Music database company Gracenote has acquired audio fingerprinting technology from Philips Electronics, according the Mercury News. No terms released but Philips has taken an equity stake in the company.

Gracenote also announced that it has raised $10.9 million in new VC funding from new and returning backers in a fifth round of funding, yielding a post-money valuation of about $121 million.

The sophisticated technology identifies songs within five seconds of starting to play—matching audio waves against a database of recorded audio. It’s used by Snocap to check legal sharing status and can be used to return data about songs on multiple devices. Gracenote CEO Craig Palmer told Dawn Chmielewski it could allow services to build playlists on the fly or adapted for voice recognition so drivers could ask for a song.
It also could have uses beyond simple identification. Gracenote’s Mobile MusicID program already allows some users in other countries to order CDs or ringtone based on matching music via cell phones. (You can read more about those efforts on sister site MoCoNews net.)