The design and implementation of a digital music library: Framework, data model, query language, and indices of HIT-DML

The design and implementation of Harbin Institute of Technology-Digital Music Library (HIT-DML) is presented in this paper. Firstly, a novel framework, a music data model, and a query language are proposed as the theoretical foundation of the library. Secondly, music computing algorithms used in the library for feature extracting and matching are described. In addition, indices are introduced for both mining themes of music objects and accelerating content-based information retrieval. Finally, experimental results on the indices and the current development of the library are provided. HIT-DML is distinguished by the following points. First, it is inherently based on database systems, and combines database technologies with multimedia technologies seamlessly. Musical data are structurally stored. Second, it has a solid theoretical foundation, from framework and data model to query language. Last, it can retrieve musical information based on content against different kinds of musical instruments. The indices used, also power the library.