Introducing the Networked Music Performance Library

Abstract

In this article we present the Networked Music Performance Library, which documents research and practice in the field of networked music performance. The library was developed in response to the skyrocketing interest in networked music due to social distancing and travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In this article, we discuss the library’s working environment and briefly describe several similar earlier projects by other researchers. The main goals we set for the library were to collect materials, organise accessible and straightforward ways of navigating the collection, including knowledge from a wider context of time-based arts (theatre, dance and other time-based art forms), and create a community of users and contributors. We describe the main methods we use to find the works for the library and examine the current state of our collection, which has grown in the last year. Through an analysis of the entries’ metadata, we provide several examples of professionals’ use of the library. Current library users include performing musicians, teachers and composers. As the project is ongoing, we outline the scope of our future work as well as analyse several possible post-COVID applications for networked music, which include assisting socially isolated musicians, teaching, travel and new pandemics. We also show how this library could contribute to the development of new electroacoustic approaches.