Gracenote points operators towards TV music destination
September 8, 2016
Colin Mann @ IBC
Entertainment data provider Gracenote has unveiled new music offerings that let pay-TV providers deliver rich, interactive music experiences to their subscribers. By integrating Gracenote Music data and technologies, operators can create their own music video channels and services, help viewers identify artists featured on TV and enable search for related artist appearances on linear TV and on-demand programming.
According to Statista, music is the single most widely watched type of video content on YouTube accounting for 72 per cent of viewership. Music videos are a natural extension of the TV viewing experience, providing the world’s largest cable and satellite companies a way to engage younger audiences and further evolve into go-to destinations for the most popular forms of entertainment today.
To help operators with this rock star transformation, Gracenote is offering its deep descriptive music database and recommendation algorithms to create killer music video experiences for subscribers. Whether based on genres such as Hip Hop or Metal, eras such as the 80s or 90s, or moods such as ‘Energising’ or ‘Blue’, pay-TV subscribers will enjoy a viewing and listening experience that takes full advantage of their 65-inch HDTV screens, sound bars and subwoofers. Thumbs up and down functionality brings personalisation to the mix, ensuring music video playlists get smarter through viewer interaction to zero in on an individual’s unique musical tastes.
“Cable and satellite TV operators have a tremendous opportunity to increase the value of their services by offering new personalised music experiences that engage the eyes and ears of subscribers,” said Brian Hamilton, general manager of Music and Auto for Gracenote. “No other company is in a position to power these experiences like Gracenote. Our market leadership in both video and music data combined with our long relationships with leading MVPDs around the world give us the unique ability to bring music to life on the TV.”
Gracenote has also mapped its Music Artist data to its Movie and TV Celebrity data to help subscribers discover everything related to their favourite musicians and bands whenever and wherever they appear on TV. This includes finding artists featured on late-night TV shows or playing roles in movies. When combined with Gracenote’s industry-standard music recognition technology, viewers can identify a song featured in a movie or TV show and access all upcoming linear TV or on-demand appearances by the artist. For instance, a viewer can easily identify Adele’s James Bond theme song Skyfall and retrieve artist name, song title, bio as well as a list of upcoming TV appearances such as an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon or as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live.
Gracenote has built the most comprehensive source of data across the four most popular and pervasive forms of entertainment today – Music, TV, Movies and Sports. This has not only made Gracenote the clear leader among data providers, but it has also positioned the company to serve the needs of global customers as they expand across verticals and geographies. Music Video Playlisting and Artist Search are the first of a series of music offerings that integrate Gracenote’s comprehensive database of more than 200 million music tracks and descriptions for nearly 300,000 movies, 10 million TV show episodes and movies and 1 million celebrity profiles.