Open Music Ontology

Open Music Ontology A minimal, non-authoritative bridge vocabulary that connects open cultural heritage and research metadata with common industry identifiers and release categories (version 0.1.0 - proof of concept) Antal, Dániel OMO: Open Music Ontology The Open Music Observatory (OMO) does not seek to create new ontologies. Instead, it integrates and reuses existing, well-established data models from the open data, research, and cultural heritage ecosystems. In practice, this means that our data spaces and pilot projects (e.g. SKCMDb, Finno-Ugric Data Space, TextileBase) combine metadata derived from: •Open Government & Open Science: DCAT-AP — the European data portal metadata model. •Cultural Heritage & GLAM: EDM (Europeana Data Model), CIDOC CRM, and Records in Contexts (RiC). •Emerging Cultural Infrastructure: High-Definition & Collaborative Cultural Data Infrastructure (HDTO). •Common Metadata Principles: Dublin Core Terms (DCTERMS) — for general metadata interoperability. •Music Industry Standards: ISWC for musical works, ISRC for sound recordings, DDEX for metadata exchange and release categorisation. Our goal is not to add another layer of complexity, but to connect these established models so that cultural heritage data, rights management systems, and research metadata can interoperate seamlessly. Semantic Architecture The Observatory employs a Wikibase-based ontology layer, derived from the Wikibase Ontology. This layer defines classes and properties that are compatible with the Wikidata ecosystem. 1 •Equivalence links (owl:equivalentClass,owl:equivalentProperty) map our entities to reference ontologies such as dcterms: (Dublin Core), rico: (Records in Contexts), crm: (CIDOC CRM), edm: (Europeana Data Model), and dcat: (DCAT-AP). • For industry standards like ISWC, ISRC, and DDEX that are not formally expressed in RDF/OWL, the Observatory provides a minimal ontological scaffolding under the Open Music Ontology (omo) namespace. Source files are hosted at https://github.com/dataobservatory-eu/open-musicontology. This approach ensures that: • Industry identifiers can be represented and queried alongside heritage and research data; and • Semantic equivalence is maintained across research, rights, and cultural collections. In short, OMO acts as a semantic bridge rather than a new ontology. Summary The Open Music Ontology connects existing ontologies — it does not reinvent them. It provides a thin, open, and interoperable layer that unites public, research, and industry vocabularies to keep European music data FAIR and reusable. Repository: https://github.com/dataobservatory-eu/open-music-ontology Namespace (prefix): omo: →https://dataobservatory.eu/ontology/omo# Status: Proof of Concept (v0.1.0) Purpose The Open Music Ontology (OMO) provides a minimal, non-authoritative bridge vocabulary connecting open cultural heritage and research metadata with common industry identifiers and release categories (e.g. ISRC, ISWC, album/single concepts). It does not re-publish ISRC, ISWC, or DDEX standards. Instead, it offers neutral linking terms (rdfs:seeAlso,owl:sameAs) that enable interoperability in knowledge graphs such as the Slovak Comprehensive Music Database (SKCMDb), Open Music Europe, and related Data Spaces. 2 Included Concepts (v0.1.0) Type Term Description Class omo:Recording A sound-recording entity (bridge for ISRC use). Class omo:MusicalWork An abstract musical work (bridge for ISWC use). Class omo:ContributorRole A role performed by a person or organisation. Subclass omo:FeaturedPerformerA performer given primary credit. Property omo:hasISRC Associates a Recording with an ISRC code. Property omo:hasISWC Associates a Musical Work with an ISWC code. Property omo:hasContributorRoleLinks an entity to its contributor role. Property omo:agent Connects a role node to the performing agent. Class omo:Release A curated bundle of recordings (album, single). Class omo:ReleaseCategory Category describing a release type. Subclass omo:Album A release consisting of multiple recordings. Subclass omo:Single A release containing one main track. Property omo:hasReleaseCategoryLinks a Release to its category. Example (Conceptual) turtle @prefix omo: <https://dataobservatory.eu/ontology/omo#> . @prefix ex: <https://example.org/> . @prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> . ex:rec001 a omo:Recording ; omo:hasISRC "SK0012345678" ; omo:hasContributorRole ex:role1 . ex:work001 a omo:MusicalWork ; omo:hasISWC "T-123.456.789-Z" . ex:role1 a omo:FeaturedPerformer ; omo:agent ex:johnDoe . ex:johnDoe a foaf:Person ; foaf:name "John Doe" . 3 ex:release001 a omo:Release ; omo:hasReleaseCategory omo:Album ; omo:hasContributorRole ex:role1 . � Disclaimer This ontology is not affiliated with IFPI (ISRC), CISAC (ISWC), DDEX, or any other rights holder. It simply provides neutral helper terms for research and cultural data interoperability. For authoritative specifications, visit: • ISRC: https://isrc.ifpi.org • ISWC: https://www.cisac.org/Newsroom/news-releases/cisac-launches-majorproject-upgrade-international-musical-work-identifier • DDEX: https://kb.ddex.net License & Citation © 2025 Daniel Antal — Released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0). Daniel Antal (2025). Open Music Ontology: A minimal, non-authoritative bridge vocabulary that connects open cultural heritage and research metadata with common industry identifiers and release categories (version 0.1.0 - roof of concept). Open Music Observatory. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17541357 4