Music-based search engine

A computer system that performs music search, the system comprising:

• an input interface adapted to receive a music query;
• a query input processor adapted to generate a deconstructed music query comprising music elements of the received music query;
• and
• a query engine adapted to direct the deconstructed music query against a selected database comprising a plurality of data records, each data record being associated with a music piece and a set of music micro-elements relating to the music piece, wherein the set of music micro-elements associated with at least one data record comprises data deconstructed from the at least one musical music piece, to identify deconstructed music pieces of the database that match the deconstructed music query by generating at least one music macro-element from the set of music micro-elements associated with at least one data record, and to produce search output comprising the identified music pieces arranged in a ranked list.

A computer-readable storage medium having a computer-readable program embodied therein for directing operation of a music-based search engine, the computer-readable program including instructions for music-based searching in accordance with the following:

• receiving a music query that specifies a music element;
• generating a set of search parameters based on the music element specified by the received music query;
• directing the set of search parameters against a database comprising a plurality of data records, each data record being associated with a music piece and a set of music elements relating to the music piece, wherein:
• the set of music elements associated with at least one data record comprises data deconstructed from the at least one music piece by determining music micro-elements and determining music macro-elements based on the determined music micro-elements;
• identifying a set of matching data records in the database, the set of matching data records comprising data records that match the set of search parameters;
• identifying a set of matched music pieces in the database, the set of matched music pieces comprising music pieces that are associated with the set of matching data records;
• and
• producing search output comprising the matched music pieces arranged in a ranked list.