List of online music databases
This is a list of online music databases, as well as including a list of sites that currently provide free and paid-for on-demand music as a streaming media. A primary unit of many of these two types of sites is the tracks which is often referred to in the marketplace simply as a song.
Online music databases
Below is a table of online music databases that are largely free of charge. Note that many of the sites provide a specialized service or focus on a particular music genre. Some of these operate as an online music store or purchase referral service in some capacity. Among the sites that have information on the largest number of entities are those sites that focus on discographies of composing and performing artists.
| Database | Services | No. of tracks | No. of releases | No. of artists | Notes | License | Full free access |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Allmusic | Music information and reviews | ~20,000,000[1] | ~2,200,000[1] | Song samples only | |||
| Choral Public Domain Library | |||||||
| Decibel | Database and API of physical & digital products, venues, photos, artists, participants, composers, movements, labels, publishers and rights. | 12,000,000 [2] | 301,000 | Multi-lingual, Global Coverage | |||
| Discogs | User-generated database of physical/digital releases, artists, and labels. Marketplace. | 21,500,000 [3] | 2,800,000 [4] | 2,200,000 [4] | |||
| The Echo Nest | A music metadata API | Free access to selected catalogues ("sandboxes") [5] | |||||
| Encyclopaedia Metallum | A heavy metal encyclopedia with information, complete discography, links, images, and reviews. | ~1,200,000 [6] | ~74,000 [6] | ~170,000 [6] | |||
| freedb | Identification service for CDs | GPL | |||||
| The Freesound Project | repository of Creative Commons-licensed audio samples | CC Sampling Plus | |||||
| Gracenote | Identification service for CDs and other media | ~100,000,000 [7] | ~8,000,000 [7] | 1 billion "submissions" [8] | |||
| International Music Score Library Project | Music scores and parts, mostly scanned from publications now in the public domain; some recordings | 6,500 (150,000 scores) | 6,700 composers, 162 performers [9] | PD/CC-BY-NC-SA | |||
| Internet Archive | Huge live music archive and host for hundreds of free music netlabels | ~200,000[10] | CC/PD | Yes | |||
| iLike | music download and sharing | ||||||
| Jamendo | free full-length music download | CC/Free Art License | |||||
| Jango | advertising-supported Internet radio and social networking | Yes | |||||
| Last.fm | Internet radio and music community website. | 12,000,000[11] | Automatically creates online library/collection of listened to music and generates recommendations | ||||
| LyricWiki | Lyrics wiki on Wikia | ||||||
| MAQAM | Largest Database of Arabic and Middle Eastern music artists, tracks, and albums. | 20,000 | 1,200 | ||||
| Megarock Radio | Streaming music service, reviews, interviews and news. | 23,000 | 1,000 | Full free access. | |||
| Metacritic | Album reviews | ||||||
| Metalbandwiki | Articles on all types of metal music, musicians, musical instruments used in metal, and articles related to those bands and musicians | 1,700+ | yes | ||||
| MetroLyrics | Lyrics lookup | ||||||
| Moozone | Online music storage and community service | 8,000,000[citation needed] | 730,000 | 590,000 | |||
| MP3.com | information about digital music and artists (formerly freely licensed music download) | Does not play its own music | |||||
| MusicBrainz | Open content music database. | 11,252,511[12] | 1,039,172[12] | 666,293[12] | GPL/LGPL/PD/CC-BY-NC-SA | ||
| MusicMight | Biographies and discographies | ||||||
| MusicX | Lyrics and videos | ||||||
| Musipedia | Search by melody (entering notes, Parsons code, whistling, or tapping rhythm) | Yes, but via other sources | |||||
| Mutopia Project | repository of free content sheet music | ||||||
| MySpace | Artist bios and artist-uploaded music streaming | ||||||
| Nigerian Music Factory | Artist, DJ, Producer bios and artist-uploaded music streaming | ||||||
| Ovation Press | Online publisher of classical string music | ||||||
| Online Music DB | Music information, YouTube Videos and Lyrics | 200 | |||||
| Pandora | Music recommendation and Internet radio service. | USA-only | |||||
| Rainwave | Online music community featuring Video Game music. Users can request and rate music. Music is selected by election: During every song, users vote from a selection of three tracks to choose the next song to play. | ~11,000 | ~1,500 | ~1,800 | |||
| Radio Croquer | Social Network and music stations | Yes | |||||
| RadioPalmwine | Nigerian Radio Station, Online music community and Entertainment Portal | ||||||
| Rate Your Music | Catalog, rate, tag, and review your music. | ~1,900,000 [13] | 580,000 [13] | ||||
| Rolldabeats | Drum N Bass music database, physical releases only. | ||||||
| ShareTheMusic | Service for free and legally music sharing. | ||||||
| SparkTop10 | Free music sharing using YouTube API. | ||||||
| Werner Icking Music Archive | |||||||
| Wikifonia | Free lead sheets in MusicXML format, contributed and editable by users. | ||||||
| WhoSampled | User-generated database of comparison between original songs and covers or songs that uses samples. | 48,000 | 18,000 | ||||
| WorldCat |
On-demand streaming music services
The following is a list of online music stores that currently offer some free on-demand music streaming of full-length content over the Internet as a part of their service[14] without the listener necessarily purchasing a file for download.[15] One might compare this type of service to internet radio. Many of these sites have advertising and offer non-free options in the style of an online music store. For a list of online music stores that provide a means of purchasing and downloading music as files of some sort, see comparison of online music stores. Many of both types of sites offer browsing by song title, artist, etc. that amounts to a form of online music database.
| Database | # of tracks (millions) | Available in | Pricing | PC | Android | iOS | BlackBerry | Windows Phone 7 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8tracks | 07 | Everywhere | Free/Subscription | Web | Yes | Yes | No | Soon | Commercial free |
| Deezer | 13 [16] | France/UK/Germany/Spain | Free/Subscription | Web | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Requires a Facebook account. Also available on Symbian. |
| fizy | USA | Free | Web | ||||||
| Grooveshark | 22 | Everywhere but Germany | Free/Subscription | Web/Desktop Application | Yes, nonmarket | Partial, Jailbroken | Yes | No | |
| huntmusic.co.nr | 18 | Everywhere | Free | Web | No Signup | ||||
| Last.fm | 12 [11] | USA/UK/Germany (free) - Everywhere? | Free/Subscription | Web/Desktop Application | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Available on Xbox 360 |
| Mflow | 05 | UK | Free | Web | |||||
| MOG | 11+ [17] | USA | Subscription | Web | Yes | Yes | No | No | Available on Roku |
| Myxum | < 1 | Everywhere | Free | Web | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Zonga | < 1 | Romania | Free/Subscription | Web/Desktop Application | Yes | Yes | No | No | Still in BETA |
| Pandora | 0.7 [18] | USA | Free/Subscription | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Qobuz.com | 07,2+ [19] | France/Belgique/Luxembourg/Suisse | Subscription | Web/Desktop Application | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| Music Unlimited | 06+ [20] | USA/UK/IR/FR/SP/IT/GE/JP | Subscription | Web | Yes | Yes | No | No | Available on PS3/PSP/Bravia TVs/BIVL |
| Rdio | 12 [21] | USA, Brazil, Canada, Australia & New Zealand | Subscription | Web/Desktop Application | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Rhapsody | 09 [22] | USA | |||||||
| Simfy | 13 [23] | Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium [23] | Free/Subscription | Web/Desktop Application | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Slacker | 02.4 [24] | USA, Canada | |||||||
| Spotify | 15 [25] | Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, USA | Free/Subscription | Desktop Application | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Requires a Facebook account. Available on Palm, Sonos, Symbian, Boxee,[26] Telia Digital-TV, Virgin TiVo, webOS & Windows Mobile 6.x.. |
| Thumbplay | 08 [27] | Subscription | |||||||
| we7 | 06.8 [28] | UK, Ireland & Belgium | Free/Subscription | Web | Yes | Yes | No | No | Now a personal DJ service. Music on demand is still available to premium users. |
| WiMP | 13 [29] | Norway, Sweden and Denmark | Subscription | Desktop Application | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |
| Zune | 10 [30] | USA, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Australia | Subscription | Desktop Application/Web | No | No | No | Yes | Available on Xbox 360, Zune HD. Rebranding to Xbox Music in October 2012 |
See also
References
- ^ a b "Coverage Statistics". allmusic. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
- ^ "Data and API Coverage Statistics". Decibel. Retrieved 2011-03-29.
- ^ "Data Dumps". Discogs. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
- ^ a b "Advertise on Discogs". Discogs. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
- ^ "The Echo Nest Developer Center". Retrieved 2012-04-07.
- ^ a b c "M-A Statistics". Encyclopaedia Metallum. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
- ^ a b http://www.gracenote.com/press/01/23/2011/
- ^ http://www.gracenote.com/press/09/09/2010/
- ^ "Library statistics". IMSLP. Retrieved 2010-12-17..
- ^ "Audio main page". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
- ^ a b http://cbsimg.com/our-products/last-fm/
- ^ a b c "Database Statistics". MusicBrainz. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
- ^ a b "RYM Statistics". RateYourMusic. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
- ^ "The best online music service!". Matthews, Paul. SRF. Retrieved 2011-04-01.
- ^ "Pricing of Content Services – An Empirical Investigation of Music as a Service". Doerr, Jonathan; Benlian, Alexander; Vetter, Johannes; Hess, Thomas. Retrieved 2011-02-26.
- ^ "Deezer is Expanding Streaming Music Service in Major Global Push". Retrieved 2011-10-25.
- ^ http://blog.mog.com/press-other.php
- ^ "How Pandora Slipped Past the Junkyard". The New York Times. 2010-03-07. Retrieved 2010-05-08.
- ^ http://www.pcinpact.com/news/66862-qobuz-streaming-telechargement-illimite-loseless.htm
- ^ http://qriocity.com/gb/en/music-special-offer.html/
- ^ "Can Rdio Withstand The Spotify Assault? A Feature-By-Feature Look". TechCrunch. 2011-07-14. Retrieved 2011-07-14.
- ^ "Rhapsody About Us". Rhapsody International Inc. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
- ^ a b "simfy Expands Further and Launches in Belgium". Retrieved 2011-11-07.
- ^ CES 08: Slacker Portable arrives this month
- ^ "Spotify vs. Girl Talk: What Is Spotify's Music Catalog Missing?". Retrieved 2011-07-22.
- ^ "Spotify and Boxee, together at last". Retrieved 2011-10-14.
- ^ "Thumbplay About Us". Thumbplay Inc. Retrieved 2010-12-21.
- ^ We7 moves beyond UK with Irish launch
- ^ "WiMP FAQ". Retrieved 2012-03-14.
- ^ http://zune.net/en-us/press/2009/0915-zunelaunch.htm