There’s healthy competition brewing between services offering developers the ability to addShazam-style music identification to their apps. We recentlyreportedon the launch ofEchoprint, and now Germany’sBACH Technologyis launching its MusicDNA ID service.
Following in the footsteps of BACH’s audio file format of the same name, MusicDNA ID is set to offer an audio identification service that is cheaper fro developers than Shazam, and with more features than Echoprint.
MusicDNA ID is launching with a database of over 8 million songs, substantially less than Echoprint’s 13 million although BACH says that its library is growing daily and that it will have matched that figure by the end of this year. Identification is made within 10 seconds of a track playing
Unlike Echoprint, however, more information is returned beyond the artist name and song title. Data such as genre, tempo, mood and instrument can be called, opening the door to some interesting possibilities for imaginative app developers. BACH is aiming wide in terms of a target audience for the technology, suggesting that independent developers, media companies and even hardware manufacturers may want to get involved. Potential uses include Shazam-style mobile apps; a hardware feature for car stereos and the like; media monitoring; apps for inserting correct metadata into users’ music files; video games, and more.
As a demo for the technology, BACH has launched apps forFacebookandiOSwhich can identify music from your computer or iDevice’s microphone. The iPhone and iPad version (iPad screenshot below) returns additional data about songs’ genre, mood, colour and percussiveness.
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Anyone interested in using BACH’s MusicDNA ID technology in their projects should contact Stefan Kohlmeyer (Stefan [at] bachtechnology.com) or Dagfinn Bach (Dagfinn [at] bachtechnology.com).
Story byMartin SFP Bryant
Martin SFP Bryant is the founder of UK startup newsletter PreSeed Now and technology and media consultancy Big Revolution. He was previously(show all)Martin SFP Bryant is the founder of UK startup newsletterPreSeed Nowand technology and media consultancyBig Revolution. He was previously Editor-in-Chief at TNW.
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