The search infrastructure in the emerging P2P world is still based on simple filename based searches, which Napster users have found to be limiting and often misleading.

MusicBrainz aims to create an open comprehensive music dictionary with both web and RDF interfaces to allow the web and P2P communities to cross reference their music content. Unique identifiers assigned by MusicBrainz and Relatable's TRM acousting fingerprinting ids will allow P2P systems to extend their search capabilities with intelligent identifier searches.

To facilitate the open exchange of data, MusicBrainz has created the MusicBrainz Metadata Initiative, which is an RDF/Dublin Core based vocabulary for describing music metadata in RDF. This initiative will allow users to exchange the standard music metadata, as well as playlists that are cross referenced against the MusicBrainz server.

Secured with the OpenContent license for the data and the GPL/LGPL for the server/client implementations, MusicBrainz is open to anyone. MusicBrainz already has an alliance with Bitzi for sharing and cross indexing the music metadata in Bitzi's community metadatabase.

MusicBrainz plans to distribute the metadata across a web of trust, to ensure that no single node in the metadata network has an advantage over another node. MusicBrainz is also an example of a 'Cornucopia of the commons' -- the system will flourish when the community takes an active ownership role in maintaining and replicating the system.