Twenty years ago Gracenote got its start with the compact disc recognition service known then as CDDB - the CD database. The software that ran the CDDB service was a self-contained ecosystem meant to operate in adverse computing environments, with little or no administrator attention. No special libraries were required, not even a database system of any kind - only the standard POSIX C library. The CDDB server supplied its own functionality, including a database, a metadata ingestion, management and remote replication system, an SMTP client, and supported raw TCP queries as well as functioning as a CGI program. It was an interesting beast; of necessity complicated and somewhat unusual, but solid and very good at what it did. It set the stage for much of Gracenote's future technology.

In the intervening years, Gracenote has branched out from CD recognition into new areas of digital entertainment technology, including many forms of digital audio fingerprinting, video fingerprinting, audio classification, machine listening, metadata management, text search, big data/analytics, and much more. Our various online services handle a trillion queries per month, a feat which requires hardcore systems engineering and some very exotic and unique algorithms.

Gracenote has a history of technical innovation, and herein we hope to share some of the secrets behind the great things we've built over the years. We may also discuss some of the new technology we're in the process of developing.

If this sounds interesting, then welcome to the Gracenote tech blog! Read on and enjoy.

Steve Scherf
Co-Founder and CTO