Echoprint - Short Review

Music Tools



Product Overview of Echoprint



What Echoprint Does

Echoprint is an open-source music fingerprinting or music identification service designed to identify songs by analyzing audio signals. It is backed by an extensive database of music that continues to grow through community contributions and partnerships.



Key Components

The Echoprint system consists of three primary components:



1. Codegen Fingerprint Generator

This tool takes an audio file or audio sample as input and generates a fingerprint based on the Echo Nest Musical Fingerprint (ENMFP) algorithm. The Codegen application is available under the MIT license and can be compiled and run on reasonably modern Linux systems, with dependencies including TagLib, Boost, and FFmpeg.



2. Echoprint Server

This server maintains a database of fingerprints indexed to track information. It supports remote queries, insertion of new fingerprints, and tracks. The server is based on Apache Solr and Tokyo Tyrant and is available under the Apache License 2.0.



3. Echoprint Database

The database contains publicly accessible track and fingerprint data. It requires contributors to share any new fingerprints they collect back to the community, as outlined in the Echoprint Database License.



Key Features and Functionality

  • Audio Identification: Echoprint can identify songs by analyzing at least 20 seconds of an audio signal, whether captured over the air (OTA) via a microphone or from a file. This makes it suitable for various applications, including mobile music experiences and copyright detection.
  • Over-the-Air (OTA) Capability: Designed to work effectively in OTA scenarios, Echoprint has shown promising results in identifying songs captured through a microphone, although it is still under development for further improvement in accuracy and performance.
  • File Scanning: The system can scan audio files to extract the correct metadata, including ID3 tag information and a base64-encoded representation of the fingerprint.
  • High Performance: Echoprint is highly efficient, capable of scanning enough audio for a query in less than a tenth of a second. A single server can handle up to 50 queries per second, depending on the architecture.
  • Open Source and Commercial Use: Both the Codegen and the server are open source, with no restrictions on commercial use. The code is available on GitHub, and users are encouraged to contribute to the project and share any new data collected.
  • Community and Database Growth: The database grows with community contributions and partnerships, ensuring a continually expanding library of music fingerprints. This collaborative approach helps in improving the accuracy and coverage of the service.


Target Audience

Echoprint is primarily aimed at developers and the music industry. It is particularly useful for:

  • Developers building mobile music applications
  • Those managing large databases of music
  • Applications requiring deduplication of music collections, copyright detection, or catalog resolution.

In summary, Echoprint is a powerful, open-source music identification tool that offers robust features for audio fingerprinting, high performance, and a collaborative database, making it an invaluable resource for developers and the music industry.

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