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Sony to Buy Gracenote
Ian Lamont writes "Sony is buying Gracenote for $260 million. Sony will use Gracenote's online music database in its own digital content and devices, but Gracenote will operate separately and keep its own management. It's an interesting move, because many other entertainment companies and services depend on the Gracenote database, including iTunes, Yahoo, Winamp, and even the onboard stereo system used in some new Cadillacs. Gracenote has been criticized for turning the once-open CDDB project into a 'quagmire of heavy contracts, licensing fees, forced user registration and anti-competition clauses.'"
Seriously, where does all this distrust and hate for Sony come from?
My work here is dung.
I'm sure this is destined to be yet another rip-roaring success in the area of online music company purchases in the same manner as, errrrm, Napster, errrrr. Hang on a minute and I'll be able to think of one.
... that's the end of that then...
What is this CDDB you speak of? Some crufty, proprietary version of freedb? I'm sorry, how is this relevant again?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I've got a bad feeling about this.
Sony's Obsession with Proprietary Formats -- "Obsessed with owning proprietary formats, Sony keeps picking fights. It keeps losing. And yet it keeps coming back for more, convinced that all it needs to do is push a bigger stack of chips to the center of the table."
How to Download YouTube Videos
That is the crime but it's more Gracenote's than Sony's. The CDDB was created by it's users and Gracenote has no right to treat it like an exclusively owned resource. The database itself is everyone's property and the free alternatives, of course, will be easier to use and better kept. Gracenote's new deal with Sony is a low point but one that was entirely predictable when they started acting like they owned the CDDB. Sony should be ashamed of this too unless they turn it back into an unrestricted resource.
I am a name troll of Westlake. Visit my homepage to learn why.
People still buy Sony, even after they do all these things.
I wonder how big the check Sony will be sending me is!
Use MusicBrainz. All the cool kids are doing it!
Seriously. Musicbrainz was created after the CDDB fiasco (and FreeDB had its own share of problems). It operates under a non-profit organization to guarantee its freedom.
And on that feature bullet-point list, they add an API to recognize what that "Unknown Artist - Unknown Title.mp3" file you have.
Misleading titles? Inflammatory blurbs? Keep in mind that Slashdot is a tabloid.
Profit (with fewer lawyers).
Who can't understand and endorse something the requires fewer lawyers?
Invenio via vel creo
:DDDDD
Hilarious!
c++;
the news announcement of the purchase? Yep, it was the sound of a flushing toilet (American Standard if I heard it right). Why a flushing toilet? Because Sony just flushed another part of the Internet multimedia experience down the shitter. All we can do now is watch it slowly slide into oblivion.
These days, even though Sony is huge and not all parts or employees are particularly evil, I don't think I'd even use their batteries as a paperweight on my desk.
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Shit.
OTOH, I was ripping a CD last night and very nearly uploaded the information to Gracenote, as it didn't have it. If I'd known Sony was going to be the owner I wouldn't have gone to the trouble.
In general, I stay away from anything Sony touch. I loathe them.
Anybody know of a good media player, now that I can't use Winamp any more? One that's like XMMS would be my first choice.
Or better yet, get Winamp to not use Gracenote? If it's using Gracenote to get song titles, why won't it use FreeDB?
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Musicbrainz...
Did Ti Kan get a stake in Gracenote when they bought CDDB? Hope he made out well on the deal, since he was the genesis for the whole thing.
"a 'quagmire of heavy contracts, licensing fees, forced user registration and anti-competition clauses.'"
Wow, I can see the boner in Sony's pants all the way from here.
now that iTunes is reliant on Sony for it's data? Sony will surely extort their way into becoming part of the chain - forcing Apple to use something other than Gracenote.
"Seriously, where does all this distrust and hate for Sony come from?"
From experience with Sony.
Sony's ebook reader can use SD cards or their Memory Stick.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
1) If you *really* want to use Winamp, and assuming Gracenote and FreeDb use the same protocol (I'm not sure about that?), you might be able to trick Winamp into *thinking* that it's using Gracenote, by redirecting DNS queries from Gracenote to FreeDb - e.g hack your hosts file, or setup your own nameserver and hack it to alias the Gracenote URL to to FreeDb.
.), including VLC Player, Media Player Classic, MPlayer, and others. Search engines are your friend here. Personallly, I've used VLC and Media Player Classic - MPC has a simpler interface and set of options, but VLC allows configuration to an extreme. If VLC supports song lookups at all , I suspect it uses Freedb, and also probably allows you to configure what URL to use for cd lookups (I no longer have VLC installed, so can't say for sure).
2) If that's not possible, there are several open source media players (I'm not sure if they all use freedb or can be configured to, but. .
3) I don't play CD's very often, honestly - usually I rip them to wav, ogg, or flac, using AudioGrabber (which does track lookups using freedb) and store the disc safely away. You might consider doing that - then the files are tagged by AudioGrabber, and you can keep using WinAmp to listen to them, without depending on Gracenote. =)
Do you mean the version of FreeDB that is missing the spelling errors and the duplicates?
Doesn't all Sony Ericsson phones that have TackID installed use gracenote?
I have used TrackID on my phone many times and it's just fantastic! I can't understand why Sony Ericsson is not promoting that service more!! Especially since the seem to be really keen to ride the Walkman wave..
I show this service every time I see a friend or colleague who has a Sony Ericsson phone. Every single time the person didn't know he/she had it in the phone, and every time they just love it.
Sony Ericsson marketing people: Get to work, damnit!!!
Die dulci fruere. Have a nice day.
... that Gracenote still exists with FDDB around.
There is a war going on for your mind.
I was originally going to go with "~ Ant & the Aaaampersands" so that I'd always show up first in any playlist - but now I think I'll call us "Unknown Artist". And I understand our debut album, "Unknown Album" is already one of the most popular in the world.
I'm looking forward to wasting a $h!7load of the RIAA's money while they try to sue people for pirating our many, many tracks.
I was part of the original cddb free database project. Gracenote dropped me an email one day notifying me they had wiped it all off my server, thanking me for helping out the internet, and promising me a gift for my troubles. No gift ever showed up, nor did email queries about the state of things get answered.
So they made sure I didn't trust them out of the box.
Im annoyed hearing how the PS3s 2x speed BD drive is slower than the far cheaper Xbox 360 DVD drive. Its about 9MB per second vs the Xbox's 15MB, basically half the speed! For things like loading times, this is not a good thing.
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I'm not suggesting less antagonism for Sony, I'm suggesting an equal (or preferrably greater) hate for BMG and some for Bertelsmann as well. Isn't their enough room in your heart to hate another corporate conglomerate who were just as (if not more) culpab
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