Paul McCartney’s cloud-based digital library now available to public

The idea is to intrigue people and bring them into our world with new facts, new photographs, news of what’s happening, accounts of what happened, backstage moments and all the stuff we can give that nobody else can. The website really brings the digital library to life by constantly pulling new content from my personal collection so there’s always a new experience for visitors.

Paul McCartney

From HP, January 12, 2012:

HP today announced that music fans now have unprecedented access to Paul McCartney’s new portal destination, www.paulmccartney.com, which hosts the musician’s vast digital library of music, lyrics, photos, collections, merchandise, blogs and more.

Over the past year, HP and Paul McCartney’s MPL Communications, Ltd. worked closely to design, deploy and maintain a private cloud-based digital library that catalogs and stores more than a million items from McCartney’s expansive personal collection, which spans more than five decades. Until now, the digital library had provided internal access only to MPL Communications, Ltd.

McCartney’s new dynamic portal leverages the assets and functionality of the underlying digital library to create an engaging and immersive experience for the music community. Built by HP and MPL Communications, Ltd., the site delivers an intuitive and user-friendly experience for fans, with metadata tagging and contextual structuring that enables types of content to be related.

Fans can view precisely what they want in a variety of ways. For example, they can search a certain album and find not only the songs, but also additional information associated with the songs, including lyrics, photography and videos.

“The idea is to intrigue people and bring them into our world with new facts, new photographs, news of what’s happening, accounts of what happened, backstage moments and all the stuff we can give that nobody else can,” said McCartney. “The website really brings the digital library to life by constantly pulling new content from my personal collection so there’s always a new experience for visitors.”

HP Enterprise Services built the digital library on an HP Converged Infrastructure – using servers, storage, networking and software – to seamlessly integrate the digital library and website.

HP technology gives MPL Communications, Ltd. the flexibility to easily retrieve assets for public use via the underlying digital library. As a result, fans also have the opportunity to select assets that are customized for on-demand viewing.

The new website also features a unique online music player – The Jukebox – that fans can use to listen to songs and build personal playlists with music pulled from the digital library. At the click of a link, fans can access historical information from a selection of McCartney songs or albums.

“Fans expect a richer and deeper experience than ever before,” said Jan Zadak, executive vice president, Global Sales, HP. “Our work with MPL Communications, Ltd. showcases the integral role that technology plays in driving the success of an Instant-On music organization, by redefining the fan experience.” […]