From: malcolm@wrs.com (Malcolm Humes)
Subject: Re: DATABASES: CD database list & archives 
Followup-To: rec.music.misc 
Organization: Wind River Systems, Inc.
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 15:14:16 GMT

RB@mail.bmt.uni-stuttgart.de (Ralf Bauer) writes:

>Last week I posted a list of 3800+ CDs in this newsgroup. <rec.music.cd>

Thanks Ralf, I saved a copy of this for future reference. What follows is 
not intended as a flame, just some suggestions on large posts and more info
about databases on the net. I've crossposted my reply because many people
have asked me for copies of my database before, and there's info below on
where to find it. Followups to rec.music.misc, please. 

>   Q: What shall I do with this list?
>   A: That is a really difficult question. Here are some suggestions:

<ideas 1,2,3 deleted>

4) ftp it to cs.uwp.edu (131.210.1.4) and place a copy in the 
/pub/incoming/music/database area. Then other people can ftp to get it 
anytime they want. People sometimes don't like large postings like this 
because they may not interest everyone and they use a lot of diskspace at 
every site that gets the newsgroup. I like to just post a "pointer" that 
tells people where they can ftp to get the file if they want it or so they 
can email me for a copy if they have no ftp access. 

5) I'm gonna take your file and import it as a flat file into my preffered 
database program, Paradox. Then I can resort the data any way I want, and
combine it with the other 47,000 or so releases I have in my database. 
Eventually the combined databases will probably get ftp'd up to the musical
archives database area from anyone to have at.

I've already placed an ascii delimited copy of the 47,000 release list
database at the ftp archives. It's at cs.uwp.edu (131.210.1.4) in the 
/pub/music/database area.  
 
It covers jazz, classical, rock, reggae, soundracks and other stuff. It's
partly a merge of a cd store catalog with a large private collector's lp
list, so it covers some obscure industrial and progressive music too. Info
included is minimal, mostly just ARTIST/TITLE/YEAR/LABEL/LABEL #/COUNTRY. 
And the Year is not always accurate, in some cases it reflects cd release
or purchase date, and label number in some cases may be a slight abbreviation
or variation on the actual number becasue of the cd catalog source format. 

A word of caution if you plan to play with this at work or home - the Paradox
database I have of takes 10 megs of disk space. This means I need at least
10 more megs to be able to sort it. The ascii delimited file at the archives
is about a 4 meg text file, but it's zipped to a size of about 1 meg. If 
this is too big for you to work with you could chop up the file into smaller
databases and/or delete the info on releases that don't interest you. 

I encourage anyone with large databases to send them to me at malcolm@wrs.com
and/or to ftp them to the musical archives at cs.uwp.edu too.  

>P.S.: Somebody told me, that there is a very large CD database in
>      Berlin/Germay, available via Gopher.

That was me. Dirk set it up with Gopher and a WAIS interface, so I 
think you can query it for info instead of having to have a huge database
on your end. The problem is the site in Germany times out from my part of
the US. Dave Datta is looking into setting up something similar at his site, 
and if anyone else wants to mirror Dirk's site please get in touch with him.
The idea is partly to have an online resource for getting discography info,
release numbers, and so on.  

Info on the Gopher/WAIS site in Germany: 

> Subject: Gopher WAIS CD-database operational
> Sender: reuver@mikro.ee.tu-berlin.de (Dirk Reuver)
> Organization: Institut fuer Mikroelektronik, TU-Berlin
> Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 17:30:57 GMT
>  
> A new Gopher server has been set up in combination with a
> WAIS server for access to a database of about 55,000 CDs
>  
> Since the server is located in Berlin, Germany, overseas
> connections are very likely to time out. 
>  
> Artist, title and releasedate are given for each entry,
> other information such as label or list of songs on the
> album are optional and currently not included.
>  
> Several of the recent 'New and upcoming CD releases'
> postings have been included.
>  
> Sources for the gopher client should be available at your
> nearest anon ftp server. On the host given below, you may
> find them under src/gopher/gopher-1.01.tar.Z
>  
> Host=130.149.136.30
> Port=70
>  
> Enjoy!
>  
> Dirk