Preliminary Analyses of Information Features Provided by Users for Identifying Music

This paper presents preliminary findings based on the analyses of user-provided information features found in 566 queries seeking help in the identification of particular music works or artists. Queries were drawn from the answers.google.com (Google Answers) website. The types and frequency of occurrences of different information features are compared with the results from previous studies of music queries. New feature types have also been developed to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the kinds of information present in queries including such things as indications of uncertainty, associated use, and the “aboutness” of the underlying musical work. The presence of erroneous information in the queries is also discussed.