Map-based music interfaces for mobile devices

The pervasion of digital music calls for novel techniques to search, retrieve and access music collections. Particularly mobile devices are, due to their limited display size and input capabilities, in a need of possibilities for intuitive and quick selection of music that go beyond mere browsing through song lists and directories. We propose a graphical user in-terface for mobile devices presenting a music map that or-ganizes a music collection automatically by sound similarity through audio analysis. This map provides an overview over large audio collections and offers several interaction possibil-ities to give users a quick and direct access to their music. It allows instant creation of playlists based on music of a desired genre by pointing on clusters or drawing paths on the map. The application not only eases access to music, but also enables novel application scenarios for collaborative music experience. The software has been implemented for a range of mobile devices, such as PDAs and smartphones