MusicIP doesn’t want you to name that tune it will do it for you.
The Monrovia-based digital music software company launched a service at last week’s South by Southwest music industry conference in Austin, Texas. Originally a software and “firmware” developer (firmware is somewhere between hardware and software,) MusicIP has developed technology that can identify digital music using algorithms. That allows users and artists to group music into playlists based on the musical tone and “mood” aspects of the music rather than by the subjective grouping by genre that leads to broad categories such as “80s Rock,” “Alternative,” or “Rhythm & Blues.”
The company has already analyzed and catalogued 16 million songs, and its technology is used by AOL Music and media player Winamp. The software is distributed through downloads so there’s no package or suite to buy. Last week, the company announced new partnerships with peer-to-peer file tracker BigChampagne, file-sharing community Creative Commons, and online music encyclopedia MusicBrainz, among others. The technology lets consumers organize their music libraries based on musical criteria of each song rather than by the label on the album and can identify digital tracks that may be incomplete.
Chief Executive Matthew Dunn said that digital music listeners typically have about 200 songs in their collection that are either misidentified or unidentified. MusicIP also serves as a musical search engine that can recommend music to listeners, much like bookseller sites offer similar recommendations.
MusicIP licenses the commercial version of its software to music companies and also has revenue-sharing agreements with sites such as Amazon.com.
Dunn is a former music industry engineer with a technology background, and has been running the company since its 2000 spin-off from custom-software provider Predixis Inc.
Artificial Relationships
Where else but in the land of make-believe would it be possible to get messages from a virtual girlfriend or boyfriend to your mobile phone?
Thanks to North Hollywood-based Starwave Mobile, a mobile game series called V-girl (virtual girlfriend) and V-boy (you guessed it), has made its way to the U.S. mobile market.
Created by Artificial Life Inc. of Hong Kong, the role-playing games allow users to choose a V-boyfriend or V-girlfriend from a variety of characters and launch a virtual courtship.
The V-partners are “fully supported by artificial intelligence,” according to the company: They laugh, send text messages and can chat about a variety of topics. Users can take their V-girl or V-boy on virtual dates, send virtual flowers or chocolates. Starwave, a unit of Walt Disney Co.’s Internet Group, is bringing the Artificial Life games to the U.S., U.K. and Canadian markets.
Digital Confab
Digital Hollywood, the semi-annual, entertainment-meets-technology confab, kicks off March 27 at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. Organizers expect more than 1,800 industry people to attend the four-day event, making it one of the biggest networking frenzies of the year for executives from entertainment and technology companies. Hot topics at this spring’s convention include video-on-demand, mobile video, the digital home and digital rights management.
*Staff Reporter Hilary Potkewitz can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 226, or by e-mail at
[email protected]
.
