Draft:Robert Kaye
MetaBrainz Foundation founder
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Robert Kaye (January 17, 1970 – February 21, 2026), also known by his online pseudonym mayhem, was a German-American computer engineer and open-data activist. He was the founder of MusicBrainz and the executive director of the MetaBrainz Foundation. Kaye was a recognized expert in the European technology sector and a member of the European Open Source Academy.[1] Kaye was a leading figure in the open-source community, dedicated to maintaining music metadata as a public commons.
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Submission declined on 26 February 2026 by ChrysGalley (talk).
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This draft has been resubmitted and is currently awaiting re-review. |  |
| Submission declined on 26 February 2026 by RangersRus (talk). This draft's references do not show that the person meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion for people. The draft requires multiple published secondary sources that:
Declined by RangersRus 17 days ago.
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Comment: We need to demonstrate notability via reliable sources, under WP:42 and the two sources that look most plausible for this go to 404. If you are using LLM / AI / chatbots to source, kindly stop doing so, since under WP:NEWLLM it is not allowed. Ideally we would need 3 such independent sources. ChrysGalley (talk) 10:52, 26 February 2026 (UTC)
Robert Kaye | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 17, 1970 |
| Died | February 21, 2026 (aged 56) Barcelona, Spain |
| Other names | mayhem |
| Education | California Polytechnic State University (BS) |
| Occupations | Computer engineer, open-source advocate |
| Known for | MusicBrainz, MetaBrainz Foundation, ListenBrainz |
| Website | metabrainz |
Early life and education
Kaye was born in Germany and later moved to the United States. He attended California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, graduating in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering.[2]
Career
Digital Audio and MusicBrainz
In the late 1990s, Kaye worked for Xing Technology and later joined the FreeAmp team [3] at EMusic. In 2000, he founded MusicBrainz as an open-source alternative to the proprietary CDDB (later Gracenote). The project aimed to create a collaborative music encyclopedia that provided permanent, unique identifiers (MBIDs) for every recording.[4]
In 2004, he established the MetaBrainz Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, to provide financial and legal support for MusicBrainz and related projects, including:
- ListenBrainz: An open-source platform for tracking listening history.
- BookBrainz: An open-access encyclopedia for literature and published works.
- The Cover Art Archive: A joint project with the Internet Archive to store and serve cover art images.[1]
His work with MusicBrainz has been cited as a foundational effort in democratizing music data, with coverage in major publications noting its role as a "Wikipedia for music".
Hardware and robotics
Kaye was a co-founder of Party Robotics and a creator of "Bartendro", a modular, open-source cocktail-dispensing robot powered by Raspberry Pi. In March 2013, the project launched a Kickstarter campaign that successfully raised $197,464 from 486 backers, surpassing its $135,000 funding goal. The project received significant attention from the technology press for its intersection of maker culture and robotics.[5]
Personal life
Kaye lived in Barcelona, Spain, during his later years. He was an active member of the global maker culture and was known for creating large-scale light art installations and cocktail robots, often inspired by his participation in the Burning Man festival.[1]
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