iTunes Match to use Gracenote MusicID technology

Apple’s upcoming iTunes Match service will use Gracenote’s MusicID technology to identify and match songs in users’ iTunes libraries to copies on Apple’s servers, according to a statement from the company. In a reply to a Facebook user inquiry as to whether iTunes Match uses Gracenote’s technology, the company said, “Yes, the iTunes Match service uses Gracenote MusicID to help recognize tracks in a user’s existing music collection.” According to the company’s website, MusicID “has the capability to recognize, categorize and organize any music source, be it CDs, digital files, or analog streams,” and “provides track level descriptive and factual metadata, including artist name, track, title, genre, origin, era, artist type, mood and tempo, and uses Gracenote’s global genre system to categorize music based on regional preferences.” According to Cult of Mac, Apple already uses MusicID to add song and artist data to songs ripped from physical CDs, and also employs it for its Genius recommendation system.