MusicalNodes, the visual music library

Out of dissatisfaction with currently available software, we built a music management program for large digital music libraries. We propose a system that solves some of the difficulties of organizing these libraries. The system introduces a new visual interaction style with the user’s music collection. A physics system coupled to album’s genre information allows the user to spatially order his or her music on screen and make selections. Also, the graphical appearance of the albums on screen reveals some of their properties, like age or genre, at a single glance. This, combined with an advanced search mechanism and the ability to add custom properties and information to the music, ensures rapid retrieval of music from even the largest of databases. User evaluations confirmed that all functions form welcome improvements over those of well-known text-based alternatives.