A new cloud computing architecture for music composition

This paper presents an original cloud computing architecture for music composition. In this model, music applications are built by making several computer music services work together. Component services are provided by a dedicated layer in the cloud architecture called computer music as a Service (CMaaS). The specialized music services can be integrated into different applications at the same time. These music services provided by the CMaaS layer are implemented in the form of platform images based on templates at the Platform as a Service layer. The images are ready to be loaded into the virtualized infrastructure on demand. As examples of implementation over the proposed cloud architecture, two powerful applications for computer music composition are presented: ‘‘Diatonic Composer’’, an interactive composer of scores with high-abstraction music elements, and ‘‘Csound Meets the Cloud’’, an assisted algorithmic composer focused on sound synthesis. The composition model, the involved music services and the web application are described for the above mentioned applications. The proposed architecture, the implemented services and the provided application examples constitute a decided step towards distributed music computation. & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.