[uf-new] Re: Microformat for Music Downloads

[Manu Sporny]

Good to see that there is some renewed discussion in the "we need a
music microformat!" debate. I should mention that there has been quite a
bit of "in the wild" documentation on the media-info-examples page.

We run a digital content store called bitmunk.com, which currently sells
digital content for around 63,655 artists - over 848,000 songs. We are
also working with the Songbird folks and have been talking about
implementing a music microformat for some time. The Firefox team is
interested in Microformats as well - music would be a good killer app
for them... not to mention the rest of our content partners. We've
convinced some of our content partners to adopt a music microformat...
so, they're all waiting on one to get settled upon before they switch
their websites over.

>>> Have you collected any examples to inform this opinion?

I should point out that the music download microformat does overlap very
heavily with the media-info microformat... but more discussion should
help shake things out.

We collect stats on our competitors - a month or two ago we uploaded
some of those stats to microformats.org - 79 online webstores, 48 of
which are still in business, and only around 33 of those are accessible
via non-flash/non-HTML interfaces. The data needs to be cleaned up a
bit, but you can start to see some strong patterns in what most music
websites list.

These are the online music commerce sites that were examined:

AudioFind, Telstra BigPond, Bitmunk, Download Punk, FYE, iMusic, AON
Music , MSN, TDC Online, Audio Lunchbox, Chaos Music, Sony Connect,
Digirama, eMusic, FNAC, Sanity, MisRolas, MTV, Musica360, Musicload,
Musicmatch (Merged with Yahoo! Jukebox), MusicNet (Service Provider),
AOL Music Now (Merged with Napster), Napster, Nate.com (Appears to be
Korean, cannot find album examples), Next Radio (Service Provider),
PartyMob, Peer Impact, Pure Tracks, Reggae Country, Real/Rhapsody,
Ruckus, Sanity, Soundbuzz (Requires MS IE6), Starbucks (Requires Flash 8
player), Starzik SARL, Street CDs (parked domain name), Synacor (Service
provider), Telecom Italia (Service provider), Pixbox (Terra)  (Windows
application), CellCity, top100.cn, Virgin Digital (merged with Napster),
Virgin (Requires Windows), Wippit, Yanga

Album Statistics:
100%: artist
91%: title
85%: release date
76%: label
70%: web-based purchase
64%: genre
58%: price
55%: cover image
45%: tracks
42%: track list
27%: format
24%: sample
21%: length
15%: physical-based purchase
12%: album rating
12%: summary
12%: reviews
 9%: bitrate
 9%: publisher
 9%: number of tracks
 6%: rating
 6%: quality
 6%: track count
 6%: styles
 6%: total length
 6%: description
 6%: long description
 6%: add to wishlist
 3%: SKU
 3%: product id
 3%: related albums
 3%: regular price
 3%: disc count
 3%: share
 3%: DRM information
 3%: add to playlist
 3%: price in points
 3%: store price
 3%: availability
 3%: size
 3%: album title
 3%: style
 3%: catalog id
 3%: save to playlist
 3%: subscriber price
 3%: review
 3%: comments
 3%: catalog ID
 3%: payees
 3%: album
 3%: production credits
 3%: add bookmark
 3%: UPC
 3%: samples (flash)
 3%: also bought
 3%: total price
 3%: non-subscriber price
 3%: sample (flash applet)
 3%: license
 3%: price in credits
 3%: p2p-based purchase
 3%: web-based purchse
 3%: savings
 3%: artist rating
 3%: purchase (application link)

Track Statistics:
88%: title
70%: track number
70%: web-based purchase
64%: sample
64%: price
52%: length
45%: artist
18%: release date
15%: genre
12%: album
12%: format
 9%: rating
 9%: label
 6%: composer
 6%: quality
 6%: size
 6%: comments
 6%: album title
 3%: DRM information
 3%: add to pop-list
 3%: genres
 3%: song title
 3%: payees
 3%: add to playlist
 3%: label (popup)
 3%: description
 3%: add bookmark
 3%: add to wishlist
 3%: file type
 3%: tracks
 3%: bitrate
 3%: total price
 3%: sample (flash applet)
 3%: publisher
 3%: price in credits
 3%: performance artist
 3%: p2p-based purchase
 3%: video sample
 3%: web-based purchase link
 3%: creators

-- manu

-- 
Manu Sporny
President/CEO
Digital Bazaar, Inc.
http://blog.digitalbazaar.com/