Re: Common music database?

[Jamie McCracken <jamiemcc blueyonder co uk>]

Sriram Ramkrishna wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 17, 2006 at 08:42:45PM +0200, Daniel Svensson wrote:
> > Why do we need a shared (physically the same) medialibrary? Isn't the
> > diffrences what makes some music players more powerful than others? To
> > unify the media library would most likely lead to some music players
> > getting less powerful than their current state unless they store
>
> Since I started this thread.  Let me speak up on what I wanted when I
> started this.  What I'm looking for is a common database so that when
> I do want to switch, the and effort I went into setting up tags, 
> and other meta data isn't lost when I switch.
>
> Secondly, you're thinking that a single music player would address all
> your needs.  Frankly I don't think it can.  There are too many use cases
> for music players and a single monolithic application is not going to 
> address everything.  So the idea is that you would use the player that
> would work best with what you want to do.  For instance, you still want
> your tags if you decide you want to stream your music to another computer
> or to your stereo.  But Rhythmbox isn't meant to do that, but some
> other app is.
>
> I'm not saying that every bit of meta data has to go but there are some
> base ones that should since they still apply.  For instance:
>
> * ratings
> * stats (how many times you've played this song)
> * when was it added to the library
> * user defined tags
> * id3 tags
> * album art (debatable, I don't think it's a good idea, but whatever)
>
> I don't know about you, but I actually use several music players
> depending on what I'm doing since I find that not all suits my needs.
>
> Having these common makes switching easier when you want to switch.
> Otherwise they keep you stuck on the same apps.  If you've tagged and
> rated 10,000 songs you're not going to want to do that again.  Hence,
> the need for a common music database so we don't have 10 different
> implementations, and also it becomes part of the GNOME platform
> making it easier to create new playeres with different emphasis.
> At least that is what I'm thinking.

And that's a worthy goal that's also shared by Tracker (Tracker intends 
to create a common DB for all first class objects be it a common music 
database or a common picture one etc).

I am in the process of finalizing Tracker's Dbus interfaces to be more 
useful for the above tasks that Sri mentioned. I will post here in a few 
days with the details once its finished.


--
Mr Jamie McCracken
http://jamiemcc.livejournal.com/