digital music

iTunes-like media player built using Gecko.

Quoted: Songbird is a Web player built from Firefox's browser engine. Songbird is open source, will run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and supports user contributed, cross-platform extensions.

URGE beta on Wednesday, which apparently means WMP11 beta on Wednesday.

Quoted: For years, MTV Networks Inc. sat on the sidelines while Apple Computer Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and others racked up sales of music downloads. Now the cable network group that helped popularize music videos two decades ago is entering the online music fray with URGE, a new service that makes its public beta debut on Wednesday.

Quoted: Everybody hates DRM and the RIAA. Hating DRM is like hating bigotry or hating racism or hating those horible predators that Chris Hanson grills on NBC's "To Catch a Predator." Again, I exagerate to make a point.

World class hatin' on Apple's new boom box.

Quoted: Because the battery-powered cereal packet with a couple of tiny speakers in it carries an Apple logo, they'll fondly imagine it sounds great, but as they'll only be listening to James Blunt and Coldplay anyway, who cares?

This is a cool system -- I am planning to do this DIY style, with my WiFi/BT enabled PDA. The fact that the Sonos controller turns itself on based on motion is cool though, will not be able to replicate that functionality :(

Quoted: Sonos Digital Music System is a networked digital media player allows you to manage, distribute, and play your MP3 music to any audio speaker system in your home through a wireless handheld control device.

Gracenote Products & Services
Gracenote MusicID™: Makes your music manageable.
CD and digital file recognition and retagging.

Gracenote Discover™: Let your next favorite song find you.
Music and music-related content recommendations.

Gracenote MediaVOCS™: Say it, then play it.
Voice-controlled music navigation and playlisting.

Gracenote Mobile MusicID™: Hear it. Find it. Buy it.
Streaming audio recognition.

Gracenote Playlist™: Mix your music to match your mood.
One-touch automatic playlist creation.

Gracenote Link™:
Rich content and commerce integration.

Gracenote Media Manager™:
PC media manager and player with device synchronization.

Gracenote Media Database:

* 4 million albums
* 55 million tracks
* 8 million audio waveform fingerprints
* 17 thousand DVD titles
* Regionally segmented popularity ratings
* Multi-tiered international genre mappings

Facts & Statistics:

* 80 languages supported
* Content data from more than 200 countries and territories
* Over 200 million units with Gracenote shipped to date
* Over 15,000 licensees

Markets:
Car Audio
DVD Changers
HDD Audio Head Units
Infotainment Systems
Navigation Units

Home Audio
Home Media Servers
Multi-disc Changers
Digital Media Adapters
Set-top Boxes
Game Consoles

Portable Devices
Music Players
Media Players
PDAs

Mobile
Handset Manufacturers and Integrators
Wireless Carriers

Music Service Providers
Digital Music Stores
MusicSubscription Services

PC Software
Media Players and Managers
Cataloging Software

The company's solutions are embedded in leading media players, including Apple iTunes, Yahoo Music Engine, AOL Winamp, Real Rhapsody and Napster. Gracenote's technology also powers leading home and automobile consumer electronics brands such as Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony, as well as international mobile music applications for KDDI (Japan), KTF (Korea) and Musiwave (Portugal).

Recent Awards:

* CES 2006 Innovations Award Honoree, Software and Embedded Technologies
* Top 100 Private Companies 2005: AlwaysOn
* Top 100 Private Companies North America 2005: Red Herring

Gracenote Announces New Mobile Music Solution Suite

KDDI Launches Gracenote Discover in its LISMO Music Search

Gracenote Expands Content Partner Program in European Market

Gracenote Extends Groundbreaking Lyrics Licensing Program to European Market

Gracenote to Launch Discover™ Music Recommendation Service with Passalong Networks

Amazon apparently about to enter the digital music space (as early as this summer). According to all the press, they'll have their own music player too.

The great thing about digital content is that the same content can be presented as a choice -- pay, and it's ad free, don't pay, and it's ad supported. Seems like the best of both worlds.

Quoted: Steve Jobs is very happy today. A new study has revealed that people are cheap and would rather watch an ad to get a free TV download than pay for the download. The study, conducted by Frank N. Magid...

Nice -- didn't realize Mono on embedded was even happening ... very cool.

Quoted: The Sansa Connect is running Linux as its operating system, and the whole application stack is built on Mono, running on an ARM processor.