1. A method for processing queries by singing, humming or whistling against a database of music items, including: building an identification database stored in computer readable memory of reference keys to music items, including: establishing a web site on a server accessible to a multiplicity of individual contributors; through the web site, capturing in tags from an individual contributor audio signals of sung, hummed or whistled human renditions of human perceptions of themes of music items selected by the individual contributor, wherein the individual contributor indicates by name the selected sung, hummed or whistled music item, processing the audio signals of the captured tags to develop reference keys that characterize sampled pitch of the captured tags, and storing the reference keys and names of the selected music items indicated by the individual contributors as corresponding to the captured tags used to develop the reference keys; and retrieving a desired music item using the identification database by comparing a query key to the multiplicity of reference keys, including: capturing in a query tag, from a querying user, an audio signal of a sung, hummed or whistled theme from a desired music item, processing the audio signal of the captured query tag to develop a query key that characterizes the sampled pitch of the query tag, and automatically aligning and comparing the query key to the reference keys stored in the database to identify the desired item of music.
1. A method for processing queries by singing, humming or whistling against a database of music items, including: building an identification database stored in computer readable memory of reference keys to music items, including: establishing a web site on a server accessible to a multiplicity of individual contributors; through the web site, capturing in tags from an individual contributor audio signals of sung, hummed or whistled human renditions of human perceptions of themes of music items selected by the individual contributor, wherein the individual contributor indicates by name the selected sung, hummed or whistled music item, processing the audio signals of the captured tags to develop reference keys that characterize sampled pitch of the captured tags, and storing the reference keys and names of the selected music items indicated by the individual contributors as corresponding to the captured tags used to develop the reference keys; and retrieving a desired music item using the identification database by comparing a query key to the multiplicity of reference keys, including: capturing in a query tag, from a querying user, an audio signal of a sung, hummed or whistled theme from a desired music item, processing the audio signal of the captured query tag to develop a query key that characterizes the sampled pitch of the query tag, and automatically aligning and comparing the query key to the reference keys stored in the database to identify the desired item of music. 7. The method of claim 1 , further including: processing at least some of the contributed tags to generate mobile telephone ringtones; and offering the resulting ringtones to users.