Gracenote Partners With Top Four Music Labels to Receive Pre-Release Song Data

CANNES, France, Jan. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- MidemNet 2010 -- Gracenote® today announced it has deepened its relationships with the leading music labels, enabling the company to receive metadata and album art for many new song releases prior to official release date.

The arrangements with all four major labels – EMI Music, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group – as well as hundreds of top independent labels enable Gracenote to incorporate new music information and enriched content into its media database before many songs are released. Obtaining this information prior to release means Gracenote-powered services can offer consumers up-to-the minute information and recommendations for new music once it becomes publicly available. It also provides labels and music service providers with additional ways to drive sales and capitalize on the momentum from a song debut.

Gracenote's Global Media Database is the largest in the world, with more than 100 million tracks and eight million CDs from more than 200 countries and territories. Through these arrangements, Gracenote will receive cover art and new release data for the creation of audio fingerprints from music labels. Once this data is received, it is combined with the company's editorial content, such as genre and era, and linked to enriched content like lyrics. Finally, all of this information is loaded into Gracenote's database and is utilized by the company's identification and recommendation products, MusicID® and Discover™.

Now any consumer using an iPhone, Sony Ericsson phone with TrackID or more than 30 AT&T handsets with MusicID 2 can identify new songs the first time they are played - whether it's in their car listening to the radio, out at a dance club, or simply hanging out at home. This allows music fans to instantly search for related artist information, get recommendations and playlists for related music they might like, or link to a digital store to instantly purchase the new album or tracks.

"Universal Music is committed to providing music fans with even more compelling interactive opportunities to discover new music and connect with their favorite artists," stated David Ring, Executive Vice President of Business Development & Business Strategy for UMG's eLabs. "And through Gracenote, we'll be even better positioned to extend these discovery opportunities across a wide array of available wireless devices."

With today's announcement, Gracenote now has pre-release access to tens of thousands of unique albums from major labels as well as independent distributors such as DiscMakers, INgrooves, IODA, IRIS, and The Orchard. "Gracenote's Content Partner Program empowers and enhances the music discovery process, allowing music fans to experience and buy music quickly and easily," said Kevin Arnold, Founder and CEO of IODA. "This translates directly into increased visibility and sales for our artists."

About Gracenote

A pioneer in the digital media industry, Gracenote combines information, technology, services and applications to create ingenious entertainment solutions for the global market. From media management, enrichment and discovery products to content identification technologies, Gracenote allows providers of digital media products and the content community to make their offerings more powerful and intuitive, enabling superior consumer experiences. The company's solutions integrate the broadest, deepest, and highest quality global metadata and enriched content with an infrastructure that services billions of searches a month from thousands of products used by hundreds of millions consumers. Gracenote's customers include the biggest names in the consumer electronics, mobile, automotive, software and Internet industries. The company's partners in the entertainment community include major music publishers and labels, prominent independents and movie studios. Gracenote, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, is headquartered in Emeryville, California. www.gracenote.com.

Gracenote is a registered trademarks of Gracenote, Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Gracenote