Macrovision Buys Muze, Seeks Metadata Dominance

Macrovision has entered into an agreement to buy metadata firm Muze for $16.5 million. Muze is one of just three companies that have gathered massive databases of books, film, music and more; and Macrovision already owns one of the others, The All Music Guide. The third metadata firm Gracenote is owned by Sony and reportedly licences some of its date from Muze.

Why should you care?  A wide variety of devices need to recognize a media file to provide information and give permission for use. Control the database that powers that handshake and you have great influence over the cost and nature of that exchange. Fewer players means higher costs and potentially more control. 

As Eliot Van Buskirk pointed out on Wired's Epicenter blog, "Macrovision can charge consumer electronics manufacturers an additional premium, while helping content owners increase revenue by letting them recommend content. If you just watched the whole Arrested Development box set, your DVD player might recommend Mr. Show."

The cost to new competitors of creating alternative databases from scratch could be prohibitive and thus far opensource database efforts are in their infancy.