The European Music Navigator: to build bridges between local, national and global cultures using the ontology based search technology MelvilTM

There are millions of Web sites and thousands of them deal with music. The project European Music Navigator (EMN) aims to build a destination site covering information on the European musical life. The EMN is implemented by the international umbrella organization IAMIC (International Association of Music Information Centres), under the project leadership of mica (music information center Austria) and is supported by the European Union´s funding program Culture 2000. On their own, cultural organizations are often unable to tackle the monetary and informational necessities arising from the struggle for attention and technical equipment in today´s flow of information. The EMN project approaches the problem from this very perspective: 80% of the market-share of the revenue-driven part of the musical field is divided only between 4 global players. It has become increasingly difficult for artists to address new audiences for new works. Therefore, it is important to create communication structures for those within the musical field which are strongly devoted to new works and new ways of creativity.