Tribune buys music data service from Sony for $170 million

US media company Tribune plans to acquire Gracenote, a giant in music data, for $170 million from media giant Sony, the companies announced Monday.

Gracenote is a leader in music "metadata" enabling online music services, as well as smartphones and tablets, to recognize and describe musical works.

"Gracenote is the industry standard for music recognition technology and its database gets 550 million look-ups each day and more than 16 billion every month, making it the most trafficked music data source on the planet," said Tribune in a statement.

Tribune plans to combine Gracenote with its Tribune Media Services, which provides television and movie metadata.

Sony said it expects the sale to close prior to March 31, 2014, subject to regulatory approvals.

Sony had announced its acquisition of Gracenote in 2008. Sony Monday estimated that the company would book a gain of about $60 million when the sale is complete.

[Image via Agence France-Presse]