Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 13:12, 13 October 2006

Gracenote is a company which pioneered the technology of compact disc (CD) recognition, and maintains and licenses a database of music and movie metadata, as well as other digital media technology and services. The database is accessible online over the Internet. As of 2006 many computer software applications that are capable of playing CDs or digital audio files use Gracenote's CDDB or similar services. These programs generally offer the option of allowing users to directly contribute information to the database. Gracenote's database was initially compiled this way, though now much of its data also comes directly from record labels and numerous other sources.

Background

Gracenote has its roots in an open source project that began in 1993 involving a CD player program named xmcd and an associated database named CDDB. Xmcd and the CDDB service were created by Ti Kan and Steve Scherf, respectively. Because CDs do not generally contain any digitally-encoded information about their contents (see CD-Text), Kan and Scherf developed software which identifies and looks up CDs based on Table of Contents (TOC) information stored at the beginning of each disc. A TOC is a list of sector numbers, also known as offsets, corresponding to the start of each track on any given CD. Because the offsets on a CD tend to be unique, they can be used for identifying CDs with a high degree of certainty. Fuzzy logic is used to heuristically compare TOCs that are similar but not exact matches, a common case for popular discs with many different batches manufactured at various times and places. The end result is a highly accurate method of identifying compact discs.

Some computer users who have copied vinyl LPs from their turntables onto CD-Rs have been astonished to find their computers correctly displaying the titles and track listings when these CD-Rs are played on their computer. This happens when a commercial CD is a remastered version of an LP, containing the same tracks in the same order. If the playback times of the songs on the homemade CD resemble those of the commercial CD, the CDDB recognition algorithm can identify the CD successfully.

Gracenote’s pioneering work in compact disc recognition happened at just the right time to help enable the digital music revolution. The ability to recognize CDs and locate album text facilitated the easy, automatic generation of digital audio files (such as MP3s) in large quantities from one’s personal CD collection, a process known as ripping. Without the ability to automatically name audio files, converting CDs into audio files would be a manual and onerous task. CD recognition made this possible, enabling the average user to convert personal CD collections to digital audio form without having to repurchase that same music again in a new format.

Evolution of Gracenote

Gracenote began as a CD recognition service, but has since introduced a wide variety of digital media recognition technologies and related services for the global market. The first of these was MusicID File, released in 2003 and based on technology purchased from Cantametrix, which offers recognition of digital audio files such as MP3s and other popular file formats. In 2005 Gracenote purchased audio recognition technology from Philips that is highly tolerant of noise and allows for the recognition of music over a cell phone microphone. This service was rolled out as Mobile MusicID. Gracenote technology is used in music and video players, PC software, home consumer electronics products, mobile music applications, cell phone handsets, and automobile audio and navigation systems. Gracenote products are used by millions of consumers worldwide. In 2006 Gracenote announced that it had signed agreements licensing lyrics rights from many of the world’s leading music publishers, for the first time enabling the legal use of song lyrics in consumer electronic devices, PC applications and web services.

Gracenote also offers B2B versions of many of its products and services.

Commercialization

In 1998, Kan and Scherf sold the assets of CDDB to Escient, a producer of high-end consumer electronics. CDDB was later renamed Gracenote. The move was controversial to some, because the CDDB database was built on the voluntary submission of CD track data provided by individual users. Initially, most of these were users of the xmcd CD player program. The xmcd program and CDDB server software were open-source, GPL projects, and many contributors assumed that the database was as well. Though Gracenote has never charged end users for access to the database through its online service, it does charge commercial entities a fee for the benefit of using its service.

In 1999, freedb, a clone of the Gracenote CDDB service, was created by former CDDB users who wanted a noncommercial alternative. The track listing database freedb used to seed its new service was based on the data previously released for public use by CDDB.

iTunes

The ubiquitous iTunes media application is the most prominent user of the Gracenote CD database service today.

Notably, as of iTunes version 6, Gracenote cannot be declined or turned off by any means from within iTunes. iTunes only attempts to contact Gracenote when an Internet connection is active, however, which leaves disconnecting from the Internet as an option for those who prefer not to use the service. The Gracenote connection can also be blocked with firewall rules, but this prevents audio CDs from being playable by iTunes.

Legal History

In 2001, Gracenote sued Roxio and its parent Adaptec for breach of contract when Roxio switched to freedb while continuing to use Gracenote’s trademarks, allegedly violating its contract with Gracenote in the process. The case was settled in 2002 . Though terms were not disclosed, Roxio became a licensee of Gracenote.

Gracenote v. Musicmatch

In 2002, Gracenote filed suit in the Northern District Court in Oakland, California, against MusicMatch, another former licensee, for breach of contract and patent violations . MusicMatch filed a counter-suit against Gracenote. On August 26, 2004 the Court issued its ruling on the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment regarding their patent infringement claims In its ruling, the court found that Gracenote was not entitled to summary judgment with respect to its claims that MusicMatch’s replacement service violated Gracenote’s patents. The court also found evidence that Gracenote may have engaged in inequitable conduct in obtaining its patents (as described below, the Court reversed itself on this issue in a later court order). On August 27, 2004 the Court issued its ruling on the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment regarding their breach of contract and related claims . In its ruling, the Court found that MusicMatch did breach its contract with Gracenote.

Subsequently, following a four day bench trial on the issue of inequitable conduct, the Court ruled in Gracenote’s favor that there had been no inequitable conduct on the part of Gracenote in obtaining any of the patents-in-suit . The case was to have continued to a jury trial but was settled when Yahoo, one of Gracenote’s customers, announced its pending purchase of MusicMatch . The Court also vacated the summary judgment order it had issued on August 26, 2004 .

Similar services

The freedb service is a clone of the original CDDB service. It is based on the last server software and data packages that the CDDB project released for public use, and is largely unchanged. It is used mostly by freeware and shareware PC applications.

The AMG LASSO commercial media recognition service allows for the recognition of DVDs and digital audio files such as MP3s, as well as CD recognition, and directly competes with Gracenote in online and embedded device markets globally.

MusicBrainz is also another music identification service that is open source and created by community contributions.

External links

• Gracenote
• Gracenote product page
• Gracenote legal page
• Gracenote and Roxio Sign Multi-year License, Settle Litigation
• Gracenote Nabs Cantametrix For a Song
• Gracenote acquires cutting edge audio fingerprinting technology from Philips

• Online music databases
• Acoustic fingerprinting
• Digital audio