Automatically acquiring acoustic and cultural information about music
There are disclosed methods, apparatus, and storage media for building a music metadata library. Acoustic metadata for one or more music tracks may be automatically acquired from a plurality of client computing devices. Cultural metadata for the one or more music tracks may be automatically acquired by searching Internet-accessible content. The acquired acoustic and cultural metadata may be stored in the music metadata library.
1. A method for building a music metadata library, comprising:
automatically acquiring acoustic metadata and explicit metadata for one or more music tracks from a plurality of client computing devices
automatically acquiring cultural metadata for the one or more music tracks by searching Internet-accessible content, automatically acquiring cultural metadata comprising:
maintaining a search queue including a plurality of search terms and a search repetition interval associated with each search term
searching for Internet-accessible content containing each of the plurality of search terms to acquire the cultural metadata
repeating the searching and the storing for each of the plurality of search terms after the associated search repetition interval
comparing the cultural metadata acquired by successive searches for each of the plurality of search terms to determine a rate of change of the cultural metadata for each search term
determining the search repetition interval for each of the plurality of search terms based on, at least in part, the respective rate of change of the cultural metadata
storing the acquired acoustic, explicit, and cultural metadata in the music metadata library.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein automatically acquiring acoustic and explicit metadata further comprises:
receiving a unique identifier for a track stored in a first client computing device from the first client computing device
determining if the track is a known track corresponding to acoustic metadata that is already contained in the music metadata library.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
when the track is not a known track
receiving acoustic metadata for from the track from the first client computing device
storing the received acoustic metadata in the music metadata library.
4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
receiving explicit metadata associated with the track from the first client computing device
storing the received explicit metadata in the music metadata library.
5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
sending at least a portion of the explicit metadata to a cultural metadata server.
6. The method of claim 2 , wherein
the unique identifier is an acoustic fingerprint derived from the track by the first client computing device
determining if the track is a known track comprises comparing the acoustic fingerprint to a plurality of acoustic fingerprints stored in the music metadata library.
7. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
when the track is a known track
retrieving acoustic metadata for the track from the music metadata library
sending the retrieved acoustic metadata to the client computing device.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein acquiring cultural metadata further comprises for each search term:
downloading the documents containing the search term
forming a description vector for the search term based on the frequency that each of a predetermined plurality of descriptive terms is used in the downloaded documents.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein comparing the cultural metadata acquired by successive searches further comprises for each search term:
comparing the description vector for the search term with a description vector formed from the results of a previous search for the same search term to determine a rate of change of the description vector for the search term.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving explicit metadata for a new track not previously contained in the music metadata library
adding the new track to the search queue
conducting a search of the Internet to acquire cultural metadata for the new track.
11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving request frequency data from a web server, the request frequency data indicating the frequency of user requests for information relating to at least some of the search terms
determining the search repetition intervals associated with at least some of the search terms based, at least in part, on the request frequency data.
12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
acquiring user-entered explicit metadata via a web server
combining the user-entered explicit metadata with explicit metadata previously stored in the music metadata library
storing the combined explicit metadata in the music metadata library.
13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
assigning a weight factor to each of a plurality of users
combining the explicit metadata entered by a specific user with explicit metadata previously stored in the music metadata library as a weighted sum using the weight factor for the specific user.
14. A method of automatically acquiring cultural metadata, comprising:
maintaining a search queue including a plurality of search terms and a search repetition interval associated with each search term
acquiring cultural metadata by conducting a search of the Internet for documents containing each of the plurality of search terms
storing the acquired cultural metadata in a metadata library
comparing the cultural metadata acquired by successive searches for each of the plurality of search terms to determine a rate of change of the cultural metadata for each search term
determining the search repetition interval for each of the plurality of search terms based on, at least in part, the respective rate of change of the cultural metadata
automatically repeating the acquiring and the storing for each of the plurality of search terms after the associated search repetition interval.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein acquiring cultural metadata further comprises:
for each search term
downloading the documents containing the search term
forming a description vector for the search term based on the frequency that each of a predetermined plurality of descriptive phrases is used in the downloaded documents.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein comparing the cultural metadata acquired by successive searches further comprises for each search term:
comparing the description vector for the search term with a description vector formed from the results of a previous search for the same search term to determine a rate of change of the description vector for the search term.
17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
receiving explicit metadata for a new track not previously contained in the music metadata library
adding the new track to the search queue
immediately conducting a search of the Internet to acquire cultural metadata for the new track.
18. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:
receiving request frequency data from a web server, the request frequency data indicating the frequency of user requests for information relating to at least some of the search terms
determining the search repetition intervals associated with at least some of the search terms based, at least in part, on the request frequency data.
19. A method for building a music metadata library, comprising:
automatically acquiring acoustic metadata and explicit metadata for one or more music tracks from a plurality of client computing devices
automatically acquiring cultural metadata for the one or more music tracks by searching Internet-accessible content, automatically acquiring cultural metadata comprising:
maintaining a search queue including a plurality of search terms and a search repetition interval associated with each search term
searching for Internet-accessible content containing each of the plurality of search terms to acquire the cultural metadata
downloading the documents containing each of the plurality of search terms
forming a description vector for each of the plurality of search terms based on the frequency that each of a predetermined plurality of descriptive terms is used in the downloaded documents
comparing the description vector for each of the plurality of search terms with a description vector formed from the results of a previous search for the same search term to determine a rate of change of the description vector for the search term
determining the search repetition interval for each of the plurality of search terms based on, at least in part, the rate of change of the respective description vector
repeating the searching and the storing for each of the plurality of search terms after the associated search repetition interval
storing the acquired acoustic, explicit, and cultural metadata in the music metadata library.
20. A method for building a music metadata library, comprising:
automatically acquiring acoustic metadata and explicit metadata for one or more music tracks from a plurality of client computing devices
automatically acquiring cultural metadata for the one or more music tracks by searching Internet-accessible content, automatically acquiring cultural metadata comprising:
maintaining a search queue including a plurality of search terms and a search repetition interval associated with each search term
searching for Internet-accessible content containing each of the plurality of search terms to acquire the cultural metadata
receiving request frequency data from a web server, the request frequency data indicating the frequency of user requests for information relating to at least some of the plurality of search terms
determining the search repetition intervals associated with at least some of the plurality of search terms based, at least in part, on the respective request frequency data
repeating the searching and the storing for each of the plurality of search terms after the associated search repetition interval
storing the acquired acoustic, explicit, and cultural metadata in the music metadata library.
21. A method of automatically acquiring cultural metadata, comprising:
maintaining a search queue including a plurality of search terms and a search repetition interval associated with each search term
acquiring cultural metadata by conducting a search of the Internet for documents containing each of the plurality of search terms
downloading the documents containing each of the plurality of search terms
storing the acquired cultural metadata in a metadata library
forming a description vector for each of the plurality of search terms based on the frequency that each of a predetermined plurality of descriptive phrases is used in the respective downloaded documents
comparing the description vector for each of the plurality of search terms with a description vector formed from the results of a previous search for the same search term to determine a rate of change of the description vector for the search term
determining the search repetition interval for each of the plurality of search terms based on, at least in part, the rate of change of the respective description vector
automatically repeating the acquiring and the storing for each of the plurality of search terms after the associated search repetition interval.
22. A method of automatically acquiring cultural metadata, comprising:
maintaining a search queue including a plurality of search terms and a search repetition interval associated with each search term
acquiring cultural metadata by conducting a search of the Internet for documents containing each of the plurality of search terms
storing the acquired cultural metadata in a metadata library
receiving request frequency data from a web server, the request frequency data indicating the frequency of user requests for information relating to at least some of the plurality of search terms
determining the search repetition intervals associated with at least some of the plurality of search terms based, at least in part, on the respective request frequency data
automatically repeating the acquiring and the storing for each of the plurality of search terms after the associated search repetition interval.