Gracenote Enhances Toyota Entune Music Experience

Gracenote Music Identification, Media Management and Enhanced Voice Recognition Make it Easier for Toyota Drivers to Access their Music from Connected Devices

Gracenote recognition technology is the foundation for everything music related in the car.

Gracenote technology, Cover Art and Music metadata provide safer and easier ways to navigate music collections.

Gracenote ® technology and music metadata help make it easier for Toyota drivers to enjoy and manage their digital music collection with Toyota Entune ™ - enabled multimedia systems. Entune, which in 2011 was given the “CNET Best of CES” award for Car tech, is a revolutionary new multimedia system that lets Toyota drivers and passengers use voice and touch commands to connect to popular apps and interact with their music on mobile devices.

The Entune – enabled system in select 2012 model year Toyota vehicles features Gracenote licensed Album cover Art, Playlist Plus™ and MediaVOCS® technologies. As such, when a driver’s iPod, smart phone or USB drive is connected inside the car, Gracenote Playlist Plus technology sees the artist and album names, which is meant to make it easier for drivers to navigate their music as well as their car.

Gracenote, in the release, gives an example for Angus Young fans of how the technology identifies names: inconsistent and conflicting artist spellings like “AC-DC,” “AC/DC” or “AC.DC” are not a problem.

Apart from all of this, Gracenote Playlist Plus also associates detailed Genre information (e.g. Indie Rock, Punk, Classic R&B and Ska), Origin (e.g. U.S. - New York, England – London), Era (e.g. 1970, 1980s) with the driver’s music collection, allowing them to automatically create similar music playlists spanning multiple genres.

“With digital music collections on smart phones and other connected devices now reaching into hundreds and even thousands of songs, it is critical to provide drivers a safe and easy way to interact with their music,” said Vadim Brenner, vice president of product at Gracenote. “The pairing of Gracenote’s technology and data intelligence with the innovative Entune multimedia system provides Toyota drivers a powerful in-car entertainment experience, where they can access and manage all of their music while keeping their attention on the road.”  

The company claims that Gracenote Global Media Database is the largest and most comprehensive music database in the world featuring music and video metadata and licensed cover art images.