This is the README file for WWW::AllMusicGuide

~~~~~ OVERVIEW ~~~~~

The WWW::AllMusicGuide module provides an object that you can use to search 
the All Music Guide (http://www.allmusic.com).  Currently, you can search 
for artists and albums.  Artist and album pages are parsed into hash references
containing the information (e.g. name, year, group members, etc).  This 
information is useful in writing tools to maintain large collections of MP3
files, their ID3 tags and metadata.

NOTE: (from the website)

"The All Music Guide is protected by a unique data fingerprinting process to 
insure that the data and its format can be identified.  This data cannot be
distributed in any form without the express written permission of the AEC
One Stop Group, Inc."

~~~~~ DISCLAIMER ~~~~~

NOTE: This is ALPHA software.  The interfaces might possibly change as 
requirements firm up.  If you comments, suggestions, or patches please
let me know at moe AT hendawi DOT com.

~~~~~ REQUIREMENTS ~~~~~

    * Build, test and install Perl 5 (at least version 5.004).
    * HTML::TreeBuilder
    * File::Spec
    * Data::Dumper
    * libwww-perl
    
~~~~~ BUILDING ~~~~~

Building the WWW::AllMusicGuide package is as usual for any typical Perl
module:

    perl Makefile.PL
    make
    make install

~~~~~ TESTING ~~~~~

There is a test program called "amg.pl" in the bin/ subdirectory.  You
should be able to run it without installing anything just to get a feel
for what can be done.  

~~~~~ NOTES ~~~~~

I have not tested this on any platform other than Linux.  Please let me
know if there is something I can change to improve the portability to
other platforms.  Thanks.

