Chapter 4: Metadata Magic 99 sources, which can then be credited in the fi nal result for the purposes of tracing, charging, or rights management. The individual artists and the production crew may also be referenced in the metadata. Usually production data will not be as interesting to the general public, but some devotees will spend much time in analyzing and dis- secting their favourite artists’ works, contributing new metadata in the process. For instance, the fans of Star Wars have built numerous fan 26 sites where the movies are being recreated. The dialogue, the plot, and the characters are analyzed in breathtaking detail, and sometimes that analysis is used to produce variations or parodies of the original Star Wars fi lms. Such fan fi ction is a form of participatory culture (Jenkins 1992). YOU ONLY LIVE N TIMES Cathy is intrigued by the hit song playing in her cellphone radio. The string theme reminds her of something . . . must be an old song she knows, but the name escapes her. As she hears the same song again for the third time the same day, she decides to check the channel’s playlist. She browses the “Recently played” history in her phone. Aha, this must be it . . . “Millennium” by Robbie Williams. Ok then. But what about that string theme? Her friend Zach says that Mr. Williams likes to feature samples of old hit songs, so this promi- nent theme must be a sample. But which song would it be? After some days of wondering, she meets Zach over coffee and tells him about her problem. Zach shows how she can check the channel’s Web site for that playlist, then click on the song name and get it’s metadata. Sure enough, the data shows that the song contains a sample of the theme to James Bond movie You only live twice. That’s it! Not a great fl ick, but the song is just unbelievably beautiful. Zach explains that if she got herself a smart phone with a decent browser, she could access that metadata immediately upon hearing the song. Cathy could not be bothered to get a new phone, but she still decides to download the sample from the channel’s site as a new ringtone for her current phone. It’s such a cool sample – not because of Mr. Williams, but for the song. The singer is quite amazing. It must have been Shirley Bassey at her best. Maybe Cathy could dig up more info on her? 4.5.9 Smoother Transition Between Applications Metadata allows the same content to be more easily used in different applications. For instance, the popular GarageBand application by Apple allows users to create podcasts in a streamlined manner. The 26 See, for instance, http://www.theforce.net/