A musical tune playback apparatus is basically constituted by a controller
(CPU), a digital media drive (e.g., a CD drive), a hard disk drive, and a
sound system. Musical tune data recorded on a digital storage media
(e.g., CD) are played back and are transferred to the hard disk drive
together with relative information and/or image data. When a user inputs
retrieval conditions, the controller retrieves musical tune data related
to relative information (or image), which substantially matches retrieval
conditions. Specifically, a relative information retrieval database is
stored in a data area of the hard disk drive, wherein an auto-input area
automatically describes an index ID, TOC information, and history
information while a manual-input area describes other data and
information with regard to each musical tune that is played back. Thus,
desired musical tune data are automatically retrieved from the hard disk
drive with reference to the database.