# Classical Music Directory: I need your help



## Maurizio (Nov 20, 2011)

Hi all.:tiphat:
I'm a "frustrated" user of youtube&co that want to make a change. My problem is that every time I am looking for a nice video to see (for various reasons: someone told me about a composer, or I want to check a director I didn't know etc..) I get stuck with either poor videos with VHS or less audio or worse a totally different piece.

My solution is to create a directory of any video (youtube but also other sites), where we "reorder" them by Composer, Title, Artist and Video Type (this is my initial idea, but I'm open to ideas for other general categories). To do that, I've created a bookmarklet that I can open over youtube to quickly add the link with info to my directory.
I am still at the beginning of this project. Right now I have the tools to fill the database, but I don't have a site that show them yet (at least nothing nice, just a list).

Why I'm telling all of this? Because I would love to have people to help me fill the directory. It's very easy. Whoever want to help me, will receive a personal bookmarklet (no username and password yet) and can put it in its browser. Every time he or she see an interesting video, he has just to click the button and insert a couple of info. That's all.

I still have to implement checks and some sort of votation system in case there are more than one video for the same piece with the same quality. I'm asking for help not only to make it easier to fill it, but also to have some support in this rather big task.

Anyone want to help me?

Thanks,
Maurizio


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Are you going to be sure that no copyrights are violated?


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## Maurizio (Nov 20, 2011)

Good question, but what I'm doing is just linking to youtube videos. I'm not hosting them myself.
As a matter of fact, it could be useful to spot pirated copies. I don't know which one violate copyright or not. It's not so easy to know, mostly because youtube has probably signed some agreements, so that the "pirated" content isn't violating anymore because the record company get a share of the money youtube makes.

I wonder if youtube could answer this question better though.

Are you interested in helping me?


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## Maurizio (Nov 20, 2011)

According to those link, it should be somewhat safe. A safer version should be to become "copyright agent" as the EFF suggest. This is something I could think if there are lots of people helping filling the database. I could also give the site away since I'm more interested to its utility rather than being the owner.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2007/07/youtube-embedding-and-copyright
http://www.blogherald.com/2007/07/09/the-copyright-risk-of-embedding-youtube-clips/


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Is your goal to have a directory of a high percentage of classical (other genre?) works such that the list would include many 1000's or even 10,000's of entries? Or is it more modest with a much smaller list? 

Since in general people can search youtube for composer, work, and artist, are you looking to basically eliminate poor quality (sound, performance, visuals, etc.) videos so people do not have to wade through them all?

Occasionally I do not find a work represented on youtube. Usually it is rather obscure. If I could go somewhere to find a more comprehensive list, I would like that. I'm not sure how many works not on youtube can be found elsewhere.


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## An Die Freude (Apr 23, 2011)

Look the channels _IlaryRhineKlange, neuIlaryRheinKlange, SirSebastianWang_, and _RichardHilo._


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## Maurizio (Nov 20, 2011)

I've got a similar advice on Google Help for youtube. Basically I need to provide a way to get feedback in case of copyright issues.

An die Freude: thanks for your hints, but what I want to create would be better than checking 4-5 youtube user. What I want is a list of composer with their pieces and a list of executions. 
Check "La Campanella" of Liszt: You can find Valentina Lisitza, Youndi Li, Kissin and some other "spam". Would it be nice to have a list with better description?

I'm not gonna do it all by myself though. I need help


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## Maurizio (Nov 20, 2011)

I'm not doing it by myself. I don't have enough time & knowledge.


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

This sounds like a very worthy project, one that would be very popular with our community.

Is there any way you can design this as some form of *collaborative environment* - like by havingg people "sign in" and post video/playlist links that they found or compiled? Although YouTube is the most popular video forum, could you add other ones? I found (a few) videos I have referenced in some of my blogs from other sites...


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## Maurizio (Nov 20, 2011)

To be honest, I thought about youtube because it's more familiar and also controlled for copyrighted music. From what I know, Google pays "the mayors" so video aren't deleted so often. 
What I'm doing will work with any site that has an easy way to embed videos. Right now I'm just opening a small window over whatever site you are in and copying the url on my database, together with some information you have to type or paste in it.
Say you go here:




You press my bookmarklet, insert "Paganini Liszt", "La campanella", "Evgeny Kissin" and select "Live Recording" and you are done.
I don't control anything yet, other than if you are on a "user" page on youtube. It's very basic. I'm not even checking who is inserting stuff, since at the moment I'm using only myself.

I am playing around with it also to see what I should add. Right now I have Composer,Author,Title and video type. I should probably add more info, like the possibility to say that it's just part of a bigger composition. Right now it's possible through the title only.
I'm not really worried about this, because once there are the first 1000 or less links, it's easy to implement something new. Also interesting would be to add a voting system. Say you want Kissing and La Campanella, you could return that link above as a good one, but also this: 



 as a less good, but still worth seeing/listening to.

There are endless possibilities and if I find interested people I might start to add a decent page where we can start to see the results.


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

I think you're on to something...

Please let us know when you do a "pilot run", so we can see what results look like, and how they can be used to find clips.

If this is something that we just end up doing when we find something we like (or don't...), and that it doesn't impact computer performance (or introduce malware, not that you'd tell us if you were malicious...), I'd probably give it a go.


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