binary size / memory use, especially with big databases.

IANAP, but how much of a performance hit will you incur if you just a compressed database in memory, and have routines in the player to read it natively when needed? i can only think of a longer boot time, longer Down-Down-Down wait time, and a longer search time, which i think all of us will not mind, if it means that it gets around the memory limitations that we're fast approaching.