Journal of Documentation Abstract Purpose -A need to renew music-related information notions arises from both information-seeking models and literature of musical semiotics. The present article creates a music information typology, which aims at facilitating the examination of music information types at varying levels of abstraction in the context of information seeking. Design/methodology/approach -Literature of musical semiotics and information seeking are juxtaposed to develop a novel

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... h to music-related information. The grounding concepts are Bruner's enactive, iconic and symbolic modes of representation. The modes of representation offer a universal scheme of knowledge that is applied to the domain of music by defining their content through Tarasti's Theory of musical semiotics. Findings -This conceptual paper results in a music information typology ranging from the enactive music information representations to the abstract ones as follows. Music making as the first mode of enactive representations; music listening as the second mode of enactive representations; iconic representations of music; technological models of music as the first mode of symbolic representations; and ideological models of music as the second mode of symbolic representations. Originality/value -The present article develops a music information typology that encompasses broadly different music information facets by categorizing music information sources according to their level of abstraction. When applied into empirical research, the typology opens a new window into the perceived roles of music information types in the context of information seeking.