Artist and credited wording
An Artist is a public creative identity; credited wording preserves the exact text carried by a particular source.
PROJECT / 01Project
Cultural-memory infrastructure, built with evidence.
MK Music Archive connects long-term care for Macedonian music heritage with a considered way to research, structure and share knowledge.
01The wider initiative
A heritage with many custodians and many contexts.
Macedonian music heritage spans different periods, communities, languages, formats, labels, migrations and historical settings. The wider initiative aims to create durable digital foundations for documenting, preserving, researching, connecting and sharing it.
MK Music Archive is the concrete project working towards that aim. It does not claim to be a complete digital archive or museum today.
02The foundation we are building
MK MUSIC REGISTRY
Structure without simplifying history into inaccuracy.
MK Music Registry is a curated, structured and evidence-based knowledge foundation. It connects music releases with the recordings they contain, artists and contributors, labels, sources, identifiers and historical context.
Its value is not only that information is stored, but that its origin, confidence and the reasoning behind its presentation can remain clear.
03Evidence and provenance
How do we know?
A physical release, catalogue, photograph, article, interview, archival record or testimony may be a source. The Registry describes that source and connects it with the information it supports, contradicts or qualifies.
Rights and access are separate from evidential value: not every item that assists research is appropriate for public display.
04Honest uncertainty
‘We do not know precisely’ is valid information.
Historical sources may give different years, names or roles. Rather than inventing precision, the Registry can preserve an approximate value, alternatives, conflicting sources and the rationale for a preferred interpretation.
When new evidence appears, a correction does not erase the history of the earlier decision.
05Distinctions that preserve meaning
Release and Recording
A Release is the published product or edition; a Recording is a particular captured performance that may appear on many releases.
Recording and Track
A Recording is an audio identity; a Track describes where and how that recording appears on a release.
Source and Evidence
A Source is a described object, document or testimony; Evidence is how it supports, contradicts or qualifies a claim.
Approved and public
Approval is an editorial decision; public presentation is a separate, deliberate selection of appropriate information.
06Knowledge governance
Research and publication are not the same step.
Working records are researched and reviewed. Approval records that the information is sufficiently supported and responsibly prepared. A separate decision then determines what is appropriate for public presentation.
ResearchEvidenceReviewApproved knowledgePublic
07Present and potential
A clear present boundary. An open long-term direction.
The domain, metadata, evidence model and architecture are established. Identity, access and shared editing foundations are complete, and the current focus is the first working Artist and music Release flow.
In future, this foundation could support richer archival connections, institutional collaboration, research, education, exhibitions and public discovery. These are possibilities, not announced commitments.
08Collaboration
Knowledge grows when it is connected.
We welcome conversations with researchers, musicians, collectors, labels, archives, museums, cultural institutions, universities and other holders of relevant knowledge and material.
Explore collaboration