[kmfrk]

As a European who doesn't have a registered user for a lot of services, I would much prefer that we decided on some ID for a song or album, so we could refer to that one link (music://, etc.), and we would get a link for - or in this case a list - of the music as provided by services that

* I actually use (have a user for/access to, etc.),

* offer the music in my region

A modern problem that really annoys me these days, is that people are increasingly sharing music behind registration wall or region restrictions.

Just look at Hulu, Netflix, Spotify - the list goes on. In a time where we're supposed to share and break barriers, a lot of people are growing increasingly unaware of the people who don't have access to many of the services that purport provide people with this media.

I have a bad feeling that this could have the exact opposite effect and result in a lot of "broken links" for people with no access. I see this a lot on Tumblr right now.

[iand]

Musicbrainz.org has been assigning unique IDs for tracks, albums and artists for about a decade. Its community built and has insane coverage. They are used in spotify's API as one example.

[jamesgagan]

this is what the tomahawk project is attempting to do. you should check it out. http://www.tomahawk-player.org/