"Contemporary world music will contain 50,000 tracks that delivers the sounds of all regions from every continent. The database will contain important genres such as reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz and other genres such as traditional music - Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku and more. This database is a complementary database to Smithsonian global sound for libraries - it includes a blend of contemporary and traditional world music recordings from many labels throughout the world." Use "places" facet for country specific links, such as India. Additional facets using the advanced search interface allow for searches by cultural group such as Indian, Tibetan, Hindustani, Hindu, Punjabi, Persian, Northern Indian, Rajasthan Gypsy, South Indian, and Bengali.

Offers audio and video downloads, streaming media, educational resources, and detailed liner notes for traditional roots music. The collection includes the published recordings owned by the non-profit Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label and the archival audio collections of the legendary Folkways Records, Cook, Dyer-Bennet, Fast Folk, Monitor, Paredon and other labels. Includes music recorded around the African continent for the International Library of African Music (ILAM) at Rhodes University and material collected on the South Asian subcontinent from the Archive Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE), sponsored by the American Institute for Indian Studies. Search by place for "India" specific results. Additional advanced search facets allow for searches by cultural groups such as Bengali, Deori, Hindu, Hindustani, Nath Jogi; by genres such as Indian Classical, Chutney, Dhrupad Kirtan, or Bhajan; and by languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Telugu, Tibetan, and Urdu.