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 have 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 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 UNLOCK ONLINE SEARCH VALUE
Once the reserved property of researchers and scientists, online searching, which depends on automated ways to locate information, is now very popular. Even if, at the moment, only around 40% of the world’s human population is connected, nearly two trillion searches a year are conducted. The value of searching presents multiple aspects. Among them, creating better matches is an important one: as well as organizations, individuals use search engines to find information that is more relevant to them. In the field of music, given the number of titles that are now available online, the search is creating value by helping to navigate content more easily. For instance, the YMusic search engine, launched as a prototype and based on a new music theory, analyzes the content of musical pieces by considering musical criteria and then giving results that are pertinent in terms of musical content.
Casual music listeners, who are neither composers or performers nor teachers or students, are actually individual information seekers and, sometimes, independent researchers. They generally use search services for their own purpose, wanting to enjoy an experience, to learn new materials or to answer a question. They want to find a form of matching, the ‘right’ information when they need it, whatever the object of their research is. The YMusic algorithm, designed to meet their expectations, can help the casual music listener as well as the teacher or the researcher that wants to get new musical knowledge quickly and efficiently. A study was conducted to evaluate in what extent researchers can save time by doing research online and the result was that when they conduct research online, it only takes one third of the time of a search done in an academic library, not even taking into account the time it takes to go from their work place to the library! So, music researchers, like all other types of researchers, should be able to get real benefits from an online music search made by YMusic, which is actually a tool that can claim to make better matches between music and listeners. Music listeners can get more detailed information related to music in musical terms without being forced to learn music theory. Actually, YMusic brings the fundamentals of music analysis within everyone’s reach.
Music creators too can get value from searches and in a variety of manners. If their music is identified more quickly by the type of people that can really love their music, music composers and performers have more chances to sell tickets for concerts and festivals during which they have the possibility to perform their music. Being identified is for them the key to increasing their revenue. There are so many emerging artists today that new composers and performers have an interest in being better known. A search engine like YMusic, in a specific business-to-business context, could help them to reach such a target.
A MUSIC SEARCH ENGINE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT MUSIC IN AN AUTONOMOUS WAY
During the 20th century, more and more educators became convinced that knowledge acquisition through schooling was really a hard task. They were dreaming of alternative institutions. Already in the 1970s, Ivan Illich, an education activist, was advocating the use of the internet to support educational webs, the web being a place for liberating schooling and favoring access to high-quality learning. For Illich, that process had to include the creation of a technological structure and also the implementation of new habits, in this case the habits of the heart. A visionary, Illich was promoting the learning web as a model for recovery faced with the shortcomings of traditional schooling, as a way for users to decide what to learn in an autonomous way so that it could change their everyday life. Now it is a reality: institutions do not control the whole field of education anymore, everyone can develop skills outside of the box, and finally all can select their teachers and even computer programs to teach them everything.
Amongst knowledge-based resources that are now available on the web, music is essential. Numerous pieces of software can help to learn it without being forced to frequent a music school, various platforms give free access to an infinite number of titles. Now the only thing that is still missing is time. Also, in the field of online music, classifications are made according to general metadata like the names of music composers and performers, and this is not enough to help listeners that want to enhance their musical listening experience, know more about why they love some pieces of music and not other ones and to receive more music that is really likeable according to their individual tastes. It is to meet these expectations that the YMusic search engine, launched as a prototype and based on a new music theory, is designed. Through YMusic tools, which are based on musical criteria and which give music listeners access to elementary musical analysis, music listeners can argue and collaborate with the search engine in order to build their personal musical knowledge.
Today, even ordinary music listeners want to think and construct their own musical space and as the internet has become a place where affective experiences can be lived, they want to be provided with software which takes their emotional feedback into account. That is why the YMusic search engine can only satisfy all music listeners. It is relevant at the emotional level because beyond its features, it meets a desirable target: enriching the mind and transforming the heart of the music listener into a place of self-knowledge. Emotions are complex states made of impulses, appraisals and reactions and, as music directly affects them, it is really a blessing for listeners who find new music that is likeable according to their own criteria. Unfortunately, it often happens by chance. YMusic wants to transform that blind luck into serendipity: more clearly, the search engine wants to provide opportunities to repeat that pleasant sensation that music listeners have when, searching for a piece of music, they find another one which really strikes a chord with them.
To broaden your 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 REWARD MUSIC LISTENERS ENGAGED IN A QUEST FOR MUSIC
Originally a series of mechanisms for organizing information discovered on the internet, general search engines constantly create economic value through searches, notably via the discovery of new information. However, they are not perfect yet, for instance they cannot interpret ordinary language queries, as they do not understand semantic ambiguities. That is why, typing ‘What music is similar to Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin?’, a music listener receives, as main results, links towards music services including Rhapsody in Blue, pages presenting Rhapsody in Blue and websites talking about George Gershwin. But of course they do not receive any music title whose content is similar to Rhapsody in Blue, musically speaking.
What does this mean? That search technologies are still evolving: new uses and new applications unceasingly appear in all fields of knowledge. In the domain of music, it is to allievate the shortcomings of general search engines that the YMusic search engine, currently under prototyping, has been designed. Indeed, YMusic, based on a new music theory, offers musical tools that music listeners can use in order to acquire musical knowledge related to pieces of music they listen to. Search after search, music listeners discover more about why they love specific pieces of music and do not like others, exploring their individual preferences. YMusic wants to present musical content that is searchable in musical terms.
Would the ultimate search engine anticipate users’ queries, answering them before they even ask? We prefer to leave aside such speculations. One thing is certain: music itself contains all kinds of information that are necessary to find music, beyond cultural metadata like genre or location. And YMusic, which has a database that currently includes 40 000 music titles, offers tools that can help music listeners to understand such musical information and transform it into knowledge that can guide them to discover more music they can really like, independently of any trends or networks.
Let us notice that the YMusic database is an evaluation corpus or test collection and that the results provided by YMusic are objective, as they are based on a music theory. But the effectiveness of the search also depends on users’ choices. One of the functions of YMusic is to assist music listeners to express their wants and needs in musical terms instead of words. The interaction between the application interface and the music listener differs according to the complexity of the musical task the listener wants to accomplish. The YMusic algorithm can analyze the musical content of each music title present in the database and comparisons between specific pieces can be established at the musical level. Used on a regular basis, it can become an essential component of music listeners’ everyday life, one source of search value being, of course, time saved. When they are searching for music in the YMusic database, music listeners give information about themselves and they get rewards in the form of new music that they could not find so easily without YMusic.
Do you want 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 listening skills!
A MUSIC SEARCH ENGINE TO EMPOWER MUSIC LISTENERS
When they talk about web searches and recommendation, large amounts of users are disappointed and do not hesitate to talk about excessive fragmentation or ghetto mentality. They can also lament about the fact that peer-to-peer is omnipresent. They do not dislike social data but they see problems with the fact that they have replaced all other forms of suggestions in the field of entertainment. Are these judgments objective? Or do these users actually suffer from confirmation bias? Most likely such users must have more difficulties than other types of people to search for new information and to confront their opinions with other people. Yet they point an interesting problem, as they would like search engines to lead them to entertainment items nobody has presented yet.
Reaching unknown items during a web search requires some effort. For instance, in the field of music listening, listeners could want to find new music that their friends have not listened to. And without spending a lot of time to reach that target. The good news is that it is becoming possible. For example, with the YMusic search engine, a prototype relying on a new music theory, music listeners can find pieces of music that nobody is talking about, because the results provided by the search engine have nothing to do with social recommendation: these results, based on musical criteria, seek to help music listeners to shape their individual listening tastes.
Consumers of general search technologies want to avoid irrelevant information. And software engineers usually help them, both to fulfill their need for high-quality information and knowledge and to conceive specific value judgments about the results they receive, in order to know better what they really like. Search engines have bias, yet they become indispensable. Why? Because they have linked millions of avid knowers with billions of web pages via a simple search box. Nobody can live without search engines anymore. And that is why the YMusic search engine was designed: to create matches between music listeners and pieces of music. And to help listeners to save time when they are searching for new music they could like.
When listeners are searching for music, they ask implicit questions like: ‘Can I find a piece of music that is similar to the one I loved so much last summer?’. Yet they do not remember the title of the song anymore. Music services that offer the possibility to search by humming are not useless, however they do not empower music listeners in order to give them more control over their search. The YMusic search engine, on the contrary, provides elementary tools that music listeners can explore in order to get more and more music that resembles what they know and love, not only one song. And they judge by themselves if they like or not the results they receive. In fact, the YMusic search engine provides information to listeners and these listeners transform it into knowledge, musical knowledge and also knowledge about their own tastes, thus about themselves.
To extend your 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.
THE SPECIAL NATURE OF MUSIC AMONGST SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE AND WHY A MUSIC SEARCH ENGINE HAS BECOME A NECESSITY
Questioning realities to form an image of them is inherent to human nature. Since antiquity, human beings have invented new means to fix and transmit the information and knowledge which are the results of these queries. From stone tablets whose photos are now digitized to online newspapers, knowledge seekers now have a lot to read. Amongst the different sources of knowledge, music has a special place. It is for instance visible in the fact that, more than twenty years after the launch of general search engines, there is no music search engine. Online music services, which include streaming services, help to provide music to the masses, using basic cultural criteria like age, gender and location, but their tools cannot real help music listeners to discover their individual tastes.
Actually, search technology is still in development, including in the field of music. Gone is the time of offline music searches. And except when someone receives an old collection of vinyl records, who listens to music offline without using internet files? Except perhaps hipster teenagers. Who could live for a few days without a search engine? In that context, the YMusic search engine, based on a new music theory and currently launched as a prototype, is innovative. It can meet the expectations of music listeners who want the time spent on finding new likeable music to be reasonable. It is currently not the case on music streaming services as they are equipped at the moment. Actually, in the field of musical knowledge, it is all about the relationship between music listeners’ intuitions and their abilities to analyze what happens. Their search for music understanding is a kind of dialectic. When they listen to music, they try to get an intuitive meaning of the piece. Music is a form of knowledge and music knowledge acquisition can be facilitated and the tools that YMusic provides to search for music can help them to achieve that target. Music listeners are music takers and to appropriate music, they want to understand its main component parts, associating intuitive and logical knowledge.
A music search is different than other types of search, not only because of the special nature of music amongst the art, but also because music causes intense affective experiences. That is why the tools provided by YMusic are intuitive: they help music listeners to develop a general and direct understanding of the musical phenomenon. Music can provide listeners with enjoyment by allowing them to express their emotions and feelings through active and attentive listening. Knowing more about why they like what they like, listeners want more and more to receive more of what they like. And what they like is, ultimately, strictly individual. Testimonials on forums as well as studies made by researchers show that music listeners, and more generally online entertainment consumers, generally appreciate social sharing, but regret that social recommendation is currently more or less the only way to discover new music online. Yet YMusic wants to remedy such a problem.
THE SPECIAL NATURE OF MUSIC AMONGST SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE AND WHY A MUSIC SEARCH ENGINE HAS BECOME A NECESSITY