Abstract: An apparatus for generating a collection profile of a collection of different media data items has a feature extractor for extracting at least two different features describing a content of a media data item for a plurality of media data items of the collection, and a profile creator for creating the collection profile by combining the extracted features or weighted extracted features so that the collection profile represents a quantitative fingerprint of a content of the media data collection. This collection profile or music DNA can be used for transmitting information, which is based on this collection profile, to the entity itself or to a remote entity.