EMERYVILLE, Calif., Aug. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Gracenote and Royal Philips
Electronics (NYSE: PHG) today announced that Gracenote has acquired Philips'
robust audio identification and fingerprinting technology and has entered into
a long term research and development agreement with world renowned Philips
Research. In addition, Philips has taken an equity position in Gracenote and
will serve as a strategic technology advisor.
Gracenote's acquisition of the market-leading audio identification and
fingerprinting technology helps further extend the company's lead in the
digital entertainment technology market and enables Gracenote to expand into
significant new markets. Under its previous license for the acquired
technology, Gracenote integrated Philips' audio identification and
fingerprinting technology into the Gracenote Mobile MusicID service in use
across the globe. Acquisition of this technology has far reaching implications
-- enabling Gracenote to expand into new areas, including chip-based
recognition solutions perfect for mobile environments, embedded solutions for
devices such as car stereos, and music and advertising monitoring. As part of
the transaction, Philips transferred its intellectual property rights,
including an extensive portfolio of patent applications, for audio
identification and fingerprinting technology to Gracenote.
"We are very excited to acquire this new core technology and formalize our
working relationship with Philips Research," said Craig Palmer, CEO,
Gracenote, Inc. "As we continue to grow our business in new and exciting
directions, it is important to have best of breed partners who can bring
technology, experience and consumer insight to the table."
Long-Term R&D Relationship
Gracenote also announced today it has entered into a long-term R&D
partnership with Philips Research.
"The success of our initial partnership, which combined our audio
fingerprinting technology with Gracenote's deep database for mobile networks,
convinced us that Gracenote is an ideal partner for the application of other
groundbreaking technologies. We look forward to working with Gracenote to
bring to market more cutting edge technologies that will set the standards for
audio and video products for years to come," said Fred Boekhorst, Senior Vice
President of Philips Research, commenting on the long-term R&D relationship.
Philips Research has turned out some of the most important technological
breakthroughs in digital entertainment in recent years, including crucial work
on the CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc standards. As part of the R&D relationship,
Gracenote will have early access to both research results and licensing rights
for new technologies developed in the Systems and Software sector at Philips
Research. The partnership combines the excellent research capabilities at
Philips with Gracenote's technological focus on audio and video, deep
understanding of consumer behavior with digital media and the company's
unparalleled worldwide database of track identification information on more
than 50 million songs.
Gracenote also announced today that the company has closed a round of
funding of approximately $10.9 million from existing and new strategic
investors to fund technology acquisitions and other development activities.
Gracenote's Mobile MusicID Success
Currently, Gracenote uses Philips' technology in combination with
Gracenote's fingerprint database for Gracenote's Mobile MusicID service, which
enables consumers to use their cell phones to identify music playing on the
radio, in a restaurant or anywhere else. Leveraging Gracenote's global
database of over seven million audio fingerprints, Mobile MusicID is able to
identify songs from around the world from as little as a three second sample
of the music. Currently this service is offered by mobile operators around the
world including KDDI in Japan, KTF in Korea, and Oi in Brazil.
Gracenote's Media Recognition Technology
With this acquisition, Gracenote has the most comprehensive family of
media recognition technologies on the globe. Recognizing a single file is a
complex task that can require several methods, including CD, DVD, audio file,
audio streaming, and text-based recognition technologies. Gracenote now has
all these technologies, the team in place to link them and develop them for
future uses, and deep databases of content to fuel worldwide deployments. The
technology acquired from Philips is tuned for audio files streaming over a
network and complements disk-based audio file recognition technology Gracenote
already has. Both these audio fingerprinting technologies are specific to
different implementations and will be developed, enhanced and supported.
About Gracenote
Gracenote is a leader in global digital entertainment technology and
content. Formerly known as CDDB, Gracenote provides critical embedded software
and content to businesses that enable consumers to better manage, enjoy and
discover digital media. Headquartered in Emeryville, California, Gracenote
also has offices in New York, Tokyo, Berlin, Seoul and Hong Kong. Gracenote's
solutions are embedded in leading media players such as Apple's iTunes,
RealNetworks RealPlayer and AOL's Winamp and software applications for
Creative and iRiver portable devices. Gracenote's technology powers leading
home and automobile consumer electronics brands such as Alpine, Denon and
Marantz, Kenwood, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sony and Yamaha; as
well as international mobile music applications for KTF, (Korea), Musiwave,
(Portugal), Oi, (Brazil), and GoldenBbytes Music (Benelux). For more
information about Gracenote: http://www.gracenote.com/corporate.
For More Information, Business:
Gracenote
Ross Blanchard
+1-510-547-9680
rblanchard@gracenote.com
For More Information, Press:
SutherlandGold Group for Gracenote,
Erika Shaffer
+1-206-972-5514
erika@sutherlandgold.com
SOURCE Gracenote
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Related links:
http://www.gracenote.com
CONTACT:
Ross Blanchard of Gracenote, +1-510-547-9680,
or rblanchard@gracenote.com; or media, Erika Shaffer of
SutherlandGold Group, +1-206-972-5514, or
erika@sutherlandgold.com, for Gracenote
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