Gracenote puts a star in your car

You can choose a music guide from your collection.

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

Imagine having your favorite recording artist talking to you from your dashboard, recommending new music that you might like. Now imagine the music available to you in your car extending to just about every track ever recorded. Let's take it a step further and say you can use your car stereo like an instant messenger, where you can recommend songs and playlists to people on your buddy list. Gracenote CarStars does all of this, and its slated to become available in a 2011 model car, with a release date sometime in 2010, although Gracenote currently isn't releasing details about which car company.

If you know about Gracenote, you're probably into music. This company maintains a database of song information, from ID3 tags to actual song signatures created by analyzing a track's waveform. Gracenote partnered with Voxonics, which does speech mapping, to create its recording artist guides. Choose your favorite artist, as long as Gracenote has created a profile for them, and you will hear their voice suggesting music you might like, in whichever language you choose.

The MusicStation lets you play music from a vast library.

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

Gracenote also partnered with Omnifone, a company offering a mobile music subscription network, to create a feature called MusicStation. Pay the monthly fee, and you have access to music from every major and many indie labels. In your car, you can search for new artists or browse others that aren't in your immediate collection. MusicStation also has a social network, which lets you maintain a buddy list, so you can share your music.

Find our more about Gracenote CarStars by checking out our photos.