For all of you who use or are considering using MP3's, I would welcome your opinion. A senior software engineer is developing for me a piece of software containing a database of all UK top 40 singles from 1952 to the present day with dates and highest positions (updated weekly with the new releases).

The idea is that the software will be able to search your hard drive and match mp3's found (either from the file name or possibly from the mp3 tag) and mark them as available in the database.

There will be a range of search facilities to find tracks and the software will support drag-and-drop into your favorite player.

The plan is to make the finished software available for between £30 - £40 with all weekly updates free to registered users.

Before the software is completed I would be interested in any suggestions you guys or girls would have to make the program more useable.

I have tested the first prototype and it can search through my mp3 collection (over 8000 tracks) and mark them in the database in under 10 seconds.

If you can offer any good suggestions or would be interested in purchasing a finished copy please mail me at richard.clayton@surface-inspection.com and I will pass the comments on to the developer.

Thanks
Dicky

Just wondering is this within the law!

Any program that searches a database would be within the law............ now what all those MP3's are doing there is another story

As to the charts................ well you carry around a Guiness Book of hit Singles do you not? Is'nt that a database in hard copy?............. and in any case I print off the latest chart from the web every week for my own use, is that not the same thing?

I see your point but somebody has to start somewhere!

I don't believe that this idea in itself would be breaking any laws, as long as the database itself contained no copied material or illegal mp3 files.

I believe that there is an on line database listing all popular music called Gracenote and this has never attracted any adverse publicity

So i'd say go for it!

It was more this point

QUOTE

There will be a range of search facilities to find tracks and the software will support drag-and-drop into your favorite player.

will this mean sharing the files! i know having a data base is not illigal maybe its me reading the post wrong but it seems like a file share program!

I assumed it meant search 'your' hard drive for tracks that are in the database then tag them so you can drag and drop into PCDJ or similar.

Spin

You are right Spin. You can only drag and drop files from your hard disk into a player. What it does do is alow you to quicky find any track you have and then play it. It will also highlight any tracks you don't have that you may need. The program will not Tag the files at the moment (we may look at that option) but if you can find them quickly then you can drag and drop straight in to PCDJ or similar

Where you get the tracks from, rip from cd or download is your problem.

In answer to the other point, all of the information about the uk top 40 is copyright. It is owned by "the uk chart company" who we are in communication with.

It seems daft that such freely available information can be copyrighted but it is.

Dicky

I stand corrected!

Hi Dicky, this sounds very interesting. What info will the database store?
I'm presuming that there will be at least 9 fields, such as:
1. Artist
2. Track name
3. Album Title
4. Genre
5. Year of Release
6. Date Reached Highest Position
7. Highest Position
8. How long @ #1
9. Comments/Misc

It would be useful if the programme could tag the files, and add the chart info into the id3 tag.

For DJ use it would be handy if you could input a date, such as the birthday of a client, 25 July 1963 for example, and the programme could then instantly show a list of the #1 songs for the nearest chart day to July 25 every year since 1963.

I could see this being also quite useful for DJ's such as Spin who do quiz nights. He could input a date and instantly see the top 5 records for that date, and then ask the punters to guess the month & year.

I'm definitely interested in hearing more about this Dicky.

there is a web site that does this Everyhit

Nice to have it with you though, rather than a hard copy

Sounds good, how does it recognise the track,

i presume its but the name but what happens if its spelt slightly different for example (daniel odonnell, or daniel o'donnell, YMCA, Y.M.C.A) do you see what i mean.

Its definatly a good idea. At the moment i have all my CD tracks listed in an excel spreadsheet, that i can search, by using the autofilter. Im finding it really good as i have only just started and cuts down time shifting through masses of CDs.

Hi

Sounds like a good idea. Here are a couple of suggestion that may already be implemented:

1. filtering facility to list tracks in a certain year, style, bpm, artist etc.

2. Be usable with screen reading sofware for people with sight impairments. Would just mean that all functionality can be access by both mouse and keyboard shortcuts.

3. Just an aside here. Would be nice if you could save your play list from a gig and print it off to remind the parties what was played on their special occasion?

Great idea though, you have no idea how heavy 35 volumes of hits singles is in braille *grin*

Darren