Use Discover Music to find new music makers.

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What is Discover Music?

Discover Music is a way to find new music makers, or rediscover music makers you'd forgotten about. We consider the app to be successful if when you search for a music maker you know/like already and browse through the results, you see a couple of interesting-looking names to click on and check out. Keep using it and support our initiative via the Pricing tab!

Success finding interesting new music makers is what we've experienced while building this software, and one of the things that motivates us to share Discover Music beyond the University of York research environment in which it was developed.

Help and community

To get help with the Discover Music app, to report a bug, or to connect with our community of users and developers, please visit the Music Enterprise Works York Discord server and send us a message. We'll be happy to hear your feedback!

Music Maker Portal

If you make music and your name does not currently appear amongst results on the Discover Music app, but you would like it to, then please tell us about yourself and your work via the portal below, and we will determine how best to include this information in our system.

Background

Discover Music was based on an idea by Gordon Rawlins, with further research and development by Tom Collins of the Music Computing and Psychology Lab in the Department of Music, and Jude Brereton in the Department of TFTI at University of York, UK.

Since March 2020, the Discover Music app has benefited from occasional development work by Jonno Witts, Nick Moriarty, Oliver Still, and Luke George.

FAQ

Why did you develop this app? Two reasons:

  1. Music discovery is not a "problem" with one "solution". We don't like how commercial streaming platforms' AI music recommendation algorithms tell people what they will like. These thoughts prompt the question "Is there a way to give users more agency over discovering music makers and sharing these discoveries with one another?" Our solution still comprises AI, broadly construed, but it doesn't predict or tell a user what they will/should like;
  2. We think music discovery services should be informational rather than profit-driven. For a commercial streaming platform, a "successful recommendation algorithm" is one that increases revenue. Research (e.g., Hodgson, 2021) suggests this isn't in the best interests of users or music makers.

How does it work? Transparency of software is important to us, so we are happy to answer this question. When a user hits search, we run their query against several web APIs to gather information about a music maker. We analyse the results to determine music maker X is influenced by (or at least refers to) music maker Y, and/or vice versa. The results form a directed graph, which we then visualise for a user to explore, and augment with further search queries if they wish.

What do the line colours in 2D and 3D networks signify? If the line colour begins the same as the colour of the node from which it emerges, then the music maker associated with this node is influenced by or at least mentions the music maker associated with the node at the other end of the line. (We need to fix the interface so that when the influence/mention goes in both directions, the line remains the same colour.)

Is it patented? No. But there is substantial intellectual property behind this work, which is subject to copyright, and which the University reserves the right to defend if breached.

Research questions, related research and references/credits

  1. To what extent is it possible to give users more agency over discovering music makers and sharing these discoveries with one another?
  2. How can we address widespread gender imbalance in the music industry, and to what extent can music discovery services be designed to make the music industry more inclusive?
  3. How do informational and commercial music discovery services compare in terms of helping users to find new or local music and helping music makers to find new or local listeners?

In terms of related research and work, similar interfaces include Connected Papers and a few graph-oriented music search engines such as Musicroamer and gnod Music-map. We would also like to mention Peter Knees' nepTune project.

References

Hodgson, T. (2021). Spotify and the democratisation of music. Popular Music, 40(1), 1-17.

Acknowledgments and credits

We are grateful to York Impact Accelerator Fund and the EPSRC Impact Accelerator Accounts for funding this project.

[Some icon/image credits to be added here in due course.]

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Music Maker Portal

Here at Discover Music, we are eager to hear about you!

If you are, or represent, an artist, composer, performer, producer, band, ensemble, etc. not present in our search results currently, then please fill out and submit the form below, and let our users discover YOUR music.

This form takes approximately 15 minutes to complete. * = required field.


Section 1 of 5



Music Maker name*:


Gender (predominant gender if group)*:
Why we ask?

MusicBrainz identifier:

Why we ask? View Example

Contact email address*:



Section 2 of 5



Musical influences as a Music Maker*:





Add more

Music Makers you may have influenced:






Music Makers you have performed with in the last 5 years:







Section 3 of 5



Brief prose biography (max. character limit of 500)*:



Section 4 of 5



Link to primary location (nearest city/town) via Google Maps*:

View Example

Links to site(s) with any of your musical material or activity*

Add more

Link to an audio clip representing the music maker's work (must be a Google Drive MP3 or WAV file whose share settings are "Anyone on the Internet with this link can view")*:


Link to an image representing the music maker (must be a Google Drive PNG or JPG file whose share settings are "Anyone on the Internet with this link can view")*:



Section 5 of 5



Inclusion of your submitted details in our search results is subject to our approval.

Music Enterprise Works York is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy, and we’ll only use your personal information to administer your relationship with us and to provide further relevant information about the project. We would also like to be able to contact you in the future to discover more about your experiences of using the Music Maker Portal, as part of our research and to inform future improvements. If you consent to us contacting you for this purpose, please tick below to say how you would like us to contact you:
You can unsubscribe from these communications at any time by emailing your request to music-enterprise-works@york.ac.uk

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By clicking submit below, you consent to allow Music Enterprise Works York to store and process the personal information submitted above.










Please enter the administration key:

ID



Name



Gender



MusicBrainz identifier



Contact email



Influences












Influenced







Performed With







Location



Site Links







Audio Clip Link



Image Link



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