Gracenote Powers Smart Drive App for the iPhone With Streaming Music Identification Technology

EMERYVILLE, Calif., May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Gracenote® today announced its MusicID-Stream™ technology is powering the new smart drive app for the iPhone for smart fortwo owners, representing the world's first deployment of a streaming music identification solution by an automotive manufacturer (smart is a brand of Daimler AG).  As part of the smart drive app, Gracenote's technology allows smart fortwo drivers to use their iPhone to identify music playing in their car from any audio source.  The app will then return information about the identified track including artist and track name, album cover art and a purchase link for convenient download.

The smart drive app for the iPhone, a world's first from an automotive supplier, the smart drive app for the iPhone brings an entirely new level of music enjoyment to the car, which is the primary environment in which many people listen to and experience new music. Thanks to an integrated web radio function, users can listen to their favorite domestic and foreign radio stations and podcasts whenever they want.  Gracenote's MusicID-Stream makes it possible for smart fortwo drivers to easily identify and acquire this music as well.

MusicID-Stream leverages Gracenote's audio waveform fingerprinting and search technology as well as Gracenote's Global Media Database, the largest and most comprehensive in the world.  The result is a robust, scalable solution for partners that can be deployed on a mobile handset or directly on an automotive head unit.

"We are pleased to enable this industry first with our MusicID-Stream technology, particularly in such an innovative and functional system as the smart drive kit for the iPhone," said Bill Fleck, head of automotive sales, Americas, at Gracenote.  "MusicID-Stream is an outstanding and fast music identification resource that will allow smart fortwo drivers to enjoy and acquire music content in their car in completely new ways."

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

SOURCE Gracenote