Making Indian music go global

Gracenote, a Nielsen company that specialises in music metadata and automatic content recognition technologies, recently tuned into India. With its new database expansion into India, US-headquartered Gracenote said it would enable streaming services, voice-powered virtual assistants and online media companies to deliver next-generation music search and discovery of Indian music. The company's India entry is marked by the launch of its Global Music Data, the catalogue of reference for the music industry, in the country. The solution localises Gracenote's comprehensive collection of descriptive music information for the Indian market, enabling regional music and global streaming services to now deliver advanced search, discovery and navigation of India-based music to fans all over the world. A vibrant and complex music market, India is experiencing massive growth among local listeners as well as fans around the globe. The market is driven by a close relationship to the Bollywood film industry with popular musical scores and soundtracks dominating the landscape. While typical Western music catalogues are organised by artist, recording and album, the popular music scene in India features a range of talent, from playback singers and actors to music directors, lyricists and songwriters among many others featured in films. With more than 1,000 movies released annually, the data challenges that underpin next generation search, discovery and navigation are compounded. Further complicating matters are India's 22 official languages and variances in music popularity by region. The Gracenote Global Music Data solution aims to help solve India's music data challenge by normalising Artists, Albums and Recordings with a proprietary ID system that associates the right content with the right recording artists, actors and music directors. Leveraging industry-standard media linking and IDs, Gracenote Global Music Data enables smarter search and discovery of playback singers across digital media catalogues, including linear TV, movies and video-on-demand (VOD). In addition, the latest database supports key local languages and alternate names to power playlisting and search using voice assistants and smart speakers. Brian Hamilton, General Manager of Music and Auto at Gracenote, said: “India is one of the fastest growing music markets in the world and also one of the most complex. “With the strong ties to Bollywood, there are multiple singers, actors and directors on a single tag or field that creates metadata challenges. Gracenote is now applying its world-class ID structures, metadata standards and AI/machine learning skills to make Indian music more searchable and discoverable to help services drive engagement and interactivity with fans in India and around the globe.” Gracenote says its unmatched database of deep, descriptive music information covering genre, era, origin, tempo and mood already serves as the backbone of the music industry. Gracenote Global Music Data leverages the best music experts in the world and applies state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to scale recording-level descriptors to tens of millions of songs. As a part of the solution, global and regional streaming music services will have direct access to Gracenote's latest music descriptor which classifies the “style” of individual musical recordings for more powerful search and discovery experiences and more personalised playlists. With the addition of India, Gracenote Global Music Data is now available in eight markets - United States, Korea, Japan, Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand. Gracenote, a New York Stock Exchange listed Nielsen company, claims to provide music, video and sports content and technologies to the world's hottest entertainment products and brands. It defined itself as the standard for music and video recognition and is supported by the largest source of entertainment data, featuring descriptions of more than 200 million tracks, TV listings for 85+ countries and statistics from 4,500 sport leagues and competitions. Gracenote is headquartered in Emeryville, California, and supports customers around the globe.