Soundata: reproducible use of audio datasets

Abstract

Soundata is an open-source Python library for working with audio datasets in a programmatic and standardized way. It removes the need for writing custom loaders and improves reproducibility by providing tools to validate data against a canonical version. It speeds up research pipelines by allowing users to quickly download a dataset, validate that the dataset is complete and correct, and load it into memory in a standardized and reproducible way. It is designed to work with bioacoustics, environmental, urban, and spatial sound datasets; to be easy to use and easy to contribute to; and to increase reproducibility and standardize the usage of sound datasets in a flexible way.