State of the Art and Perspectives in Multi-Layer Formats for Music Representation

This paper aims to provide an analytical comparison among the most relevant representation formats that support multi-layer descriptions of music content, namely IEEE 1599, Music Encoding Initiative, and MusicXML/MNX. After remarking the technical characteristics of such formats and highlighting their similarities and differences, we will try to shed light on their future, so as to understand the current trends in digital representation of music and multimedia.