, measure and learn a new musical knowledge around their listening practice.
Music listening is much more than discovering pieces of music one after the other, without any relationship between them. Of course, music listeners have different moods and, following these moods, they do not want to listen to the same style of music for a whole day or for weeks. The fact that online music distribution is aleatory, musically speaking, fits with that state of 'consumption by mood'. Yet with the YMusic search engine, individual listeners now have the possibility to unify their music listening practice. Is a music search engine really useful, when music streaming platforms already offer millions of music titles to discover? Yes, because the majority of these pieces of music are never heard. Why? One reason is that the main music publishers and even indie labels or emerging composers create new content quickly: music has become a commodity and most listeners open the music spigot only when they are thirsty for music. But the fact is they would prefer to receive coffee or wine abundantly, instead of water. YMusic is here to meet such an expectation and bring the finest music as fast as possible to the ears of music listeners.
A MUSIC SEARCH ENGINE SO THAT INDIVIDUAL LISTENERS MAY FIND MUSIC THEY CAN POTENTIALLY LIKE IN A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME