Gracenote Inks Deals With Leading Automotive OEM Entertainment System Suppliers; Alpine, Clarion, Harman International Industries, Kenwood, Mitsubishi, Pioneer Sign Up to Use Gracenote Technology for Next-Generation, In-Car Entertainment Systems

EMERYVILLE, Calif.--Oct. 1, 20051, 2005--Gracenote(R), a global leader in digital entertainment technology, today announced that it has added Harman International Industries, Inc. as a new licensee and has extended contracts with Alpine, Clarion, Kenwood, Mitsubishi and Pioneer to provide digital music technology and services for factory/dealer options and aftermarket car audio devices. Gracenote's digital music technology and service, called MusicID(TM), displays album, artist and track titles on the car audio device, allowing drivers to manage and enjoy even the largest digital music collections. The highly anticipated U.S. rollout by major OEMs of hard drive-based automotive jukeboxes is expected for fall next year in 2007 models.

Gracenote's embedded MusicID technology and data service power automotive jukeboxes around the world by identifying entire CDs as they are copied onto the internal hard drive. The metadata, such as genre, album, artist and track title, is then displayed to the driver on the car audio device and can be used to easily navigate through the music collection. Without Gracenote, drivers would only be able to scan through their music manually by CD and track numbers, making it virtually impossible to have a large music library in your car.

"Gracenote's technology allows us to offer drivers a new way to enjoy their music while still ensuring a safe driving experience," said Takeshi Imai, general manager, Internavi System Development and Planning Office, Honda Motor Co. "Hard drive-based music jukeboxes in the car, made possible by Gracenote, are extremely popular in Japan, and we are very eager to roll them out in the U.S. in our next generation of in-car entertainment systems."

With Gracenote, drivers can store thousands of songs on the device's hard drive and easily play them by selecting the genre, album, artist or individual song. Making this possible is Gracenote's Global Media Database(TM), the largest and most comprehensive database of music information in the world, containing information on over four million CDs and 50 million tracks, covering music from 213 countries and regions and 80 different languages.

In addition to CD recognition, many of the next-generation devices include Gracenote MusicID File Recognition and Playlist(TM). Gracenote's digital file recognition technology uses waveform analysis to identify individual songs on a CD. This capability becomes even more important as users continue to create their own custom CDs to enjoy wherever they may be, including the car. Gracenote Playlist lets the driver conveniently create instant and intelligent playlists. The Auto Playlist feature finds similar sounding songs from the driver's collection -- the driver simply selects a seed song and presses the "More Like This" button.

According to a 2005 study from IMS Research, the worldwide market for hard drive-based music jukeboxes in cars will grow by more than 300 percent over the next three years. "In-car music jukeboxes have really taken off in Japan where over 95 percent of the worldwide hard drive-based units were installed last year," said Kevin Furr, research analyst, IMS Research. "We're expecting remarkable growth, particularly in the U.S. and Europe, in the next few years."

In 2002, Gracenote partnered with Pioneer to deliver the first-ever embedded hard drive jukebox player. Today, Gracenote continues to lead the market by being the only supplier delivering embedded digital music recognition solutions for autos and is expected to ship more than two million units to the global market by the end of 2005. Gracenote-enabled devices are available as factory or dealer options with Audi, GM, Honda, Mazda, Nissan and Toyota cars. Additionally, Panasonic, PhatNoise, Sanyo and Sony also offer Gracenote-enabled devices in aftermarket and direct-from-manufacturer models.

About Gracenote

Gracenote is a leader in global digital entertainment technology. Formerly known as CDDB, Gracenote provides critical embedded software and metadata to businesses 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 RealPlayer 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 KTF (Korea), Musiwave (Portugal), Oi (Brazil) and Golden Bytes (Benelux). For more information about Gracenote, please refer to www.gracenote.com/corporate/.