The Publishers' Place: Bmi Points To Bluearrow To Id Performances

How much of a song do you need to hear before you can name that tune?

The human ear and brain can identify a song in a few notes with such clues as the year the song was a hit or the name of the artist who recorded it, says Darren Briggs, BMI senior director of strategic development. Without clues it takes an expert at least five to 10 seconds to hear the sounds, allow the brain to compare them to something heard before as stored in memory and then identify it.

This quick identification still beats most of the systems that have been built to recognize sounds, he adds. But BMI recently acquired technology that it says will identify performances in less than five seconds (Billboard, Sept. 10). It is called BlueArrow, and it will be the core technology for a new system to monitor music performances and collect other audio data.

BlueArrow is a form of pattern recognition technology—also called wave-form analysis or fingerprinting—that identifies audio waves much like the FBI identifies a fingerprint.

The software application looks at audio waves and picks out particular anchor points—high points, low points, time offsets or other characteristics. It essentially connects the dots between the points, creating unique combinations.

The technology then creates mathematical values from these combinations and compares them to a reference database that contains fingerprints of previously stored recorded music. If there is a match, the technology identifies the music. If not, then the technology kicks back the sounds as unidentified.

Using fingerprinting technology for music is not new. BMI COO John Cody says the organization has been testing much of the available technology for several years. After putting BlueArrow through its paces for two years and being convinced that it works like no other available music recognition technology, BMI decided to purchase all rights in it.

Briggs says that other available technologies take between one and two minutes—and sometimes the entire duration of a song—before a performance can be identified. Briggs claims that BlueArrow can do this in less than five seconds.

Cody says BlueArrow differs from other forms of pattern recognition tools in several more ways. It is capable of handling all the music and other data that BMI can pump into it now and in the future without degrading the quality of the information.

It is able to pick out music from other sounds in high-noise surroundings with greater than 99% accuracy. BlueArrow also works with all sources of performances—broadcast and satellite radio, broadcast and cable TV and the Internet.

The BlueArrow reference library already has fingerprints made from more than 3 million commercially released recordings. BMI is aiming toward fingerprinting all recordings ever released.

BMI acquired from U.K.-based Shazam Entertainment all rights in the core technology (including all patents and source code) and certain software applications. As part of the deal, BMI granted Shazam an exclusive license to use the technology for its business activities aimed at the mobile consumer.

BMI is also building a business around the technology, Landmark Digital Services. Cody says Landmark is developing a business plan for a rollout of the system in early 2006.

It will create listening stations in certain parts of the United States where computers will be located to receive broadcast radio signals to feed into BlueArrow. This information will supplement the other performance data that BMI receives and processes, such as Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems info, as part of its royalty distribution system.

Landmark will also develop a customer base to exploit information gathered through the applications being built on the system.

For its data collection, ASCAP uses fingerprinting technology from Mediaguide, which it co-owns.



BY THE NUMBERS: BMI reported revenue of more than $728 million, an increase of about 8.3%, for the fiscal year 2004-2005.

More than 500 new digital music providers were licensed, with new-media revenue increasing by 114% to $11.4 million. Royalties to members increased by nearly $51 million. ••••