Active Music Listening Interfaces Based on Signal Processing

This paper introduces our research aimed at building "active music listening interfaces". This research approach is intended to enrich end-users' music listening experiences by applying music-understanding technologies based on signal processing. Active music listening is a way of listening to music through active interactions. We have developed seven interfaces for active music listening, such as interfaces for skipping sections of no interest within a musical piece while viewing a graphical overview of the entire song structure, for displaying virtual dancers or song lyrics synchronized with the music, for changing the timbre of instrument sounds in compact-disc recordings, and for browsing a large music collection to encounter interesting musical pieces or artists. These interfaces demonstrate the importance of music-understanding technologies and the benefit they offer to end users. Our hope is that this work will help change music listening into a more active, immersive experience.