Gracenote & Omnifone Technology Power the Back-end of Sony's 'Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity™'

CANNES, France., Jan. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- MIDEM Conference-- Gracenote and Omnifone today announced that their technology is driving the back-end of "Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity," Sony's new Cloud-based digital music service, which gives music fans access to millions of songs from the four major labels, leading independent labels and major publishers--on Sony network connected devices.

Omnifone provided its award-winning platform services to develop and deliver the Cloud-based service for "Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity" across a range of device platforms and also licensed the service with rights holders around the world, providing a global catalogue of over six million tracks for subscribers to enjoy.

"'Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity' represents several years of development and licensing investment by Omnifone on behalf of Sony to produce the first Cloud-based music service which will work on Sony's network connected devices, as well as a wide range of Android-based products from other brands," added Rob Lewis, Executive Chairman of Omnifone. "Our partnership with Sony will bring compelling legitimate digital music access to the homes and living rooms of millions of consumers worldwide."

Gracenote's music identification and discovery technologies and Global Media Database create a rich experience for "Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity" subscribers, letting them enjoy their existing digital music collection and discover new artists and albums within Sony's service.

Using Gracenote's MusicID® advanced audio fingerprinting technology, the service's unique "Music Sync" capabilities lets subscribers sync their existing songs on their PC into the "Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity" service, allowing them to access and enjoy music they already own on Sony network connected devices-- BRAVIA® TV, Blu-ray Disc™ player, Blu-ray Disc Home Theater system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system as well as VAIO and other personal computers.

Once the subscriber's collection is mirrored in the catalogue, Gracenote's Global Media Database and Discover™ technology, enables "Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity" subscribers to explore and discover new music based on their unique tastes and listening habits. Gracenote's recommendation and discovery technologies are powered through the relational mapping of a track's sonic attributes in the Gracenote Global Media Database. This relational data, which includes rich proprietary artist and track attributes, is then used to generate highly targeted music recommendations.

"We are pleased to be supporting a service that will be bringing such unique and seamless accessibility to music content for consumers around the globe," said Craig Palmer, Gracenote president. "'Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity' serves as a perfect platform for our recognition and discovery technologies, which will allow music fans to experience what they want to hear, wherever and whenever they want."

Gracenote's database, which provides the backbone for some of the most popular music solutions today, is the largest and most comprehensive music database in the world featuring music and video metadata and licensed cover art images. With more than 100 million tracks and eight million albums, the database processes more than 5.5 billion queries per month and serves more than 250 million users in more than 200 countries and territories.

Gracenote and Omnifone have been in a partnership for more than two years to provide a solution for easy integration of a consumer's personal music collection with Omnifone's unlimited music subscription service and seamless synchronization of both across a consumer's personal devices - from mobile phones to desktop PCs, to home entertainment systems and in-car stereos.

"Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity" is currently available in the UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany and Spain with the service set to launch in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and U.S. in Q1 2011.

Gracenote at MIDEM

Gracenote executives will be attending MIDEM 2011. To set up a briefing please contact Veronica Skelton at 415.342.3435 or vskelton@gracenote.com.

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 and MusicID are registered trademarks and Gracenote Global Media Database and Discover are trademarks of Gracenote, Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

About Omnifone

Omnifone is the world's leading independent provider of Cloud-based unlimited music services for consumer electronics vendors, ISPs, automotive and mobile companies including the likes of Sony, HP, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, Hutchison who are rolling out Omnifone's multi-award winning unlimited music services globally.

MusicStation®, Omnifone's multi-award winning Cloud-based unlimited music platform is utilized by partners in 21 countries worldwide, enabling legitimate unlimited music access direct-to-device across a wide range of in-home, in-car, mobile and PC device platforms, tailored specifically to partner requirements.

At CES 2009 Omnifone announced a partnership with Gracenote, Inc., winning a 'Best of CES' award for an in-car entertainment system with MusicStation unlimited music service. In 2008 Omnifone won Best Mobile Music Service at the GSMA Global Mobile Awards, Best Mobile Internet Service at the Mobile Industry Awards, the Juniper Research Future Mobile Award's Gold Award for Mobile Music, the Red Herring Global 100 Award and in 2007 the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) Music Service Meffy. The company is based at Island Studios, London with regional HQs in Asia Pacific. www.omnifone.com

    For More Information Contact:
    -----------------------------
    Veronica Skelton
    Concept Communications for Gracenote
    415.342.3435
    vskelton@gracenote.com

    Graham McKenna
    Director of Marketing Communications, Gracenote
    510.428.7288
    gmckenna@gracenote.com

    Tim Hadley
    Director, Corporate Communications, Omnifone
    +447976410001
    thadley@omnifone.com

SOURCE Gracenote; Omnifone

SOURCE: Gracenote; Omnifone

CONTACT: Veronica Skelton, Concept Communications for Gracenote, +1-415-342-3435, vskelton@gracenote.com, or Graham McKenna, Director of Marketing Communications of Gracenote, +1-510-428-7288, gmckenna@gracenote.com, or Tim Hadley, Director, Corporate Communications of Omnifone, +447976410001, thadley@omnifone.com

Web Site: http://www.omnifone.com