Music recognition data house Gracenote has been acquired by Tribune, from Sony. The Gracenote unit will probably be bundled into Tribune’s media services division, according to Bloomberg. Sony acquired Gracenote in 2008.
Gracenote, which was founded as CDDB, maintains a database of metadata related to 180-million music tracks. The service is best known for its core business of providing that metadata (album, track, artist, etc.) to end-use consumers listening to CDs in desktop players, streaming services, and cars.
Gracenote has expanded its datasets to include video, making it attractive to Tribune.