Sony strikes a chord with Gracenote purchase: Music technology firm powers apps from industry heavy hitters

Sony Corp. of America said it will pay roughly $260 million for Gracenote, a music metadata and technology firm.
Gracenote’s database of artists, songs and lyrics is used by online music services such as iTunes, Yahoo Music Jukebox and Winamp; the Emeryville, Calif.-based company also helps power mobile music applications from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, Japan’s KDDI and Korea’s KTF. Gracenote’s management team will remain intact and the business will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony.
“Gracenote is a global leader in technology and services for digital media identification, enrichment, and recommendation, and these capabilities will be essential to the next wave of innovation in content, services and consumer electronics,” said Tim Schaaf, SCA’s senior VP of software. “Sony sees tremendous growth potential in developing Gracenote as a separately run business unit, and by broadly embracing Gracenote’s platform, Sony expects to significantly enhance and accelerate its own digital content, service and device initiatives.”
The deal is expected to close in late May, Gracenote said.