Gracenote
Corporate brand
UnclaimedA global provider of music, video, sports metadata, content recognition, and entertainment discovery technologies.
Last updated August 26, 2026
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Overview
Gracenote is an entertainment-data and technology company whose products help digital services, broadcasters, pay-TV operators, consumer-electronics manufacturers, automobile companies, and streaming platforms identify, describe, organize, and recommend content. Its businesses cover music, television, film, and sports, combining large metadata databases with recognition technologies and standardized identifiers. The company originated in the early 1990s as CDDB, an open-source-related project associated with the xmcd compact-disc player. Ti Kan and Steve Scherf developed a method for identifying CDs from the table of contents recorded on a disc rather than from an embedded title field. The associated database was initially populated through user contributions. As digital music players and computer media applications became widespread, CDDB became a practical way to retrieve album, artist, and track information automatically. CDDB was commercialized after its acquisition by Escient and was renamed Gracenote in 2000. The company subsequently expanded from compact-disc lookup into digital audio fingerprinting, music enrichment, recommendation and discovery tools, lyrics licensing, television and film data, and sports information. Its music technologies have been integrated into products and services including computer media players, mobile applications, home audio systems, vehicles, and online music platforms. Gracenote's data can include track and album information, artwork, genre, mood, era, origin, tempo, and links to related content. The company entered a major period of corporate ownership changes in the 2000s and 2010s. Sony acquired Gracenote in 2008. Tribune Media purchased it in 2014 and combined it with Tribune Media Services, strengthening its television and film-data capabilities. During Tribune ownership, Gracenote acquired or purchased data businesses including What's-ON, Baseline, HWW, Infostrada Sports, and SportsDirect. These transactions broadened the company into international television listings, film-industry information, sports statistics, and live-event data. Nielsen Holdings acquired Gracenote from Tribune Media in February 2017. Under Nielsen, Gracenote became part of the company's Global Media activities and continued to supply metadata and content-recognition services to media and entertainment businesses. In 2022, Nielsen Holdings was acquired by a private-equity consortium led by affiliates of Elliott Investment Management and Brookfield Business Partners. Gracenote remained within the resulting privately held Nielsen organization. Gracenote's present positioning is that of an infrastructure and data provider rather than a consumer-facing entertainment platform. Its technologies operate behind the scenes in search, navigation, electronic program guides, connected-car interfaces, content linking, personalized recommendations, automatic content recognition, and sports applications. Its principal competitive assets are the breadth of its datasets, standardized identifiers, recognition systems, international coverage, and integration into third-party products.
History
Gracenote traces its origins to CDDB, a project developed around the xmcd compact-disc player in the early 1990s. Ti Kan and Steve Scherf created a system that identified a compact disc by analyzing its table of contents, including the offsets marking the starts of tracks. Because conventional audio CDs generally did not provide richly encoded artist and title information, the system could use those structural characteristics to query a remote database and return album and track metadata. The original database relied substantially on voluntary submissions from users. This community-based origin later became important to debates about the company's commercialization and licensing practices. In 1998, CDDB was acquired by Escient, a consumer-electronics company, and operated as a business unit. It was subsequently separated from Escient and renamed Gracenote in July 2000. The transition from a community-oriented database to a commercial service generated controversy. New licensing terms required applications using the service to meet specified conditions, including displaying a CDDB logo during lookups. In 2001, access to the service was restricted to licensed applications, and new licenses for the original CDDB1 interface were discontinued in favor of CDDB2, which was incompatible with the earlier version. Some contributors argued that the database should have remained available under open-source terms because earlier CDDB materials had referred to the GNU General Public License. CDDB maintained that the relevant license statement had been erroneous. As digital music software developed, Gracenote licensed its recognition and metadata technologies to media players, online music services, mobile applications, home-audio manufacturers, and automobile companies. MusicID expanded from CD lookup to recognition of digital files through audio fingerprinting. The company's music-data products also added descriptive attributes such as genre, mood, era, origin, and tempo, supporting search, organization, recommendation, and playlist functions. Gracenote launched a U.S. legal lyrics offering in 2007 and later sold that business to LyricFind in 2013. Sony announced its acquisition of Gracenote in April 2008, and the transaction closed in June of that year. Under Sony, Gracenote continued to serve the digital-music and consumer-electronics markets. In December 2013, Sony announced that it would sell the company to Tribune Media. The sale closed in February 2014, after which Gracenote was aligned with Tribune Media Services, whose principal strengths included television and movie metadata. In June 2014, the two operations were combined under the Gracenote name. Tribune used acquisitions to broaden the business. What's-ON added television-data capabilities in India and the Middle East. Baseline contributed film and television information, including the Studio System subscription database used by entertainment-industry professionals. HWW expanded television and movie data in Australia and the wider Asia-Pacific region. In 2015, Infostrada Sports and SportsDirect added sports data, including live results, schedules, records, player profiles, and historical information. These moves transformed Gracenote from a primarily music-centered company into a multi-category entertainment-information provider. Gracenote's video business developed into a platform known as On Entertainment, covering television listings, schedules, programs, films, imagery, and standardized identifiers across many countries and languages. Its identifiers supported universal search across linear television, over-the-top services, video-on-demand libraries, and digital video recorders. Its sports operations supplied data for major leagues and competitions and included Podium, a product focused on Olympic results, rankings, and historical records. In automotive markets, Gracenote Auto and related recognition systems identified content from radio, satellite radio, CDs, and streaming sources and returned associated metadata and artwork. Tribune Media announced the sale of Gracenote to Nielsen Holdings in December 2016. The transaction closed on February 1, 2017, for reported cash consideration of approximately $540 million in the reference material. Under Nielsen, Gracenote became part of the Global Media business. Nielsen later announced a planned corporate separation in 2019; following the divestiture of NielsenIQ in 2021, Nielsen's remaining business centered on media measurement and analytics, with Gracenote continuing as an entertainment-data subsidiary. In October 2022, Nielsen Holdings was acquired by a private-equity consortium led by affiliates of Elliott Investment Management and Brookfield Business Partners. Gracenote remained within the privately held Nielsen structure. Today, Gracenote primarily operates as business-to-business infrastructure. Its databases and recognition technologies are embedded in third-party entertainment products rather than sold mainly as a standalone consumer application. The company supports content identification, metadata enrichment, electronic program guides, search, linking, recommendations, connected-car interfaces, audio optimization, and sports presentation across international markets.
- 2022
Nielsen Holdings becomes privately held
[1]Nielsen Holdings, including Gracenote, is acquired by a private-equity consortium.
- 2017
Nielsen acquisition closes
[1]Nielsen Holdings completes its acquisition of Gracenote on February 1.
- 2015
Expansion into sports data
[1]Infostrada Sports and SportsDirect become part of Gracenote, broadening the company's coverage beyond music, film, and television.
- 2014
Tribune Media ownership and integration
[1]Tribune Media completes its acquisition of Gracenote and later combines it with Tribune Media Services.
- 2010
One-billionth data contribution
[1]Gracenote records its billionth database data submission.
- 2008
Sony acquisition
[1]Sony announces its acquisition of Gracenote; the transaction closes on June 2.
- 2007
Legal lyrics service launches in the United States
[1]Gracenote launches a licensed lyrics offering for the U.S. market.
- 2000
CDDB is renamed Gracenote
[1]The business is separated from Escient and adopts the Gracenote name.
- 1998
CDDB is acquired by Escient
[1]CDDB becomes a business unit of Escient, beginning its transition toward a commercial service.
- 1993
CDDB and xmcd project begins
[1]Ti Kan and Steve Scherf develop xmcd and the associated CDDB database, using compact-disc table-of-contents information for identification.
Products and positioning
A global business-to-business provider of entertainment metadata, content identification, automatic content recognition, and discovery infrastructure.
Music recognition and metadata
Gracenote MusicID
MusicID identifies compact discs and digital music files and returns track, album, artist, artwork, and related descriptive information. Its later audio-fingerprinting capabilities enabled recognition beyond physical discs, allowing media players, mobile applications, online services, and connected devices to organize music and display metadata automatically.
Music metadata
Gracenote Music Data
Gracenote's music-data services describe recordings and releases using attributes such as genre, mood, era, origin, and tempo. The data supports catalog management, search, playlist creation, recommendations, discovery, and links between recordings and complementary content.
Automotive entertainment technology
Gracenote Auto
Gracenote Auto brings recognition and metadata into vehicle audio systems. It can identify music from sources including broadcast radio, satellite radio, CDs, and streaming services, then provide track information, artwork, and related discovery features for connected-car interfaces.
Television and film metadata
Gracenote On Entertainment
On Entertainment provides television listings, schedules, program descriptions, movie information, imagery, and standardized identifiers. Its data supports electronic program guides, universal search, content linking, over-the-top and video-on-demand discovery, and DVR functions across international markets.
Sports data
Gracenote Sports
Gracenote Sports supplies live scores, play-by-play information, schedules, historical results, records, player profiles, and athlete biographies across thousands of leagues and competitions. Its coverage includes major North American leagues, European football, motorsport, tennis, cycling, and the Olympic Games.
Olympic sports data
Gracenote Podium
Podium focuses on Olympic competition data, including results, rankings, and historical records for elite and junior events. It provides structured information for sports presentation, editorial products, and digital services.
Automotive audio technology · 2015
Gracenote Dynamic EQ
Dynamic EQ uses music attributes such as genre, mood, and release period to help automotive systems select or adjust equalizer settings. The product was designed to improve the listening experience in connected vehicles by adapting audio treatment to the content being played.
Television recording technology · 2015
DVR Extend
DVR Extend is designed to help television providers account for live sports events that run beyond their scheduled broadcast windows. It dynamically adjusts recording behavior so viewers are less likely to miss the end of an event.
Controversies
2001
CDDB licensing and open-source controversy
Gracenote's commercialization of the originally community-contributed CDDB database led to a licensing controversy. Critics objected to new usage requirements, including logo-display provisions and the withdrawal of new licenses for CDDB1 in favor of the incompatible CDDB2 system. Some contributors believed earlier references to the GNU General Public License meant the database should remain open source, while CDDB said the relevant license statement had been made in error.
Marketing campaigns
- 2017Real-time smart-TV offers partnership
Global
Gracenote partnered with Connekt and Ensequence to support real-time offers and interactive experiences on smart televisions, linking entertainment recognition and metadata with addressable or contextual engagement.
Outcome. The partnership extended Gracenote's role from metadata delivery toward interactive television experiences.
Brand decisions
2022
Nielsen Holdings acquired by private-equity consortiumM&ABackground
Nielsen Holdings reorganized its ownership structure after separating NielsenIQ from its remaining media measurement and analytics activities.
Action taken
A consortium led by affiliates of Elliott Investment Management and Brookfield Business Partners acquired Nielsen Holdings and its subsidiaries, including Gracenote.
Aftermath
Gracenote continued as part of a privately held Nielsen organization focused on media measurement, analytics, and entertainment data.
all-cash transaction value including assumed debt. approximately $16 billion (October 2022)
2016
Sale to Nielsen announcedM&ABackground
Tribune Media sought to sell Gracenote after using acquisitions to build a broad entertainment-data business.
Action taken
Tribune Media agreed to sell Gracenote to Nielsen Holdings for cash.
Aftermath
The transaction closed in February 2017 and placed Gracenote within Nielsen's Global Media business.
announced cash purchase price. approximately $540 million (December 2016 announcement; transaction completed February 1, 2017)
2015
Launch of Dynamic EQProduct launchBackground
Connected vehicles created demand for audio systems that could adapt playback to the characteristics of individual recordings.
Action taken
Gracenote launched Dynamic EQ for automotive audio applications.
Aftermath
The product strengthened the company's automotive technology offering by combining music metadata with audio processing.
2014
Integration with Tribune Media ServicesStrategyBackground
Tribune Media owned both Gracenote's music-recognition activities and a television and movie metadata operation.
Action taken
The two businesses were merged under the Gracenote name.
Aftermath
The combined company had a broader entertainment-data portfolio spanning music, television, and film.
2007
Launch of licensed U.S. lyrics offeringProduct launchBackground
Music services increasingly needed rights-cleared lyrics alongside track identification and metadata.
Action taken
Gracenote introduced a legal lyrics service in the United States.
Aftermath
The lyrics business was later sold to LyricFind in 2013.
2000
Commercial rebranding as GracenoteStrategyBackground
The CDDB project had grown from a community-oriented compact-disc lookup system into a commercial database and technology service.
Action taken
The business was separated from Escient and renamed Gracenote.
Aftermath
The new identity supported expansion into licensed music recognition, metadata, and later video and sports information.
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