Advances in technology, such as MP3 players, the Internet and DVDs, have led to the production, storage and distribution of a wealth of audio signals, including speech, music and more general sound signals and their combinations. MPEG-7 audio tools were created to enable the navigation of this data, by providing an established framework for effective multimedia management. MPEG-7 Audio and Beyond: Audio Content Indexing and Retrieval is a unique insight into the technology, covering the following topics: the fundamentals of MPEG-7 audio, principally low-level descriptors and sound classification and similarity; spoken content description, and timbre, melody and tempo music description tools; existing MPEG-7 applications and those currently being developed; examples of audio technology beyond the scope of MPEG-7. Essential reading for practising electronic and communications engineers designing and implementing MPEG-7 compliant systems, this book will also be a useful reference for researchers and graduate students working with multimedia database technology.