IODA to Deliver Digital Song Data Prior to General Release, Speeding Discovery of New Music for Consumers and Driving Sales for IODA
Gracenote, a leader in global digital entertainment technology, today announced that it is partnering with IODA to enable automated marketing and commerce opportunities for IODA’s roster of more than 3,000 labels. IODA, the global leader in digital distribution, marketing, and technology solutions for the independent music industry, will provide Gracenote with complete and accurate metadata and audio fingerprints for its independent releases. Gracenote will use the data to help power its innovative music discovery products and services used by leading Web and mobile digital music services worldwide.
Gracenote will integrate the IODA-generated data into its Global Media Database, the largest in the world, accessed by more than 150 million people annually. By enabling music recognition of their catalog within Gracenote’s solutions for mobile, web and device-based music applications, IODA will create marketing exposure and digital commerce links worldwide for each CD and digital music file of its 3,000 label clients.
“Gracenote’s music services are powering search and discovery for the most recognized digital music sources on the Web,” said IODA founder and CEO Kevin Arnold. “This partnership will ensure that music fans can find IODA-distributed artists and their music when they need it — from iTunes to KDDI’s Lismo service — which helps us build awareness, capture consumer interest and drive sales in new ways.”
In one of the first examples of the partnership, IODA will provide Gracenote with key data for new releases, including song titles and audio fingerprints, ahead of release date. In applications like iTunes and Yahoo Music Jukebox, Gracenote’s recognition service will now identify and link IODA’s complete catalog to the iTunes Music Store and Yahoo Music Unlimited.
By directly providing Gracenote with new music information, IODA also will drive additional promotion for its artists. Through Gracenote’s Mobile MusicID™ service, for example, mobile carriers can allow consumers to identify and discover songs as they hear them so they can then purchase new music from both digital and physical stores.
Using a Gracenote-powered device, such as the new Walkman W850 and W710 phones from Sony Ericsson, music fans will be able to gain access to Gracenote’s Global Media Database to identify the song when it is played on the phones’ built-in FM tuner or anywhere within the proximity of the phones, such as in a club or a restaurant.
“We’re thrilled to have music industry leader IODA as part of our Content Partner Program,” said Ross Blanchard, vice president of business development for Gracenote. “By working together, we will be able to accelerate consumers’ music discovery process, and ensure that music fans can find and buy music more quickly and easily.”
About Gracenote
Gracenote is a leader in global digital entertainment technology. Formerly known as CDDB, Gracenote provides businesses with critical embedded software and metadata that enable consumers to better manage, enjoy and discover digital media. Headquartered in Emeryville, California, Gracenote also has offices in New York, Tokyo, Berlin and Seoul. Gracenote’s solutions are embedded in leading media players such as Apple iTunes, Yahoo Music Engine, RealNetworks Rhapsody, Napster and AOL Winamp, as well as 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 KDDI (Japan), KTF (Korea), Musiwave (Portugal), Oi (Brazil) and Golden Bytes (Benelux). For more information about Gracenote, please refer to http://www.gracenote.com/corporate/.
About IODA
IODA — the Independent Online Distribution Alliance — is the industry-leading digital distribution company for the global independent music community. IODA provides comprehensive services to record labels, physical distributors, and artists, including license negotiations; media encoding and metadata management; and royalty payment administration and reporting. The company also offers promotional support through the IODA Digital Marketing division and Promonet, a promotional distribution network that provides qualified podcasts, blogs, and other promotional sites with access to pre-cleared, legal music and other promotional assets from IODA’s labels. Founded in 2003, IODA represents a rapidly expanding roster of over 700,000 tracks from more than 3,000 independent labels around the globe. The IODA catalog ranges from established classics to modern up-and-comers in all genres, including favorites such as Animal Collective, Antony and the Johnsons, Fall Out Boy, MF Doom, London Symphony Orchestra, Sara Tavares, Aventura, Bebel Gilberto, Billie Holliday, They Might Be Giants, Tina Dico, The Wrens, Black Uhuru, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Fela Kuti, Master P, Seu Jorge, Pink Martini, Ray Charles, Mariza, and R L Burnside. IODA distributes its client catalog to all major digital music services including the iTunes Music Store, MTV Urge, eMusic, Verizon’s V CAST, Napster, Virgin Mega, AOL MusicNow, T-Online’s Musicload, Yahoo! Music, FNAC, RealNetworks’ Rhapsody, and over 250 other retail outlets. IODA was named one of FORTUNE magazine’s 25 Breakout Companies for 2005. The company’s web site is located at http://www.iodalliance.com.
