Semantics for the music industry: the development of the music business ontology (MBO)

Abstract

In the paper we show the development of the Music Business Ontology (MBO). The MBO was developed in reaction to problems towards data and communication in the music industry. Based on a qualitative pre-study we analyzed the music industry, its players and data and software in use. First, we identified typical services and data formats. Consequently, we extracted concepts and properties from the music business. The development of software tools for the music business serving well-defined tasks followed the design of the ontology. As a result, the MBO increases transparency of the music business as well as it serves for a better understanding of the music business itself among its actors. The introduction of the Music Business Ontology changes the way actors and systems in the music business interact with each other. It decreases the need for different interfaces and formats and thus considerably reduces complexity.