<nettime> MP3s: pay-to-play: CDDB (fwd)

[{ brad brace } <bbrace@eskimo.com>]

About Gracenote

With over 1,000 licensees in 35 countries, 20 million unique users a
month, and more than 800,000 albums and 10 million songs in our
database, Gracenote is the most comprehensive and widely accessible
platform for delivering music related content and services in the
world. Gracenote's products and services enhance the online music
experience for consumers and provide our partners with value-added
services, information, and revenue sources.

Where We Started

Gracenote started in 1995 as CDDB, a free service by and for music
fans to identify the music they were playing on their computers. The
database was built by its users, and grew to be a "must-have"
application for internet-enabled music players. Recent technological
developments by Gracenote have opened new opportunities, and in July
2000 the company changed its name to Gracenote to acknowledge this
diversification. However, the CDDB service is still completely free to
end users.

What We Do

Gracenote's signature CDDB® Music Recognition Service TM is the
industry standard for music recognition services. It has the largest
online database of audio CD and song titles in the world and is
accessed by over 20,000,000 unique users each month. It is licensed by
leading software and hardware developers like AOL/Winamp, MusicMatch,
Kenwood, RealNetworks and Creative Labs. Click here for links to
applications using the latest version of this service.

Gracenote's Content Delivery Engine provides the ability to aggregate
and deliver rich third-party content that is directly related to music
as it is playing. By providing player partners, application developers
and device makers the ability to serve targeted content in context to
the music listening experience, Gracenote enables our partners to
generate new revenue streams while fundamentally changing the music
listening experience. Current content partners include Amazon.com,
MTVi Group (MTV.com, VH1.com, and Sonicnet.com), Launch.com, Muze, and
our own news-gathering applications.

CDKey technology can verify possession of a particular CD and use it
as a key to enable web-based applications like music lockers or music
service providers. It can even unlock bonus content from any location,
including Gracenote-enabled applications such as media players or
websites. Click here for links to some recent CDKey promotions.

Gracenote is constantly striving to develop new ways to give our
licensees and partners access to the highest quality technology and
services. The United States Patent and Trademark Office has awarded
three patents to Gracenote. Click here to find out more about our
patents.

Gracenote: we make music better.


 Digital Top Ten Albums


         This
        week
                    Artist : Album

           1.    Eminem / The Marshall Mathers LP
           2.    Limp Bizkit / Chocolate Starfish and The Hot Dog Flavored
                  Water
           3.    Beatles / One
           4.    U2 / All That You Can't Leave Behind
           5.    Dido / No Angel
           6.    Lenny Kravitz / Greatest Hits
           7.    Moby / Play
           8.    Backstreet Boys / Black and Blue
           9.    Creed / Human Clay
          10.    Linkin Park / Hybrid Theory



       Data for 4 February 2001 to 11 February 2001
       The Gracenote Digital Top 10 represents the most played albums on
the Internet, as compiled weekly from
       aggregate usage data from over 23 million listeners around the world
using Gracenote's CDDB® Music
       Recognition Service.


What is CDDB?


1.What is CDDB?

CDDB is a Disc Recognition Service (DRS) with a database of CD text
information, used for CD recognition purposes. So, when you put a
music CD in you computer's CD-ROM drive, your CDDB-enabled player will
access our servers to identify the CD and download this information.
This information is not on the CD itself -- there is no disc title,
artist, track title or other information that a player running on your
computer can extract and display for you. That's why we created the
database. Now you won't have to type this information in.

In addition, the new CDDB2 enhancement to the CDDB Service provides
extended information such as album and track-by-track credits, genres,
web-links, segments (subsections or supersections of tracks), as well
as wider language support using Unicode support for most world
character sets. (For more information see What is CDDB2?)

The information in CDDB is user-augmented through the submissions that
come through CDDB-submit-enabled players.

Please note that CDDB is not a music seller. Although the CDDB web
site will let you search the database to discover and identify lots of
great music, there are no actual songs to listen to, to download, or
to buy.

2.Do you own all the discs in the database?

Certainly not! Though we maintain the database, most of the entries
have been added by the thousands of users who use CDDB every day.

3.Does CDDB include album art or other images in the database?

At this time CDDB does not maintain image information in the database.
http://bbrace.laughingsquid.net/abstraction-engine.html

Using CDDB2


1.What is CDDB2?

CDDB2 is the next generation of the CDDB database and disc recognition
service. The new service offers significantly extended information for
each CD title in the database. Examples include searchable credits for
production, songwriting, and musicians (including instruments) at both
disc and track-by-track level; over 250 genres; related URLs and
associated content; and segments (portions of music that can be
smaller or larger than a single track). The new service also offers
support for international (non-ASCII) character sets and tags for
language and geographical region.

Once you have downloaded a CDDB2-enabled application and registered
with CDDB, you don't have to do anything to use CDDB. Your
CDDB2-enabled application automatically uses the CDDB2 Disc
Recognition Service (DRS) from CDDB, Inc. to get the artist, title,
track, credit, and other information about the CDs you play.

2.How do I register with CDDB?

To register, just run your CDDB2-enabled application and insert a CD
in your computer. If this is the first time you have accessed CDDB2,
the CDDB Registration Wizard appears automatically. Follow the screens
for a "New Registration" to select a "nickname" and password. The
remaining information is optional, but does help CDDB provide better
service.

Once you have registered, you should never have to register again,
unless you want to use CDDB from a different computer, in which case
you only need to type in your "nickname" and password again.

For more information about CDDB's privacy policy with respect to the
information you provide during registration, please visit our CDDB2
Privacy Page.

3.Can I update or delete my registration information?

At any time, you can update your registration information, change your
privacy settings, or delete any registration information you have
established for your Nickname. Consult the Help file or documentation
for your CDDB-enabled application to see how to bring up the CDDB
Registration Wizard. To change your registration information or
settings, enter your Nickname and Password and change the desired
settings. When you complete the re-registration process, this
information will replace any registration information stored by the
CDDB server.

4.How do I see credits, web-links, and other extended disc
information?

Every CDDB-enabled application provides different features for viewing
the information such as artist, title, and track titles, as well as
"extended CDDB2" information such as credits (songwriter, composer,
musicians, etc.) for the disc or for individual tracks; segments
(subsections or tracks or groups of tracks); web sites associated with
the disc (such as artist or fan sites); or other information. In
addition to the features provided by your CDDB-enabled application,
consult the Help file or documentation for the application for a way
to display the default CDDB window for displaying the complete CDDB2
information for each disc. Note: In many cases, this "extended CDDB2"
information may be missing or incomplete. If so, see next.

5.What do I do if the information has a typo or is incomplete?

You can fix it! Not only does this immediately fix the copy of the
disc information you see on your computer, but this also submits the
correction to the CDDB database for others to see. This is how the
over 610,000 discs in the database were entered and corrected-by the
thousands of fans like you every day who access the CDDB service. If
you see basic information like artist, title and track titles, but no
credits or other extended CDDB2 information, the reason is probably
that no fan has entered it yet.

To edit or add to the information you see for a disc, consult the Help
file or documentation for the CDDB-enabled application you are using.
Every CDDB-enabled application either provides an interface for
editing disc information, or displays the default CDDB interface for
editing.

Note: although your change will appear immediately in the information
you see on your computer, there may be a delay before your submission
shows up in the CDDB database. CDDB uses various filtering procedures
to help ensure the accuracy of submissions.

6.CDDB doesn't find my CD. Can I add it?

In short, please do! If CDDB doesn't find a CD, this is probably
because no fan has entered it yet. All 610,000 discs in the CDDB
database were entered by fans like you.

Whenever you insert a CD in your computer and CDDB cannot find an
exact match, the service then tries to find one that is very close
(the same number of tracks of approximately the same lengths). If it
finds one or more close matches, it will ask you whether you recognize
the CD you are looking for. If not, use your CDDB2 player to submit
the new CD.

Every CDDB2-enabled application either provides an interface for
entering new discs, or displays the default CDDB interface for new
disc entry. (If you can't find out how, check the Help file or
documentation for the player you are using.)

Note: although your CD will appear immediately in the information you
see on your computer, there may be a delay before your submission
shows up in the CDDB database. (For more information, see How long
does it take for my submissions to make it into the database? in the
Submissions FAQ)

CDDB2 DRS

Introduction. Gracenote believes in protecting consumer privacy. We
have spent a great deal of time and effort designing the
Gracenote/CDDB2 Disc Recognition Service ("CDDB2 Service") that you
can use with trust and confidence. The purpose of this privacy
statement is to let you know how we use information that you may share
with us.

Please note that this is our privacy policy for our Gracenote/CDDB2
Service. We have separate privacy policies for the Gracenote Web Site,
and the Gracenote/CDDB1 Service. These are accessible from the Main
Privacy Page.

Gracenote/CDDB2 introduces many new exciting features requested by
both developers and end users like you that allow personalization of
the information delivered to you, while allowing you to remain
anonymous, letting you control your level of participation and the
information you provide, and adding security features to protect your
information.

Registration and Requested Information. When you register with the
Gracenote/CDDB2 Service, we ask you for general information about
yourself, such as zip or country code, email address, sex, and age
range, that will be helpful in gathering aggregate statistics, and for
delivering personalized content. For example, if you supply a zip
code, we may use it to collect aggregate statistics about what music
fans are playing in your part of the country, or to provide
personalized tour information based on the city in which you live, but
neither Gracenote/CDDB nor anyone will use your zip code to try to
send you mail at home or identify you personally. All information
requested is optional, except for a "nickname" you choose, and a
password to give you exclusive access to change or delete your
information at any time.

Identifying Information. The Gracenote/CDDB2 Service uses a unique
identifier to track queries for statistical purposes (see Data
Aggregation below) and to allow personalization features (see
Personalized Content below). This is a number that Gracenote/CDDB
assigns to you at random when you register. (A numeric identifier is
sometimes called a Globally Unique Identifier, or GUID. However, there
are many different uses of GUIDs, some benign and some controversial,
in the industry.) Gracenote/CDDB does not generate this number from
any hardware identifier (such as an IP address) or any other
information that can be traced back to you or the computer you are
using. The purpose of a randomly assigned numeric identifier is to
allow the Gracenote/CDDB to count queries without knowing anything
about who you are other than the information you choose to provide
when you register, and which you can delete at any time.

Disclosure of Personal Information. We do not disclose your individual
information to any other company. You should be aware, however, that
it is possible that we might be required to make disclosure, for
example in response to court orders or in governmental investigations.

Use of Email Address. There are two reasons we might use an email
address you provide during registration: administration, and our
mailing list. Administrative email includes such things as emailing
you a password hint if you forget your registration password, or
diagnosing a problem if you submit a change to the data for a CD. In
addition, with your permission we may occasionally use your email
address to send you special offers and promotions. During
registration, or at any time afterward, you can choose not to be on
our mailing list, either by turning this feature off in your
registration options, or by following a simple reply instruction in
any email we send.

Customized Content. When you look up an album, the Gracenote/CDDB2
Service uses information about the album to customize the content,
advertisements, and other promotions displayed in applications that
use the Gracenote/CDDB2 Service. Gracenote/CDDB does this without
referring to any personal information.

Personalized Content. Our technology can do personalized "targeting"
of content, advertisements, and other promotions without disclosing
any of your personal information to anyone outside Gracenote/CDDB.
With your permission we may use information you have provided to us,
such as registration information or other albums you have looked up,
to personalize the content you see or hear. During registration, or at
any time afterward, you can choose to turn off this personalized
service.

Removal of Personal Data. You can always change your mind about the
information you choose to provide and the personalization options you
select. By bringing up the "Gracenote Registration" command from any
Gracenote/CDDB2-enabled application, you can update or clear the
registration information, including any email address, you have
provided.

Data Aggregation. Gracenote collects aggregate statistics on which
music and artists are most commonly identified by users with the
Gracenote/CDDB2 Service. ("Aggregate statistics" means "group
statistics" such as the Gracenote/CDDB Top Ten, not individual
statistics about your personal use of the service.) Besides posting
these statistics for you and other fans to enjoy, Gracenote/CDDB may
publish or share this aggregate information with other companies. This
aggregate data, by its nature, will not reveal the identity of our
users. We also use aggregate data to help us improve our servers and
other components of the Gracenote/CDDB2 Service.

Policy Changes. If we decide to make changes in our policies regarding
consumer privacy, we will post them at this location on the Gracenote
web site, www.Gracenote.com. If you have questions or comments about
our policy, please email us at privacy@cddb.com.


---


The 12hr-ISBN-JPEG Project                >>>> since 1994 <<<<

+ + +         serial           ftp://ftp.eskimo.com/u/b/bbrace
+ + +      eccentric          ftp://ftp.idiom.com/users/bbrace
+ + +     continuous       ftp://ftp.teleport.com/users/bbrace
+ + +    hypermodern      ftp://ftp.rdrop.com/pub/users/bbrace
+ + +        imagery   ftp://ftp.pacifier.com/pub/users/bbrace

      News://alt.binaries.pictures.12hr ://a.b.p.fine-art.misc
  Reverse Solidus: http://www.teleport.com/~bbrace/bbrace.html
                   http://www.eskimo.com/~bbrace/bbrace.html
           Mirror: http://bbrace.laughingsquid.net/

 { brad brace }   <<<< bbrace@eskimo.com >>>>  ~finger for pgp

Note: all "Teleport" addresses (web/ftp/email) are being eliminated: 
no thanks to Earthlink scum. Please choose from listed alternates.

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