All Music, But Its All Invisible…

One for the music buffs - The All Music Guide would have to be easily one of the most comprehensive, extensively cross-linked and user friendly musical resources on the Internet. Unfortunately it’s also, largely invisible to almost all search engines.

So, if you are looking for music information on the Internet, the All Music Guide at http://www.allmusic.com/ is without doubt an exceptional resource. It is packed with high quality information that's difficult, if not impossible, to find elsewhere.

For some statistics consider this. The statistics page shows the site currently has almost 640,000 albums, five and a half million tracks, 615,000 names (and about 66,000 biographies) and 400,000 images indexed.

Perhaps the most insightful and meaningful statistic of this site is the more than 4,500,000 relational links between all of this information that ties it all together. That’s one good online database, one you are going to visit and search directly, as its wealth of information is squarely hidden away from the general search engines.

What makes this music site different to all those other music sites on the Internet?
Probably the information on site alone makes it one of the most comprehensive and authoritative sources for music information on the web. The All Music Guide would have to be best known for its extensive, detailed, and critical biographies of many thousands of performers, as well as its very thorough discographies.

By taking full advantage of the interactive capabilities of database technology the site designers have been able extensively cross-link, allowing you to get the full information about a particular artist whilst also making it easy to simply click through for information on related artists, musical styles, instruments and many other facilities. The range of interlinked information is one of the most impressive aspects of this site.

So why do you say they are difficult to find using search engine technology?
As we have discussed several times in the past whilst investigating the “Deep Web”, it is an unfortunate fact databases on the Web presents one of the toughest challenges to search engines. The All Music Guide lies squarely in the realm of the Invisible web, and most of its content is not available through popular search engines like Google and others.

Fortunately, the site itself has very capable search facilities. Each page has a search box that allows you to search by artist, album, song, style or label. So unless you are doing a specific search, for example, say a song or an album, or some kind of broader information gathering, you'll likely use search by artist most of the time.

Can you give some examples of how a search might work?
Results of searches for an artist return a list of artists with names similar to your original query. Next to each result is the genre and time period that the artist is associated with. To see more simply click the result that you'd like to see, and this is where the real fun begins.

Not only is there basic biographical information, but there's also information about the musical styles the artist is recognised for, instruments they might play, and "tones", which is a description of the style of music such as elegant, volatile, intense, meandering, atmospheric, angry, brooding, rebellious, melancholy, eerie, nocturnal, etc.

Also shown are the very extensive links to related artists. These are usually grouped by similar artists, roots and influences, followers, formal connections, performed songs by, worked with, and member of categories. By following any link in these categories you'll see full information for that particular artist.

While you are there try the "artist browser" tool which contrasts the dominant style of a particular musician with other musicians that play similar music but with different emphasis or tone. On the left side you'll see descriptions such as "more energizing, exciting" or "colder, firmer" and so on. Just by hovering your mouse over a description, a photograph and link to information about an artist that fits those criteria automatically appears in the center of the screen. On the right side are "softer" descriptors, such as "more soothing, relaxing," and "more sober, arranged." This seems like a great way to discover new music based on what you already know and like.

As you might expect, there are complete discographies for most artists, grouped by albums, boxed sets, compilations, and other formats. There are also bibliographies of articles and books about many artists.

Sounds pretty good so far, is there more?
Certainly seems like it. From the main menu, you can explore music through a list of musical styles. Each list has a sub lists that explore specific genres, including such items as, Blues, Acoustic Blues or Jazz, New Orleans Brass or Country, Truck Driving Country.

"Music maps" which are timelines of milestones in musical history. They are organised by musical instrument, style or performer. When you click on one of the maps, the most notable events for that particular category are presented with a clickable timeline.

A collection of essays provides a phenomenal expose in musical history, styles, and performers, written by some of the most respected music critics around.

The All Music Guide also has a separate site for classical music that's organised very differently than the popular music site, it does however retain a similar depth and breadth of information available.

Arthur Hissey
Computer Research & Technology
www.crt.net.au