Gracenote unveils Entourage, aims to consolidate the in-car music experience

Gracenote unveiled a new product called Entourage this week that is aimed squarely at the car industry.

The company is already integrated on a number of vehicles as it provides car manufacturers with audio recognition software. The new Entourage product will be able to recognise which track is playing no matter what service it’s playing on and to display relevant information around artists, albums, song names and revant artworks right on the dashboard.

The feature may not sound particularly remarkable but just think at how cluttered the in-car music experience is today. If you’re listening to a CD you’ll be receiving a very different set of information than if you’re listening via your AUX cable, a Bluetooth connection or just plain old FM radio.

Gracenote claims that Entourage can bring an end to that clutter so that all music being played on the car will be displayed in the same way on the dashboard. This would also enable the company to monitor what is being played more closely and eventually be able to deliver smart playlists to users based on their listening habits.

As always in the car business, things move slowly and the feature won’t see the light of day until 2017, but if Gracenote can get automakers excited about it that is going to be good news for the company’s business going forward.
 
(Andrea Leonelli)