MusicBrainz .vs. Million Song Dataset (battle of the Open Music databases)
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I’m looking to add a significant amount of Music data to the OpenRecommender project to power the new Music Recommendation services.
Since I couldn’t find one, I feel compelled to write a side-by-side comparison between MusicBrainz (the old trusty) and the Million Song Database by LabROSA @ Columbia U. (the new kid in town). The following is the breakdown, and though I’ll offer my thoughts at the end, I’ll encourage the reader decide which is the best data source.
Ready? BATTLE!
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BC$ = Behavior, Content, Money
The goal of the BC$ project is to raise awareness and make changes with respect to the three pillars of information freedom - Behavior (pursuit of interests and passions), Content (sharing/exchanging ideas in various formats), Money (fairness and accessibility) - bringing to light the fact that:
1. We regularly hand over our browser histories, search histories and daily online activities to companies that want our money, or, to benefit from our use of their services with lucrative ad deals or sales of personal information.
2. We create and/or consume interesting content on their services, but we aren't adequately rewarded for our creative efforts or loyalty.
3. We pay money to be connected online (and possibly also over mobile), yet we lose both time and money by allowing companies to market to us with unsolicited advertisements, irrelevant product offers and unfairly structured service pricing plans.