Musescape: A tool for changing music collections into libraries

Abstract

Increases in hard disk capacity and audio compression technology have enabled the storage of large collections of music on personal computers and portable devices. As an example a portable device with 20 Gigabytes of storage can hold up to 4000 songs in compressed audio format. Currently the only way of structuring these collections is using a file system hierarchy which allows very limited forms of searching and retrieval. These limitations are even more pronounced in the case of portable devices where there is less screen real estate and user attention is limited compared to a personal computer. Musescape is a prototype tool for organizing and interacting with large music collections in audio format with specific emphasis on portable devices. It provides a variety of automatic and manual ways to organize and interact with large music collections using a consistent continuous audio feedback user interface for browsing, searching and annotating. Using this system a user can convert an unstructured or partially structured collection of music with limited retrieval capabilities into a music library with enhanced functionality. © Springer-Verlag 2003.