Decibel Music Systems Ltd., usually called Decibel, is a company based in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 that collects, organises, enhances and delivers data on physical and digital music products, recordings and performances.

It provides software and metadata

Metadata

The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...

 for businesses to create applications for management and search of digital media

Digital media

Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...

. Decibel provides its data management technology to the streaming media

Streaming media

Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...

, mobile

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

, Digital music, digital rights management

Digital rights management

Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

, computer hardware

Computer hardware

Personal computer hardware are component devices which are typically installed into or peripheral to a computer case to create a personal computer upon which system software is installed including a firmware interface such as a BIOS and an operating system which supports application software that...

 markets and the wider music industry.

Data and technology

With a catalogue of 22 million tracks and technology born from CIA intelligence-gathering, Decibel's technology inter-relates the available knowledge on each track, album, movement, tempo, venue, studio, date, rights-holder, performer, geography and instrument and links this metadata. The product stores up to 120 fields per track and can perform machine translation into more than 20 languages.

Decibel sits on the Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing

Cloud computing

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....

 network and provides data and discovery services through a Cloud API.

Products

Decibel offers a number of API packages for application developers, with licenses based on usage and scope. Decibel also create online and mobile music discovery engines for music merchandising.

Ownership

The company was founded by Evan Stein and Gregory Kris. Stein is a musicologist, metadata keynote speaker and former Director of Technology at the office of the New York County District Attorney

New York County District Attorney

The New York County District Attorney is the elected district attorney for New York County , New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws....

. Kris is a dot-com

Dot-com

Dot-com may refer to:*.com , the generic top-level domain used on the Internet's Domain Name System*dot-com company, a company which does most of its business on the Internet...

 entrepreneur and was ranked 63rd in the "100 most influential technology investors in Europe" for the Daily Telegraph

Decibel is in part funded by the Technology Strategy Board

Technology Strategy Board

The Technology Strategy Board is a UK public body operating at arm's length from the Government reporting to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills .- History :...

 and professional investors and is in private ownership.

Awards

In 2010, Decibel was one of ten finalists for most innovative B2B music industry services at MidemNet Lab, a conference run by Midem

Midem

-MIDEM:Short for Marché International du Disque et de l'Edition Musicale, MIDEM is the world's largest music industry trade fair, which has been held annually at and around the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France, since 1967...

, and won awards for innovation from TechCrunch

TechCrunch

TechCrunch is a web publication that offers technology news and analysis, as well as profiling of startup companies, products, and websites. It was founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, and was first published on June 11, 2005....

, Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

and Music 4.5