The BBC has launched a BBC Music beta site which enables users to explore artists played on BBC Radio music programmes. The site is powered by MusicBrainz, an open content music database. The site still has a few glitches but you can see full tracklists on each network’s website: 1Xtra, Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, 6 Music, Asian Network.

I have no idea if my campaign to try and get the BBC to open up more of its data to outside developers – which resulted in a public debate – has had any influence there However, they have put up a developer page which has a comprehensive outline about how developers can use the data from the Music site.

The BBC is mashing up data from MusicBrainz and Wikipedia with information from within the BBC, like details about which BBC programmes have played an artist. They say:

This new version of the site has been developed against the principles of linked open data and RESTful architecture where the creation of persistent URLs is a primary objective. The initial sources of data are somewhat limited but this will be extended over time… The data available in a variety of formats, including: XML, YAML, JSON, RDF, Atom and RSS.

Plus they have released what they call a “mini-manifesto”:

Peristence
Linked open data
RESTful
One web

From the statements made at BBC TechCrunch Debate, and this launch, it looks like the BBC is now on the path to releasing much, much more data from its system, so congratulations to them for this move.