Creative professional users’ musical relevance criteria

Abstract

This is the unspecified version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link Andy MacFarlane Department of Information Science, City University London, UK Pauline Rafferty Department of Information Studies, University of Aberystwyth, Wales AbstractAlthough known item searching for music can be dealt with by searching metadata using existing text search techniques, human subjectivity and variability within the music itself make it very difficult to search for unknown items. This paper examines these problems within the context of text retrieval and music information retrieval. The focus is on ascertaining a relationship between music relevance criteria and those relating to relevance judgements in text retrieval. A data-rich collection of relevance judgements by creative professionals searching for unknown musical items to accompany moving images using real world queries is analysed. The participants in our observations are found to take a socio-cognitive approach and use a range of content and context based criteria. These criteria correlate strongly with those arising from previous text retrieval studies despite the many differences between music and text in their actual content.

Information seeking for musical creativity: A systematic literature review

“…Music performers are interested in the development of music collections (i.e., performance repertoire) in physical and digital form with additional information more specific to their work role, such as contact details of new groups or specific sound recordings of performances and improvisations (Ahmed, Benford, & Crabtree, 2012;Cunningham, Jones, & Jones, 2004;Inskip, MacFarlane, & Rafferty, 2010;Lee & Downie, 2004). These music collections may consist of materials of various text and audio formats, such as scores of musical works, books, sound recordings, and video and archival materials (Downie & Cunningham, 2002;Gottlieb, 1994;Kostagiolas, Lavranos, Papavlasopoulos, Korfiatis, & Papadatos, 2015).…”

“…Information needs regarding music listening and analysis are often related to certain uses of music, such as for recreational reasons, to renew a personal music collection, satisfy an insatiable craving for new music, or to fulfil a particular function such as the analysis of the music heard (Inskip et al, 2010;Laplante & Downie, 2006;Taheri-Panah & MacFarlane, 2004). For example, people listening to music to identify and analyze a particular musical work or artist may locate a recording, obtain the lyrics of the song and bibliographic entities by searching for a known item or song, find new and old songs from the same or a different music genre, or use the titles of songs, the artist's name, music pitch, and/or rhythm (Bainbridge, Cunningham, & Downie, 2003;Inskip et al, 2010;Lee et al, 2007). Also, important information needs related to music listening and analysis were found to be based on both popular and Western music of all descriptions as well as different types of media content, such as video and audio (Casey & Taylor, 1995;Kaminskas & Ricci, 2012).…”

“…Music information needs employed for listening and analysis activities have both a utilitarian (e.g., acquisition of music and information about music by increasing knowledge and enriching listening analysis) and a hedonic (e.g., entertainment and enjoyment reasons) basis (Cunningham, 2002;Kostagiolas et al, 2015;Laplante & Downie, 2011;Liew & Ng, 2006;Nettamo, Nirhamo, & Häkkilä, 2006). Information needs regarding music listening and analysis are often related to certain uses of music, such as for recreational reasons, to renew a personal music collection, satisfy an insatiable craving for new music, or to fulfil a particular function such as the analysis of the music heard (Inskip et al, 2010;Laplante & Downie, 2006;Taheri-Panah & MacFarlane, 2004). For example, people listening to music to identify and analyze a particular musical work or artist may locate a recording, obtain the lyrics of the song and bibliographic entities by searching for a known item or song, find new and old songs from the same or a different music genre, or use the titles of songs, the artist's name, music pitch, and/or rhythm (Bainbridge, Cunningham, & Downie, 2003;Inskip et al, 2010;Lee et al, 2007).…”

Applying the stratified model of relevance interactions to music information retrieval

“…Lacking concrete meaning or “aboutness” beyond the relatively superficial level of lyrics and song or album titles, it is particularly difficult to define relevance concepts in terms of traditional, topical notions such as precision and recall. While there is a significant overlap with textual IR in terms of the criteria used in relevance judgements (Inskip, MacFarlane, & Rafferty, 2010; Laplante, 2010a), relevance considerations particular to the music information domain have as yet received only limited attention in the literature. To extend our investigation of such considerations beyond the scope of narrowly defined user groups and use cases, a shared conceptual framework is required.…”

“…Musical relevance is highly situational in nature; beyond the sheer joy of listening, music selection may be highly purposeful, as when selecting a soundtrack to accompany a TV show or advertisement (Inskip, MacFarlane, & Rafferty, 2010), or when deciding on the first dance of a wedding. More generally, music is commonly selected for particular use cases or activities (Cunningham, Jones, & Jones, 2004), such as relaxation, socializing, driving, housework, or exercise.…”