| Mass-Produced Honda Civics Will Offer Hard-Drive-Enabled Car Audio and Navigation Systems, Including Gracenote Music Recognition Services |
Following a related announcement made by Honda yesterday, Gracenote(R), the worldwide leader in information services for digital music and media, announced that Gracenote CDDB music recognition services will be used within the industry's first original-equipment-manufactured car audio and navigation devices to offer hard-drive technology. Built using the industry's most leading-edge technologies, Honda will provide the first pre-installed, hard-disk-drive audio and navigation devices for its new Honda Civic models, which will be sold to the Japanese market. Capable of storing vast quantities of information locally, these systems will provide "smarter" car audio and navigation services, when and where they are most needed by drivers.
"Honda is taking a revolutionary step for mass produced cars: they're offering a world-class car navi system that gives people vast quantities of music-related and directional information at their fingertips -- something that isn't yet offered in cars that are many times more expensive," stated Craig Palmer, president and CEO for Gracenote. "This sets a new standard for Japanese manufacturers who already lead the world in innovation and implementation."
All of the units will include an embedded version of Gracenote CDDB(R) and will provide an innovative system for quick database updates via a cell phone connection to the Internet. The Gracenote CDDB(R) music recognition service enables listeners to see artist, album and track name listings, instead of the customary "disk and track number," as well as providing simple, intuitive ways for users to categorize and access their music.
Gracenote CDDB(R) is the foundation for Gracenote Music Management System, including Gracenote MusicID(SM), Gracenote Clean(SM), Gracenote Playlist(SM), Gracenote Link(SM) and Gracenote Encode(SM); developed to provide a complete music listening experience in all music devices.
Recognized as the global industry standard, Gracenote CDDB is used by over 30 million users in over 195 countries each month in consumer electronics devices, software media players and digital music encoders. In addition to the millions of devices and applications that access CDDB via the Internet, the service is increasingly available in off-line devices, making music information accessible wherever music is played. This is done by analyzing music based on regional popularity and creating geographically customized databases that are embedded directly onto hard drives and updated periodically.
About Gracenote
Gracenote(R) is the worldwide leader in information services for digital music and media. Headquartered in Emeryville, California and with offices in Tokyo, Japan, Gracenote provides a suite of integrated software and services that enable consumer electronics manufacturers and software developers to provide advanced digital media. Globally, over 30 million users each month rely on Gracenote to provide a better music listening experience, wherever they listen to music.
Gracenote's information services are used by leading consumer electronics manufacturers including Alpine, Clarion, D&M Holdings, Digion, Fujitsu Ten, JVC, Kenwood, Matsushita, Panasonic, Onkyo, Pioneer, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Yamaha; as well as leading media players including AOL's WinAmp, Apple's iTunes and RealNetworks RealOne Player. For more information about Gracenote, go to www.gracenote.com/corporate/