Other Databases
MusicBrainz is not unique as a database of music information. For a comprehensive list, see wikipedia. This page lists some and indicates if crosslinking is possible.
For an exhaustive list of databases that can be linked to from entities see the whitelist.
General Purpose
Site | Description/Notes | Access | License | Advanced Relationship |
---|---|---|---|---|
Wikipedia | Wiki-based free general interest encyclopedia. | Free | Creative Commons | Yes |
Discogs | Commercial site, switched to a public domain license for its data in early 2008. | Free | Public Domain | artists, release groups, releases, labels |
MusicMoz | Directory of all things music, edited by volunteers. Imports data from MusicBrainz. | Free | MusicMoz Data Use License | Yes |
Allmusic | Commercial site. Part of content is freely available. | Free | Proprietary | artists, release groups, recordings, works |
Rate Your Music | Metadata database build around ratings and reviews. Good genre and location/date data. (RYM) | Free | Proprietary | No |
Amazon | Often has incorrect release dates, doesn't always mark imports as such*. | Free | No | |
WorldCat | International network of library holdings. | Free | Link | Yes |
Open Library | Internet Archive's project for books and audiobooks. | Free | Link | Yes |
gnudb.org | CDDB/free.db successor. | Free | Link | No |
Open CD Index | CDDB/free.db successor. | Free | GPL | No |
Sound Credit | Music credits platform for capturing metadata in DDEX RIN format. Provides an online database. | Free | Proprietary | No |
Jaxsta | Aggregator of content-owner supplied music data via DDEX. Free tier allows 5 searches/month. | Paid | No | |
GD3 | Commercial CD/DVD metadata lookup site. | Paid | Proprietary | No |
Gracenote | Commercial site. Inspired MusicBrainz to form, by stealing public data. (formerly CDDB) | Paid | Proprietary | No |
Thematic
Site | Description/Notes | Access | License | Advanced Relationship |
---|---|---|---|---|
SoundtrackCollector | Database of movie soundtracks | Free | No | |
VGMdb | Database of videogame music | Free | artists, labels, releases | |
Encyclopaedia Metallum | Database of heavy metal (and related) music (aka The Metal Archives) | Free | No | |
SA-CD.net | Database of Super Audio CDs | Free | No | |
Encyclopédisque | Database of French 7" vinyl | Free | No | |
Soundamental | Database of French singles and albums. Has catnos and barcodes | Free | No | |
45cat | Database of 7" vinyl | Free | Yes | |
SamplerInfos | Database of German samplers and compilations | Free | No | |
LaserDisc Database | Database cataloging all LaserDiscs. Also has HD DVD, CED, VHD and D-VHS releases. | Free | No | |
臺灣流行音樂資料庫 | Database of Taiwan popular music | Free | No | |
allmusic.hu | Database of Hungarian music | Free | No |
Covers
Site | Description/Notes | Access | License | Advanced Relationship |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Covers Project | Database of cover songs (songs performed by an artist other than the original performer). Uses MusicBrainz data. | Free | No | |
Second Hand Songs | Database of cover songs containing artists, songs and covers (80K originals, 640K cover songs and 3166 songs with samples) (2018-10-27). | Free | artists, releases, works | |
coverinfo.de | Database that lists more than 50K cover songs and samples. <ain site and interface in German, but there is also a English user guide. | Free | No | |
WhoSampled | Details of samples, covers and interpolations | Yes |
Classical
Site | Description/Notes | Access | License | Advanced Relationship |
---|---|---|---|---|
International Music Score Library Project | Holds the Petrucci Music Library, an internet-based collaborative music score library. | Free | Public Domain | Yes (as "has score") |
MusOpen | Online music library of copyright free (public domain) music. Offers free music and sheet music downloads. | Free | Public Domain | No |
SonataDB | Commercial site. | No |
Open Data
- Last.fm: Currently uses MusicBrainz data (?)
- Curlie: Open Directory, also lists other directories here
Data available at no cost
Free as in "Free beer, if you drink it in my bar".
- GnoD: nifty little engine that deals with relating artists to each other; the database doesn't appear to be publicly available, but the service is free and in a very usable state
Others
The following is still unsorted
- Music Plasma: Very pretty related artist mapping database with audio clips; very little documentation so not sure where their data comes from.
- UPC Database: Database of Barcodes including music CDs (as well as DVDs, nappies and other assorted goods).
- BPMDataBase: Database of dance music tracks with their bpm for DJs - Slowly dying in 2008 due to spam submissions and no non-spam submissions.
- Wolf's Kompaktkiste: A personal database of Wolf's CD and record collection, with scans. Largely electronic, with jazz other genres as well.
- CDArchiv: German site, database supports the Hitbase application.
- VIAF: VIAF is a database that links the person name entries of national libraries together. It should contain every person that has ever released a work.
- Nederlandse Liederenbank: Database with Dutch lyrics, tunes and songs. Source for origin of (old) works. Crosslinking requested.
(please add any more you know of)
Examples of a more tightly-focused database that is crying out to be built on top of a MusicBrainz foundation:
- Sample FAQ: Tells you "who sampled what from who", irregularly updated and with a hand-tooled vibe but very interesting
- Songtitle.info: US television advert music database
Defunct Databases
- Echo Cloud: Database of related artists (if you like xxx then you might like yyy) based on crawling P2P networks - Down as of 2008-03
- Cover Songs Database: Similar to above, but also tracks usage in samples - Down as of 5/24/07
- Music Recommender: Database of related CDs (if you like xxx then you might like yyy) based on crawling music playlists - Down as of 2008-03
- MoodLogic: Proprietary, fingerprint based mood and genre matching "Effective March 3, 2008, Macrovision announces the end of life (EOL) of the Moodlogic..."
- MusicMatch: Database taken offline in September, 2007, when Yahoo! aquired them. Yahoo! has since discontinued the MusicMatch software and database completely.
- Music City:"Collaborative" music and artists DB. Has content from Amazon and no copyright statement (see also thread in their forum). Beta. - Inactive as of 2005-06
- ChristianMusicPlace: Christian music site
- The Free Track Info Xchange: Works with the Microsoft Deluxe CD Player, and also has a "universal" data converter (PLC)
- Daz.com: Seems to mainly source data from freedb
- Commercial Breaks & Beats: UK television advert music database
- TrackType.org: Formerly freedb2.org
- Web Music Database:
- FreeDB: Successor to CDDB, redirects to gnudb.org since 2020
- Metamuse: Database of cover songs and remixes - Possibly offline as of 2018-10
See also
- Other Databases Relationship Type/Whitelist
- List of online music databases on Wikipedia
- User:Colbydray/NonEnglishReleaseDatabases
*
About amazon's [Import] label not being trustworthy, here is the smoke-proof to check whether the IMPORT is bogus or not on .fr. Switch the tld to .de: http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00004UH7R
Check what they have as a label, in this case: Label: France (Megaphon Importservice) => it comes from france, and the [Import] is on .fr is bogus.