looking for inspiration: Music Database

[myleftear]

Hi friends

Oftentimes, I just can't solder around.

So I started to build a database (ninox) where I try to gather and connect as much information as possible as fine-grained as possible, like

• who wrote (what piece)
• who played (what instrument)
• who contributed (on which track)
• who recorded it
• who published it
• what do I or other family member like
  

You get the picture. Kind of a clone of discogs, merged with my iTunes-library or something like that, so that I can dig out specific informations from the collection...

Of course, this task barely has a boundary, and so I'm quite overwhelmed of its complexity. I would like to find solutions on both the technical (database-design) level as well as the logical level (where to best hook attributes like "authorship, contribution, role" etc.)...

Is there a place where such issues are discussed?
Could this be the place?

Thank you, enjoy sunday!
david

(context:
I listen to music more than not, and try to build knowledge about it.

trying to set up a sort of a catalogue of my music-library, which consists of a inherited collection of classical records (~1500 vinyls), and there's some records in the world of pop/jazz/etc. (~300 vinyls). Plus a huge collection of digital files (~500 ripped CD's, + ~300 Albums purchased through bleep + bandcamp)
)

 

[jjcMtl]

Which database engine do you want to use
Access, SQLserver, sqlite, Oracle
How is you SQL knowledge
You will have to create two tables: one for the album and another for the track
The reason for this design is:
a song may be sing by several singer
The same song by the same singer may be on several albums (vinyl, MP3 or CD) on different supports
Here is my design (may be not the best)
Just add the missing fields (colums in SQL)
Album Table
album Nb (Primiry key)
serialNb (serial number: an album may be from a serie)
albumAtist
editor
kind of music
country
yearOfPublication
typeOfSupport (vinyl, CD, mp3, etc)
monoStereo
digitised (yes, no)
quality (exellent to poor, 10 to 1)
comments

Track Table Track
(trackNb, albumNb) (Primary key)
trackTitle
artist
country
kindOfMusic (jazz, rock, etc...)
duration (m.s)
nameOfFile (or address of the file on your server

SQL:
CONSTRAINT PK_PRIMARY KEY (trackNb, albumNb)
FOREIGN KEY (Album) REFERENCES Album(albumNb)

Hope this help

jjcMtl

 

[rayma]

Check allmusic, they do a very good job.

 

[MAAC0]

I use Mediamonkey for all my needs. So far 250000 tracks / 4TB tagged.
Started 3 years ago, but sometimes I pause for a few days or even a whole month. Depends on the Mood.
I'm not so detailed. I just use ALBUM, ARTiST, ALBUMARTIST, TRACK, GENRE , DISC, YEAR & COVER fields. Sometimes Comment field also.

I Recommend tagging inconsistencies script to find things like Brian (Bryan) Adams.
Cindy (Cyndi) Lauper, Missing Fields, Artists & (AND) BAND, and so on.

I believe Hydrogenaudio forums address music databases, methods and rules.

 

[myleftear]

Hey jjMtl

Thank you!
I use a beginner-friendly tool called Ninox (webiste)
The Database's structure is shown like (see attachment). It's awkward and the fields can't be pushed around for better readability...

My SQL-knowledge is equal to 1 (I know it exists, but nothing more)

I'had already started to build it up, beginning with a track-table, a artist-table and a releases-table:
expressions between ( 'expression' ) are key-elements.

A 'track' has its 'composer'
On a 'release', the 'track' is interpreted by a 'formation' which consists of 'artists' playing 'instruments', 'recording date', 'duration', 'style', 'rating', contributions, soloists, etc.
A 'release' is being published by a 'label' which is owned by a 'publisher'. many of the above arguments apply to a release, too.

So far, so good.
I was able to connect

artist to formation
instrument to artist
track to composer
track to formation/interpretation
track to release
release to formation
release to label/publisher

I haven't been able yet to connect [artist playing a specific instrument] to interpretation or release, which would be interesting...
(like
John Lennon plays guitar on track x
John Lennon plays piano on track y
)

I also would like to have a track's "genealogy" (what other pieces was it inspired from?)

more to come...

Which database engine do you want to use
Access, SQLserver, sqlite, Oracle
How is you SQL knowledge
You will have to create two tables: one for the album and another for the track
The reason for this design is:
a song may be sing by several singer
The same song by the same singer may be on several albums (vinyl, MP3 or CD) on different supports
…