1. Definition

A Personal Music Experience Management System (PMEMS) is software designed to capture, structure, and operationalize a listener's subjective musical experience, transforming emotions, impressions, associations, memories, and personal evaluations into structured data for organizing music collections, searching for subjectively similar musical works within managed collections based on user-defined subjective characteristics, and creating personalized listening scenarios.

2. Purpose

The purpose of a PMEMS is not merely to manage music files or playlists, but to manage the listener's subjective musical experience as an independent domain of information.

3. Object of Management

The primary object managed by a PMEMS is:

The structured subjective musical experience of the listener.

This includes, but is not limited to:

  • emotions;
  • emotional states;
  • aesthetic impressions;
  • personal associations;
  • memories;
  • listening context;
  • personal evaluations;
  • notes.

The music collection itself becomes a secondary object managed on the basis of this structured subjective experience.

4. Core Principles

A software system may be classified as a PMEMS if it satisfies the following principles.

4.1 Subjective musical experience as an independent object of management

A PMEMS treats the listener's subjective musical experience as an independent object of management and an independent type of structured data suitable for algorithmic processing.

4.2 Structured representation

Subjective musical experience is represented in a structured form suitable for computational processing.

4.3 Operationalization

Structured subjective data are used directly by software algorithms rather than remaining passive notes or archived records.

4.4 Collection organization

Structured subjective musical experience is used as a basis for organizing music collections.

4.5 Music retrieval

Structured subjective musical experience is used for searching for and retrieving subjectively similar musical works within the user's managed music collection based on user-defined subjective characteristics.

4.6 Personalized listening scenarios

Structured subjective musical experience is used as the basis for generating smart playlists, smart playback queues, and personalized listening scenarios.

5. Typical Functional Characteristics

A PMEMS may provide the following functionality:

  • music collection management;
  • subjective descriptions of musical works;
  • emotional categorization;
  • aesthetic evaluation;
  • personal note taking;
  • searching for subjectively similar musical works within managed collections based on user-defined subjective characteristics;
  • smart playlists based on structured subjective musical experience;
  • smart playback queues based on structured subjective musical experience;
  • personalized listening scenarios based on structured subjective musical experience;
  • launching playback in external music players;
  • support for local and cloud-based music sources.

Specific implementations may offer additional features.

6. Data Model

Unlike traditional music software, a PMEMS manages two complementary layers of information.

Objective data layer

  • music files;
  • streaming references;
  • artists;
  • albums;
  • genres;
  • technical metadata.

Subjective data layer

  • emotions;
  • impressions;
  • associations;
  • memories;
  • personal evaluations;
  • listening context;
  • user-defined categories.

The subjective data layer is treated as an operational component of the system.

7. Distinction from Existing Software Categories

Category Primary Object of Management
Software for music playback Music playback
Music Library Manager Music files and metadata
Playlist Organizer Playlists
Music Recommendation System User preferences and probabilistic models
Music Journal Personal notes and listening records
PMEMS Structured subjective musical experience

A PMEMS differs from existing software categories by transforming subjective musical experience into structured operational data used for organizing music collections, searching for subjectively similar musical works within managed collections, and generating personalized listening scenarios.

8. Scope

A PMEMS may operate with:

  • local music collections;
  • streaming services;
  • cloud music repositories;
  • online music references;
  • hybrid collections.

A built-in playback engine is not a defining characteristic of a PMEMS. Playback may be delegated to external music players or online services.

9. Classification Criteria

A software system may be classified as a Personal Music Experience Management System (PMEMS) if it satisfies all of the following criteria:

  • it manages the listener's subjective musical experience as an independent object of management;
  • it represents subjective musical experience as structured data suitable for algorithmic processing;
  • it uses structured subjective data as an operational basis for managing the listener's musical experience rather than merely storing, displaying, or documenting such data;
  • it uses structured subjective data for all of the following purposes:
    • organizing music collections;
    • searching for subjectively similar musical works within managed collections based on user-defined subjective characteristics;
    • generating personalized listening scenarios.

A software system that does not satisfy these criteria should not be classified as a PMEMS.

10. Known Implementation

At the time of this publication, the first known implementation of the PMEMS category is:

Philophonist.

Philophonist implements the PMEMS concept by enabling users to transform subjective musical experience into structured operational data used for organizing music collections, searching for subjectively similar musical works within managed collections based on user-defined subjective characteristics, and generating smart playlists, smart playback queues, and personalized listening scenarios based on structured subjective musical experience.

11. Related Software Categories

The following software categories share certain characteristics with PMEMS but do not satisfy its definition:

  • software for music playback;
  • music library managers;
  • recommendation systems;
  • music journals;
  • playlist organizers;
  • subjective music categorization systems.

These systems may implement individual PMEMS features, including subjective annotation, categorization, collection organization, similarity search, recommendation, or playlist generation, but they do not use structured subjective musical experience as an operational basis for the integrated management of music collections, retrieval of subjectively similar musical works within managed collections, and generation of personalized listening scenarios.

12. Future Development

The PMEMS category may evolve to include:

  • collaborative subjective music ontologies;
  • synchronization of subjective musical experience across devices;
  • semantic navigation of music collections;
  • adaptive listening scenarios;
  • applications in music psychology, cognitive science, and human–computer interaction.

13. Citation

PMEMS Category Definition v1.0:

Definition of the Personal Music Experience Management System (PMEMS).

Philophonist Project.
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21056729

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