So you’re driving to the gym and want to hear something upbeat and motivating. MoodGrid gives a smart alternative to scrolling through hundreds or even thousands of songs in your library. How? It provides the technology and information to visually describe the emotional attributes of music, from “calm” to “energetic” and “dark” to “positive.” These mood characteristics are mapped to songs in your personal music collection and across Cloud-based music services. And songs are organized by their moods and displayed on a graphical grid in the car’s user interface.

According to Vadim Brenner, Gracenote’s VP of product and content management, “Being able to pinpoint what type of music people want to hear based on their specific mood is the killer app for music services and automakers.”

Stay tuned for more news on Gracenote MoodGrid in the weeks and months to come!

This year, everyone is talking about the migration to the Cloud.  And in a discussion between Michael Nash, EVP, Digital Strategy and Business Development for Warner Music Group, and Rob Lewis, Executive Chairman for Omnifone, Nash pointed out music leading the way.  He cited that fact that when 75 percent of all data is a copy – and much of that data is music – Cloud music services are offering a valuable de-duplication solution.  In fact, this “jukebox in the sky” concept, where people can have high quality music in a locker, backed up and available at any time, fixes a lot of things broken in the digital ecosystem.

Gracenote plays an important part in the success of Cloud-based music. We power the world’s hottest services, including Sony’s Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity (which Nash described as “very sophisticated”), as well as powerhouses like Omnifone, PANDORA, MOG, Beyond Oblivion and Spotify. These services depend on our content and technology to both fuel and enrich their user experiences. And we see a lot of exciting opportunity for labels, artists and consumers alike as these services grow and proliferate.

We are looking forward to more insight from the last couple of days of this show, particularly from a panel that Gracenote CTO Ty Roberts will be moderating on “New and Alternative Methods of Music Distribution”, with representatives from Getty Images, 7 Digital, MXP4, Rdio and IODA.

So long for now from Singapore!

Gracenote founder and CTO, Ty Roberts, kicked off the conference this morning on an impressive keynote panel along with folks from EA, Coco-Cola and Troy Carter, Founder, Chairman & CEO of Atom Factory, which acts as the Worldwide manager for Lady Gaga.  Moderating was Nic Harcourt, President of SamLuna Media & Music Supervisor in Residence for MTV.

With all these heavy hitters doing so many innovative things in the music industry, you might have expected a lot of discussion about Cloud technology and social media. But surprisingly, the single most important thing out of this discussion was actually live concerts and touring.

According to the panelists there’s no substitute for touring, doing hundreds of shows around the globe, and getting to know the people and culture.  Troy Carter added that Lady Gaga is on a two-and-a-half year tour that includes South America, India and China for the first time.  Why?  So that she can connect, personally, with her fans around the world.

Now, Gracenote is a technology company, so we clearly believe technology and new media is key to the music experience today.  But, in Ty’s own words, it’s an important amplifier for it, but not a substitute for actually getting out on the road and creating a personal relationship with fans. What technology from Gracenote and music services such as iTunes, Pandora and Q Music Unlimited, does in a unique way is provide a channel to discover new music that you might never have heard on your own.

With that in mind, let’s revel in the fact that there are so many new and exciting advancements that have dramatically changed the way we can listen to music.  (Think of how the move from the 78 to the vinyl record let fans listen longer, and how the cassette tape made music portable).  Today’s technology might not be substitute for a live performance, but it might actually lead you to discovering a new artist and getting that ticket to the show as they perform their work for you.

For those in L.A., this week you can also catch Stephen White, Gracenote’s SVP of Product and Content Management, speak at Digital Hollywood on May 3 at 2:15 on “Video Anytime, Anywhere: Video Across Platforms – Television, Broadband and Mobile – understanding the Value Proposition”.

Omnifone™ Platform Services Enables Cloud Based Access to Music Across Multiple Sony Devices; Gracenote® Content and Technology Lets Subscribers Sync Existing Music Collection and Get Smarter Music Recommendations

CANNES, France. — MIDEM Conference – Jan. 25, 2011 — Gracenote and Omnifone today announced that their technology is driving the back-end of “Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity,” Sony’s new Cloud based digital music service, which gives music fans access to millions of songs from the four major labels, leading independent labels and major publishers—on Sony network connected devices.

Omnifone provided its award-winning platform services to develop and deliver the Cloud-based service for “Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity” across a range of device platforms and also licensed the service with rights holders around the world, providing a global catalogue of over six million tracks for subscribers to enjoy.

“’Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity’ represents several years of development and licensing investment by Omnifone on behalf of Sony to produce the first Cloud based music service which will work on Sony’s network connected devices, as well as a wide range of Android-based products from other brands,” added Rob Lewis, Executive Chairman of Omnifone. “Our partnership with Sony will bring compelling legitimate digital music access to the homes and living rooms of millions of consumers worldwide.”

Gracenote’s music identification and discovery technologies and Global Media Database create a rich experience for “Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity” subscribers, letting them enjoy their existing digital music collection and discover new artists and albums within Sony’s service.

Using Gracenote’s MusicID® advanced audio fingerprinting technology, the service’s unique “Music Sync” capabilities lets subscribers sync their existing songs on their PC into the “Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity” service, allowing them to access and enjoy music they already own on Sony network connected devices— BRAVIA® TV, Blu-ray Disc™ player, Blu-ray Disc Home Theater system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system as well as VAIO and other personal computers.

Once the subscriber’s collection is mirrored in the catalogue, Gracenote’s Global Media Database and Discover™ technology, enables ”Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity” subscribers to explore and discover new music based on their unique tastes and listening habits. Gracenote’s recommendation and discovery technologies are powered through the relational mapping of a track’s sonic attributes in the Gracenote Global Media Database.  This relational data, which includes rich proprietary artist and track attributes, is then used to generate highly targeted music recommendations.

“We are pleased to be supporting a service that will be bringing such unique and seamless accessibility to music content for consumers around the globe,” said Craig Palmer, Gracenote president.  “’Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity’ serves as a perfect platform for our recognition and discovery technologies, which will allow music fans to experience what they want to hear, wherever and whenever they want.”

Gracenote’s database, which provides the backbone for some of the most popular music solutions today, is the largest and most comprehensive music database in the world featuring music and video metadata and licensed cover art images.  With more than 100 million tracks and eight million albums, the database processes more than 5.5 billion queries per month and serves more than 250 million users in more than 200 countries and territories.

Gracenote and Omnifone have been in a partnership for more than two years to provide a solution for easy integration of a consumer’s personal music collection with Omnifone’s unlimited music subscription service and seamless synchronization of both across a consumer’s personal devices – from mobile phones to desktop PCs, to home entertainment systems and in-car stereos.

“Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity” is currently available in the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany and Spain with the service set to launch in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and U.S. in Q1 2011.

Gracenote at MIDEM

Gracenote executives will be attending MIDEM 2011.  To set up a briefing please contact Veronica Skelton at 415.342.3435 or vskelton@gracenote.com.

This year is particularly exciting for us because Sony is using the conference as a platform to announce that Music Unlimited Powered by Qriocity, its new Cloud based music service developed in partnership with Omnifone, which is launching in France, Germany, Italy and Spain – and Gracenote’s content and technology are powering the service.

Gracenote’s MusicID® advanced audio fingerprinting technology powers the service’s unique “Music Sync” capabilities, which let subscribers sync their existing songs on their PC into the service’s catalogue, allowing them to access and enjoy music they already own on Sony network connected devices— BRAVIA® TV, Blu-ray Disc™ player, Blu-ray Disc Home Theater system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system as well as VAIO and other personal computers.   Once the subscriber’s collection is mirrored in the catalogue, Gracenote’s Global Media Database and Discover™ technology lets Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity subscribers explore and discover new music based on their unique tastes and listening habits.

Sony held a press conference on Sunday to answer questions about the service, during which Tim Schaaff, president of Sony Network Entertainment, acknowledged that Gracenote has been “very instrumental in bringing the music service to life.”

More from MIDEM later…in the mean time, check out the announcements we made Sunday about the other Cloud based music services Gracenote powers, and a monumental milestone we’ve achieved:  Gracenote technology has now been used in more than a billion devices.  That’s right, billion with a B!

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Consumer Electronics Show (CES) — Jan. 6, 2011 —Gracenote® today announced its connected TV technologies have been adopted by leading home entertainment brands to bring richer and more interactive experiences to consumers, as well as drive new revenue opportunities for display and media device manufacturers and content providers. These technologies will be announced in new products from Sony Electronics Inc. and LG Electronics at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week.

Gracenote’s connected TV technologies – which include MusicID®, VideoID™ and Video Explore™ – are designed to take the consumer beyond characters and storylines to create a “lean forward” entertainment experience that allows users to navigate and interact with movies, TV and music, explore and access related content, and link to commerce services to download and stream media.

Consumers in many markets spend more than four hours per day watching TV, while 22 percent of global online consumers own or have a definite interest in purchasing a TV with an Internet connection in the next year (How People Watch: A Global Nielsen Consumer Report, Aug. 2010).

“With the steady growth of video consumption and the skyrocketing amount of content available, there is a need for a solution to manage it all,” said Stephen White, senior vice president of product and content management, Gracenote.  “With our technology, consumers get a simplified, customized and enhanced experience, while manufacturers and content owners benefit from our ability to steer people to purchase, stream and download content.”

Gracenote’s home entertainment solutions tap Gracenote’s Global Media Database, the most comprehensive music and video database in the world.  To achieve its breadth and depth of information, Gracenote populates its database using direct feeds from content owners, industry-leading content partners, such as Tribune Media Services, as well by creating its own propriety content though music and video experts and top media categorization, genre and schema specialists covering all major regions of the world.  Gracenote also incorporates contributions from community members who use Gracenote-enabled products and services.

Gracenote Video Explore

Searching through a seemingly endless array of video and music can be overwhelming for consumers. Gracenote Video Explore simplifies this experience by enabling more confident and intelligent searches of any video library. The technology filters and sorts information by more than 40 data attributes of hundreds of thousands of feature films, including cover art, cast members, bios, music, imagery, production crew and notes, studio, genre, keywords and language.

For example, if a movie fan is watching a film on Blu-ray Disc, Gracenote Video Explore can take them behind the scenes to read the director’s filmography and view production images. They can then drill even deeper and explore the director’s influences, or learn trivia about the film and the actors.

Gracenote MusicID

Have you ever heard a great song on a Blu-ray or DVD movie and wanted to know who the band was? Gracenote’s MusicID uses advanced audio fingerprinting technology to recognize the sonic characteristics of any song playing on a TV or media source. Within seconds, the artist name, album and track is delivered to the screen.  After identifying the track, consumers can be directed to a digital entertainment service to purchase the song or complete album.  And by providing track, album, artist and genre information, music fans can control their disc and file-based movie and music collection, making it easier to manage.

Gracenote VideoID

Gracenote VideoID is easily integrated into Multi-Disc Changers, game consoles and other video systems. The technology leverages Gracenote’s Global Media Database to identify DVD and Blu-ray discs in the collection, pulling down movie cover art, synopsis and other metadata to improve search and navigation.  With Gracenote VideoID, consumers can easily navigate their video library by key fields such as: Title, Release Date, Cast and Credits. They can then link to other metadata, such as cast and characters or even commerce services.

Gracenote Showcases Home Solutions at CES 2011
Several Gracenote-powered home entertainment products will be demonstrated at CES 2011 in the Gracenote booth No. 31106 in South Hall 3 of the LVCC.  New products featuring Gracenote technology include:

Sony:

• Sony BDP-S380 Blu-ray player, featuring Video Explore, VideoID, MusicID and contributor and artist images from Gracenote
• Sony BDP-S480 Blu-ray player, featuring Video Explore, VideoID, MusicID and contributor and artist images from Gracenote
• Sony BDP-S580 Blu-ray player, featuring Video Explore, VideoID, MusicID and contributor and artist images from Gracenote
• Sony BDP-S780 Blu-ray player, featuring Video Explore, VideoID, MusicID and contributor and artist images from Gracenote
• Sony Bravia HX929, HX820, and NX720 series HDTVs featuring Video Explore and MusicID

LG:

• LG BD670 Blu-ray player, featuring VideoID and MusicID
• LG BD690 Blu-ray player, featuring VideoID and MusicID
• LG HX996TS Real 3D Sound Home Theater System – Blu-ray player, featuring VideoID and MusicID

• LG HB906SB Blu-ray 3D Disc Home Theater System – Blu-ray player, featuring VideoID and MusicID

Gravity Mobile: Multi-screen Applications

Gracenote home entertainment solutions are also available for mobile devices including tablets, as well as for the automobile and desktop industry, and can be fully implemented and launched by customers quickly and easily.  Gravity Mobile, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gracenote and a leading mobile applications and solutions company, will be demonstrating new interactive multi-screen applications in the Gracenote booth at CES.

For more information or to schedule a demo and briefing at the show, please contact Veronica Skelton at 415.342.3435 or vskelton@gracenote.com.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Consumer Electronics Show (CES) — Jan. 6, 2011 —Gracenote® today announced it has signed an agreement with Paris-based Parrot, a global leader in wireless devices for mobile phones, to provide its digital file recognition and speech-enhancing technologies for Parrot ASTEROID, a new connected car stereo that delivers an unparalleled hands-free user experience for accessing music collections in the car.

Parrot ASTEROID uses Gracenote’s MediaVOCS® and Playlist Plus™ technologies to provide drivers a safe and easy way to manage and enjoy music on the open road.  Gracenote’s Playlist Plus identifies digital songs on connected devices (i.e. iPod) using available metadata. It also recognizes inconsistent spellings, repetitions and nicknames in a digital music collection, such as “The Stones” and “The Rolling Stones.”

MediaVOCS delivers highly accurate voice recognition capabilities for music search, navigation and playback, letting drivers access bands, artists and albums with hard-to-pronounce names, irregular spellings and nicknames.  For instance, MediaVOCS can recognize an artist nickname like “The Boss” for Bruce Springsteen, or an unobvious pronunciation like “Sade”, or an abbreviated artist name like “CCR” for Creedence Clearwater Revival.  MediaVOCS and Playlist Plus work seamlessly with each other to enable a simpler and safer music management and enjoyment experience for drivers.

Parrot ASTEROID represents the first after-market product to feature Gracenote MediaVOCS. It allows car owners to upgrade their entertainment systems with enhanced voice recognition, music search and navigation technology commonly found in many new cars with higher-end infotainment and navigation systems.

“By using Gracenote’s technology we were able to greatly improve the accuracy, performance, latency and ready time of the speech recognition capabilities for ASTEROID,” said Frederic Albinet, product marketing manager, automotive business unit, Parrot.  “We conducted extensive testing of MediaVOCS versus standard speech recognition capabilities and we found a full 30 percent improvement of artist name recognition over other technology offerings.  We are very impressed with the technology and for us, choosing to work with Gracenote was an easy decision.”

2010 Momentum in Automotive

Gracenote gained substantial momentum in the automotive sector last year with its technology now integrated into 16 different OEMS, including the top five car manufacturers on the market.  As of the end of 2010 more than 18 million car audio units with embedded Gracenote technology have been sold since the company’s inception.

Also in 2010, Gracenote was tapped to be the global entertainment technology provider for Ford MyFord Touch™ system.  Leveraging its Playlist Plus, MediaVOCS, and Cover Art products, Ford and Lincoln drivers are able to experience exceptional voice and graphical control over their media on iPods, MP3 players, USB and SD cards as well as Bluetooth audio devices.  In addition, Gracenote announced its MusicID®-Stream technology would power the Mercedes Benz-developed  smart drive app for the iPhone in the smart fortwo car.  By allowing consumers to identify what is playing on the radio it is a step in the direction to enabling commerce in the car.

Gracenote Showcases Concept ‘Car of the Future’ at CES 2011
Gracenote will demonstrate a concept ‘Car of the Future’ featuring a host of its connected car technologies at CES 2011 in its booth No. 31106  in South Hall 3 of the LVCC.  The car will feature integration of Cloud-based music streaming for seamless and safe discovery and enjoyment of music, multi-screen video and music exploration applications, and imagery for every source including music imagery slideshows synchronized to music.  For more information or to schedule a demonstration and briefing at the show, please contact Veronica Skelton at 415.342.3435 or vskelton@gracenote.com.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Consumer Electronics Show (CES) — Jan. 6, 2011 —Gracenote® today announced the next generation of its Discover™ music recommendation technology, which will feature the use of sonic attributes such as Mood and Tempo and music descriptors like Genre, Origin, Era and Artist Type, to deliver smarter, more relevant track, artist and album recommendations as well as enable customers to offer personalized, one-touch Music Channels.  The technology will allow music services to deliver a personal music experience for consumers when and where they want it, from mobile phones, tablets and media players to the desktop, connected televisions and other home digital entertainment devices.

Personalized Music Channels

With the average person now listening to 17 to 19 hours of music per week and Cloud-based music services featuring millions of songs, the need for highly targeted music recommendations and channels is evident.  Because music listeners can experience a range of emotions throughout their day, Discover’s Music Channels are designed with the ability to match music with a consumer’s mood by using Gracenote’s sonic attribute technology to extract the “mood profile” of more than 30 million global music tracks.

Gracenote’s mood profiles are comprised of more than a hundred mood characteristics, ranging from Sensual to Melancholy to Peaceful to Rowdy.  Music fans can also customize their Mood Channels or further refine them by Genre, Era and other characteristics. For instance, a music fan would be able to request a Rowdy (Mood), Fast (Tempo), 1980s (Era), British (Origin), Punk (Genre) Channel.

The first partner to implement Gracenote’s Music Channels is Omnifone®, the world’s leading independent provider of Cloud-based music services, which will use Gracenote Discover to deliver smarter, more relevant song recommendations and mood-based Music Channels across the award winning MusicStation Platform digital music services it provides to consumer electronics vendors, mobile carriers, broadband providers and automotive vendors globally.

“Gracenote Discover guides the consumer through the vast catalogue of repertoire provided by Omnifone’s unlimited music services,” said Rob Lewis, executive chairman of Omnifone. “Partnering with Gracenote enables us to provide users with relevant and engaging music choices for channel based services and ‘You Might Like’ recommendations.”

Discover Makes Music Personal

Gracenote’s Discover is a one-stop resource for Cloud-based music services, app developers and device manufacturers to drive differentiation from competitors and realize new revenue streams through improved listener retention, sales and customer loyalty.  Discover can be quickly and easily integrated within a customer’s infrastructure, allowing for fast deployment globally.

“With the dizzying array of choices consumers have to access and listen to music, Cloud services need to understand what their fans really want,” said Stephen White, senior vice president of product and content management for Gracenote.  “Recommendations have become a vital tool for promoting content, and Gracenote’s Discover offers the most powerful way to provide a personal music experience for the consumer.”

Imagery Transforms the Mood-based Music Experience

Imagery is now a “must-have” for music fans to help them search and explore for artists and buy new music. Through an agreement with Getty Images Inc., a leading creator and distributor of digital media, Gracenote will offer users access to a rich bank of diverse photographs and illustrations to further enhance their music experience. 

Gracenote has developed a mechanism to map the creative characteristics of music and visuals to each other to create a unique visual experience – within Music Channels or at the track level – using Getty Images’ vast database of creative assets. As a specific music track changes the mood or tempo of the playlist, the images displayed with that song shift to suit the music.  The result for music fans is a more visually appealing experience with vibrant Getty Images that match the mood of their favorite songs. This capability from Gracenote will be available later in 2011.     

Discover at CES 2011
Gracenote will demonstrate Discover and how it works to enhance music recommendations, create personal Music Channels, and deliver images that match the moods of a song at CES 2011 in the Gracenote booth No. 31106  in South Hall 3 of the LVCC.  For more information or to schedule a demo and briefing at the show, please contact Veronica Skelton at 415.342.3435 or vskelton@gracenote.com.

We’re making exciting technology and partner announcements at the show across the automotive, home and mobile sectors, so stay tuned for more details over the next couple of days. Let’s just say that 2011 is going to be transformative in the way that all of your digital media devices will be able to communicate with one another to create digital music and video experiences like never before.

We are also excited to announce that our very own Ty Roberts, Gracenote’s CTO, is being honored at the 4th Annual Digital Media Insider Event at CES in Las Vegas on January 6th as one of Digital Media Wire’s “25 Digital Entertainment Executives to Watch”. Congrats, Ty!

Ty will also be speaking at the Consumer Telematics Show on January 5th about the Driving Forces & Market Strategies for Telematics Convergence with the CE World. Stop by the Mandalay Bay and listen to Ty and other industry leaders discuss this compelling topic.

If you plan on attending CES and are interested in getting a briefing and demo of our latest technologies, please contact Veronica Skelton or stop by our booth in the LVCC, South Hall 3, upper level in Booth #31106 (you can’t miss us right in front of the hall entrance).

Stay tuned for exciting news from the show floor!

At Gracenote we’ve been very busy gearing up for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in early January, as we always are this time of year.  While other companies are looking forward to a little break and some holiday cheer, we are burning the midnight oil finalizing our booth design, fine-tuning demonstrations and writing collateral copy for our biggest show of the year.

But amid all the preparations for CES, there’s also another event we always take time to attend and support: the SF Music Tech Summit.  The show hits right at our sweet spot at the intersection of media and technology, and is right in our back yard in San Francisco, to boot.

Monday, Gracenote CTO Ty Roberts spoke on a panel to more than 200 people at the Summit on “Connected Devices”, along with Thomas Meyer of SONOS , Lucas Gonze of MOG, and Geno Yoham with Winamp, with Michael Papish of Rovi moderating.

Much of the discussion was preparation for what we can expect to be talking about at CES.  For instance, Roberts opened up by saying the Connected TV will be a standard feature for consumers in the not-so-distant-future, and that cars, which have been in the “dark ages” according to Roberts, will soon have network services.  He also went so far as to say that the second screen will be the story at CES this year, allowing consumers to have mobile devices that sync with the TV, and even hinted that Gracenote will unveil new technology at the show that delivers streaming mood-based music playlists to connected devices, along with accompanying artist photos and album art.

The panel members then moved on to their favorite connected devices.  Meyers loves his Xbox 360 with Hulu integration (and has every Disney movie digitized for his four children to enjoy).  Roberts favors his Apple TV with Netflix, while his 11-year-old son is addicted to Playstation and the ability to chat with his friends while they play games.

The panel also addressed a lot of good questions surrounding connected devices.  What are the business models?  Will there be a standardization of platforms?  What can be done to make the experience easier?  Who owns the consumer?

Ultimately, I think Lucas Gonze of MOG said it best, when he pointed out that “this is about the way the Internet works colliding with the way the CE industry works,” he said.  The CE industry traditionally has been static and orderly, moving from one incremental technology to the next every year, “and now it’s colliding with the Internet, which moves in a totally different way.”

What are your thoughts on Connected Devices, and what do you think we can expect to see at CES?