Photo: theglobaljukebox.org
Dr Patrick Savage Photo: Supplied / Patrick Savage
The Global Jukebox is a free, interactive online database of coded songs from more than a thousand cultures around the world.
As well as listening to the songs, you can also analyse them using science to comparing similarities and differences.
Three to Seven host Bryan Crump spoke with Dr Patrick Savage, Science Officer for The Global Jukebox, and asked him who the database was for.
"It's for listeners who want to learn more about music, it's also for scientists who want to understand musical diversity, and it's for the communities themselves who want to have their music out there and shared with the world."
The concept of The Global Jukebox was conceived by musicologist Alan Lomax long before the current digital technology was available.
There are now over 6,000 songs in the database, but the bigger it is, the better it can represent the full diversity of each culture, say Dr Savage.
"The more communities we get involved, the better [the database] will be, and the more we'll understand about our own cultures, and the better we can connect with other cultures through music.
"I believe that music is a way we can connect across cultures in ways that maybe we can't with language. I hope that The Global Jukebox can serve that goal."
