Music Discography Database
Melany Odeh
Below is a table of online music databases that are largely free of charge. Many of the sites provide a specialized service or focus on a particular music genre. Some of these operate as an online music store or purchase referral service in some capacity. Among the sites that have information on the largest number of entities are those sites that focus on discographies of composing and performing artists.
Performance rights organisations (PRO) typically have their own databases as per country they represent, in accordance with CISAC, to help domestic artists collect royalties. Information available on these portals include songwriting credits, publishing percentage splits, and alternate titles for different distribution channels. It is one of the most accurate and official types of databases because it involves direct communication between the artists, record labels, distributors, legal teams, publishers and a global governing body regulating PRO's. Many countries that observe copyright have an organisation established, currently there are 119 CISAC members,[1] and they may be not-for-profit. The databases are typically known as 'repertory searches' or 'searching works' and may require an account while others are open to view for free as public including the USA's ASCAP Songview and Ace services,[2] Canada's SOCAN,[3] South Korea's KOMCA,[4] France's SACEM,[5] and Israel's ACUM.[6]
The Jazz Discography by is the most comprehensive general jazz discography. It includes information on over 200,000 jazz recording sessions from 1896 to the present. Information for each session includes personnel, place and date of recording, song titles, matrix numbers, and issue (catalog) numbers for a variety of formats, ranging from 78 rpm discs to CDs and downloads. The database can be searched by leader, side musicians, session information (including recording date), song titles, and recording companies, as well as through multi-searches combining musicians, song titles, and recording companies.
The Jazz Discography is compiled by Tom Lord, and listings are updated on a daily basis. Data sources include existing general and individual jazz discographies, international jazz periodicals, information received from recording companies and their catalogs, the archives of Cadence Magazine, and individual record collectors around the world.
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The Music Library supports the College of Music and the UNT community in providing outstanding collections of books about music, music journals, printed music, sound recordings from historic through contemporary formats, and music-related electronic databases. Special collections are a particular strength, emphasizing not only the many genres classified under Western art music and jazz, but also popular music and world music. Our dedicated full-time staff members and student assistants are available to provide access services and research assistance to patrons from UNT and beyond.
Viola is the Finnish national discography and the national bibliography of sheet music. The database contains references on Finnish sound recordings since 1901 and Finnish sheet music since 1977. Viola database contains information both on musical publications as well as single works and pieces. In all, Viola contains approximately 1.1 million cataloguing records. Approximately 20,000 new records are added each year to the database.
The National Discography Viola, National Bibliography Fennica, as well as the National Collection, references to Finnish printed sheet music and music recordings and article references can be found in the National Library Search service.
In addition, the following information providers have before described their materials in Viola: Helsinki University Library, Musicology, Jyvskyl University Library, University of Jyvskyl - Department of Music, Global Music Centre, Music Archive Finland, Sibelius Academy, University of Tampere - Music Studies, Theatre Academy Library, Turku University of Applied Sciences Library, Turku University - Musicology, National Repository Library, and Sibelius Museum (bo Akademi).
The University of Toronto Music Library has set up a trial for the online resource The Jazz Discography, founded by Tom Lord. The trial will remain open until January 31, 2023. Please take this opportunity to explore this excellent database and send any feedback you regarding your experience with this trial to trevo...@utoronto.ca.
"The Jazz Discography encompasses all genres of jazz so as to include sessions by musicians who record across the various jazz disciplines, from traditional to avant-garde, from bebop to fusion. A true 'general' jazz discography, it is the most complete catalog of recorded jazz ever published, presently covering over 450,000 jazz recordings released between 1896 and today.
"The Jazz Discography is the only general jazz discography ever compiled in an electronic database. This has allowed data originally intended for publication in print to be adapted to CD-ROM format and for Internet access. Custom-designed for the specific requirements of jazz discography, the database enables ongoing updating with new and revised information." [From TJD description]
RKR is a comprehensive, precise discography of Jamaican singles. It now contains over 130,000 listings covering the years 1953-1999. The individual listings have also grown over the years and have been expanded to include information about riddims, song origins, genre, studio notes and related B Sides. This contextual information gives a better understanding of the music itself, particularly with a view towards our planned expansion that will include sound files. And of course, we remain the authoritative reference on Jamaican matrix numbers, with over 42,000 listings.
The Discography of Newfoundland and Labrador is compiled in the Centre for Newfoundland Studies. It identifies commercial recordings by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians (resident or non-resident) and commercial recordings produced in Newfoundland and Labrador (including those by non-Newfoundlanders). It does not include recordings by non-Newfoundlanders living outside the province who sing Newfoundland songs. Records by large groups such as symphony orchestras which might include one or more Newfoundlanders are also not included. "Commercial" refers to recordings produced for sale or distribution by either individuals privately or by record companies. The database currently includes 33 1/3 rpm albums, cassettes and compact discs. Singles on 45s and 78s are not yet included.
As of May 2014, the database identifies 3100 recordings. About half are held in the Centre for Newfoundland Studies. Purchases of new releases are made on a regular basis and attempts are made to fill in gaps in the collection. Donations of missing titles are most welcome.
The descriptions in the database are searchable by keywords such as names of groups or musicians, titles of recordings, words in song titles, instruments played on the recording, birthplaces of musicians and performers and so on. It is also possible to browse separate alphabetical lists of names, titles of recordings, subjects and song titles. Links to musician and band web pages are provided where available. If the recording is available in the Memorial University Library system, there will be a link to a library holdings record giving its location and call number. Close out the record to return to the database.
The majority of the descriptions are based on actual examination of the recordings. Those that were not available will have details compiled from other sources and the note "Unseen" in the record. Attempts will be made to find these recordings and complete the descriptions.
Given the variations over the years of traditional folk songs, "Uniform song titles" were established and added to records so that by clicking on them, all variations of a particular song could be retrieved at the same time. The Uniform song titles mirror those listed in Paul Mercer's "Newfoundland songs and ballads in print 1842-1974".
Biographical information has been gleaned for the most part from the recording itself, the performer's webpage or from sources in the Centre for Newfoundland Studies. Another database compiled by the Centre is the Newfoundland Periodical Article Bibliography which indexes periodical and magazine articles for Newfoundland content. It contains thousands of citations to articles on music which for the most part can be found in the Centre for Newfoundland Studies.
The Centre for Newfoundland Studies acknowledges the value of an earlier discography, "A Regional Discography of Newfoundland and Labrador 1904-1972" published in 1975 by Memorial University's Folklore and Language Archive. It was compiled by Michael Taft who was a graduate student in the Department of Folklore at the time. An up-to-date discography has been long overdue. The Centre's discography has incorporated titles from the Taft discography in order to make available a comprehensive database which should serve as a springboard for researchers in music and other related fields.
The following people have contributed to this project: Dr. Pat Byrne in Memorial's Dept. of English who provided lists of albums compiled by his students in Folklore 2300 over the years ; Christine Davies, the librarian/archivist at CBC Radio Archives, Roy O'Brien from O'Brien's Music Store, Pauline Cox and Patricia Fulton at Memorial University of Newfoundland's Folklore and Language Archive and Brenda Silk at Radio Newfoundland. Their assistance is greatly appreciated. Many thanks also to the staff of the systems office of the QE II Library and to student assistants Dominique Kane and Krista Upshall.
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