Gracenote
 |
The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (April 2011) |
 |
This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (June 2007) |
 |
|
| Type | Subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1998 |
| Headquarters | Emeryville, California, USA |
| Products | Digital music recognition technology |
| Employees | 300 (2011) |
| Website | www.gracenote.com |
Gracenote, Inc., formerly called CDDB (Compact Disc Data Base), is a company that maintains and licenses an Internet-accessible database containing information about the contents of audio compact discs and vinyl records. It provides software and metadata to businesses that enable their customers to manage and search digital media. Gracenote provides its media management technology and global media database of digital entertainment information to the mobile, automobile, portable, home, and PC markets. Several computer software applications that are capable of playing CDs, such as Winamp, Media Go, and iTunes, use Gracenote's CDDB technology. Gracenote’s database was originally created from and continues to receive voluntary contributions from users. This led to a licensing controversy when Gracenote became commercialized.
It received its one billionth piece of data on September 9, 2010, with a submission about the Compact Disc release of Swans' My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky.[1]
In addition to its CD track-identification system, Gracenote operates a digital file identification service which allows digital music files (such as MP3s) to be identified, and a media management service for the generation of playlists, and recommendation of music.
On April 22, 2008, Sony announced that it would acquire Gracenote for US$260 million.[2] The acquisition was completed on June 2, 2008.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Controversy
In 1998, CDDB was purchased by Escient, a consumer electronics manufacturer, and operated as a business unit within the Indiana-based company. CDDB was then spun out of Escient and in July 2000 was renamed Gracenote. The CDDB database license was later changed to include new terms. For instance, any programs using a CDDB lookup had to display a CDDB logo while performing the lookup. Then, in March 2001, only licensed applications were provided access to the Gracenote database. New licenses for CDDB1 (the original version of CDDB) were no longer available, so programmers using Gracenote services were required to switch to CDDB2 (a new version incompatible with CDDB1).
This has been controversial as the original CDDB database was created out of anonymous contributions, initially via the Open Source xmcd CD player program. Many listing contributors believed that the database was open-source as well, because in 1997, cddb.com's download and support pages had said it was released under the GPL. CDDB claims that license grant was an error.
[edit] Products
Gracenote offers a number of products including MusicID, Mobile MusicID, Music Enrichment, Discover, Playlist, Playlist Plus, Media VOCS, Classical Music Initiative, and Link. In April 2007, Gracenote launched the first[citation needed] legal lyrics offering in the U.S.
[edit] Customers
iTunes, Media Go, Sonicstage and Spotify all use Gracenote's CD track identification services.[4][5][6]
In addition, Gracenote provides its products to a number of other services including
- Online services including Yahoo! Music Jukebox, AOL, AmazonMP3, Spotify, Winamp, MetroLyrics, Pandora, Google Music,[7] and Tuneup Media;
- Home and automotive products from Alpine, Bose, Panasonic, Philips, and Sony;
- Mobile music applications from Samsung,[8] Sony Ericsson (TrackID), KDDI (Japan), KTF (Korea), Musicwave (Europe).
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Cohen, Noam (2010-10-03). "Obsessions With Minutiae Thrive as Databases". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/business/media/04link.html?_r=1&src=busln&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
- ^ Gracenote News: Sony Corporation of America to Acquire Gracenote
- ^ Sony Corporation of America Completes Gracenote Acquisition
- ^ "How iTunes remembers audio CDs". iTunes KB. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61068.
- ^ "Gracenote Security Update June 27th, 2006". http://www.gracenote.com/sec062706/SonySecurityNotification.html. "Affected Products: Sony CONNECT Player, Sony SonicStage Ver.3.3/3.4, Sony SonicStage Mastering Studio Ver.2.1/2.2"
- ^ "Local Music Files". Spotify. http://www.spotify.com/uk/about/local-music/. "Thanks to our collaboration with the good people at Gracenote®, your MP3s can be made whole again."
- ^ music.google.com
- ^ For more information, see Samsung Music Center: Samsung Multimedia Manager
[edit] External links
- Gracenote
- Sequoia Capital provides venture capital funding to Gracenote
- Gracenote Defends Its Evolution – an interview of Steve Scherf by Wired Magazine
- History of Gracenote Wikipedia Article discussed at Slashdot
