FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Pat Breslin Jim
Healy
703-867-6736 (mobile phone) 202-441-0283
(mobile phone)
pbreslin@relatable.com jhealy@relatable.com
Relatable
Releases First Open Source Audio Recognition Solution
Technology will be used to create an open source
online music database
Alexandria, VA, Sept. 6, 2000 – Relatable today announced the availability of the first open-source audio recognition solution, TRM (which stands for “TRM Recognizes Music”). Relatable’s TRM technology creates a unique digital signature (often called a “fingerprint”) by analyzing the first thirty seconds of an audio file for data values relating to 34 audio characteristics. TRM can work with any audio file format.
TRM is being made available as an open source solution to help create a database that facilitates the exchange of audio-related metadata on the Internet. Metadata, descriptive text such as artist, album or track information about music that is attached to an audio file, is often inaccurate or inconsistent. Unique audio signatures generated by TRM allow the database, known as MusicBrainz, to recognize a music file even if the metadata is inaccurate.
TRM has generated more than 50,000 unique audio signatures since its initial release through the FreeAmp player on August 18th. Relatable’s TRM technology and music recommendation features were integrated with the beta 6 release of version 2.1 of FreeAmp. Users can opt in to take advantage of TRM and to use the Relatable music recommendation features that are incorporated into the player.
“If online music is to reach its potential, a standard audio recognition solution that receives wide scale adoption by both online music users and companies is needed,” said Pat Breslin, CEO of Relatable. “Right now there are a number of proprietary and incompatible solutions. This inhibits the ability of online music providers – such as major music companies, independent labels and individual artists – to take advantage of the power of the Web and cutting-edge personalization technologies to introduce new music to online music listeners.”
Relatable, a privately held company based in Alexandria, Virginia, created TRM during the development of its music personalization solution for online music players and music sites. Relatable provides digital media companies with access to a suite of collaborative filtering and recommendation tools and technologies developed to personalize and recommend audio and video content delivered over any IP-enabled device.
“We’re excited that Relatable has agreed to open source the TRM technology through the collaboration with FreeAmp and MusicBrainz,” said Robert Kaye, lead developer of FreeAmp and MusicBrainz. “This helps us come closer to our goal of creating an open source music database that benefits consumers and music companies alike.”
To use TRM, users can download the FreeAmp player version 2.1 beta 8 available from both the FreeAmp (www.freeamp.org) and Relatable (www.relatable.com) Web sites. Relatable joined EMusic as a co-sponsor of the open source FreeAmp project in July.
About Relatable
Relatable, a privately held company
located in Alexandria, VA, is a provider of advanced personalization and
recommendation solutions for digital audio and video content. Relatable-enabled
solutions can work through any IP-enabled device, including, but not limited
to, MP3 music player and jukebox software and Web sites. Relatable is “Private
by Design:” Relatable’s opt in solutions allow companies to create targeted
content and commercial offerings that protect their customers’ personal privacy
at the same time. To learn more about Relatable, please visit our Web site at:
http://www.relatable.com.
About FreeAmp
FreeAmp is an Open Source
MP3/Vorbis/Audio CD player and jukebox for Windows and Linux. The development
of FreeAmp is jointly sponsored by EMusic.com and Relatable. The FreeAmp
Project is looking to find one more member company to sponsor the project. For
more information about FreeAmp and sponsoring FreeAmp, please visit the FreeAmp
Web site at: http://www.freeamp.org.
About MusicBrainz
MusicBrainz is an Open Source project
that aims to provide a music metadata server. The MusicBrainz server will
contain all of the metadata (artist, album, track information about music) that
corresponds to the audio signatures created by Relatable’s TRM technology.
MusicBrainz intends to involve the Internet community to create and maintain
the music metadata server so that consumers and music companies can use the
data from the server without restrictive licensing agreements that are required
by other metadata servers. For more information on MusicBrainz, please visit
http://www.musicbrainz.org.
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