MusicIDB Definitions

Relevant to various aspects of the MusicIDB application and some references throughout our blog and documentation, here are some of the words we use and what we usually mean when they’re used.

Artist – Any performing “act”.  With our database, it will be necessary for Solo Singer/Songwriters to create a user account for themselves as a musician user account, and then add an “Artist” listing for themselves.

We’re also referring to Comedians, Spoken Word Performers, and other non-musical “Acts” in the semantics of our system.

We like the idea of retaining information about what Musicians have been in a band, so there are active, and past states for Musicians or People who are affiliated with an artist.

Small Stage Venue – Any “under 5,000” capacity venue, including restaurants and coffee shops, but also some pavilions and places that only occasionally have live music events.

Promoter – Someone who organizes or helps organize events, and often works for a Promotional Company

There are plenty of situations in the real world where the Artist acts as the Promoter of an Event, note that these users who already represent Artists in the system, will have to adjust their profile and additionally list themselves as a “Promoter” user.

To elaborate further on the flexibility here, it is possible that a girl named Sue performs in and represents two “artists” – her Solo career act as “Sue Smith”, and her metal band “BoneCrusher”, and that she also books shows under the Promotional Company name “Sue Smith Presents”, where she occasionally looks for 3 or 4 acts to accompany her at her favorite venue “Molly’s”.

Company – Shows in MusicIDB will have two types of affiliations with Companies – the Promotional Companies and Event Sponsors.

It is possible that someone could create a company in the system that is not related to the music industry, and does not sponsor or put together events.  Initial releases of MusicIDB will not have many features for companies of this type.

Venue Manager – A registered MusicIDB user who acts on behalf of a venue, perhaps booking events for the venue and/or artists for the events.

Fan – A registered user on MusicIDB who can add events to their personal MusicIDB calendar (without broadcasting their intended attendance), and Like or Love artists (without broadcasting to the liked or loved artist the understanding of if said artists was liked or loved by said fan)

Event – An event that has been published to visibility of fans, appearing in the “Events” list when filtered appropriately.

Gig – A “potential” event that has not been published to fans that appears in the “gig list” of MusicIDB.com.   The Gig List is only accessible to users who have successfully claimed administration of an Artist Listing on the site.

MusicIDB – a dangerously awesome database of live music listings and more

MusicIDB, Inc. – A Delaware Incorporated company represented by McCarter & English that built a website at the domain MusicIDB.com

Learn more about User-Types here