# What is the least information permitting a computer to identify any piece of music

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-least-information-permitting-a-computer-to-identify-any-piece-of-music/823114>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 17, 2018, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-least-information-permitting-a-computer-to-identify-any-piece-of-music/823114 "2018-10-17T23:46:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2018, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-least-information-permitting-a-computer-to-identify-any-piece-of-music/823114/21 "2018-10-22T01:52:19Z")

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There are computer programs that identify not only a piece of music, but a specific performance by a specific artist, on a specific recording – all by one minimal item of data – the length of the recorded track (not listening to the music at all). Gracenote is one example, I believe.

That is how the software worked that would identify CD’s, and add the titles, artist info, etc. for you. It was based on a database of the length of specific tracks on a recording. Sometimes a specific track would have the same length as others, but a whole album or CD of tracks would be unique enough to almost always identify the recording by checking the track lengths.

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**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2018, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-least-information-permitting-a-computer-to-identify-any-piece-of-music/823114/22 "2018-10-23T05:38:13Z")

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It’s impossible, given that even humans can’t tell “My Sweet Lord” from “He’s So Fine”. Think of it as a variant of the Turing test.

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