Track info on CDs

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

Where do audio CDs record the track and album names?

--
Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
http://www.theconsensus.org/ - A UK political party
http://www.onetribe.me.uk/wordpress/?cat=5 - Our podcasts on weird stuff

[Randy Yates]

Dirk Bruere at NeoPax > writes:

> Where do audio CDs record the track and album names?

Hi Dirk,

They don't. There is a global internet database called CDDB (CD
database) that stores this information, keyed by the CD number (which is
somewhere in the TOC, I believe).
--
% Randy Yates % "Watching all the days go by...
%% Fuquay-Varina, NC % Who are you and who am I?"
%%% 919-577-9882 % 'Mission (A World Record)',
%%%% > % *A New World Record*, ELO
http://www.digitalsignallabs.com

[Geoff]

Randy Yates wrote:
> Dirk Bruere at NeoPax > writes:
>
>> Where do audio CDs record the track and album names?
>
> Hi Dirk,
>
> They don't. There is a global internet database called CDDB (CD
> database) that stores this information, keyed by the CD number (which
> is somewhere in the TOC, I believe).

Located by the track time lengths from the TOC

http://quimby.gnus.org/circus/notes/cddb.html

geoff

[Randy Yates]

"geoff" > writes:

> Randy Yates wrote:
>> Dirk Bruere at NeoPax > writes:
>>
>>> Where do audio CDs record the track and album names?
>>
>> Hi Dirk,
>>
>> They don't. There is a global internet database called CDDB (CD
>> database) that stores this information, keyed by the CD number (which
>> is somewhere in the TOC, I believe).
>
> Located by the track time lengths from the TOC
>
> http://quimby.gnus.org/circus/notes/cddb.html

Oh my goodness! Written by none other than my newsreader
author!

Thanks for the reference, geoff - interesting!
--
% Randy Yates % "Midnight, on the water...
%% Fuquay-Varina, NC % I saw... the ocean's daughter."
%%% 919-577-9882 % 'Can't Get It Out Of My Head'
%%%% > % *El Dorado*, Electric Light Orchestra
http://www.digitalsignallabs.com

[Richard Crowley]

"Dirk Bruere at NeoPax" wrote ...
> Where do audio CDs record the track and album names?

Most audio CDs do NOT record this information. A very few use
"CD-Text", and I've put that info into the CDs that I burn, but I've
never seen a commercial CD with "CD-Text". Perhaps I listen to
the wrong kind of music. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-TEXT

There are 2-3 internet databases where people have manually entered
album, song, and artist information. The info is indexed by music genre,
number of tracks, and track length (since there is no universal, unique
identification otherwise).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_online_music_databases

[Dirk Bruere at NeoPax]

geoff wrote:
> Randy Yates wrote:
>> Dirk Bruere at NeoPax > writes:
>>
>>> Where do audio CDs record the track and album names?
>> Hi Dirk,
>>
>> They don't. There is a global internet database called CDDB (CD
>> database) that stores this information, keyed by the CD number (which
>> is somewhere in the TOC, I believe).
>
> Located by the track time lengths from the TOC
>
> http://quimby.gnus.org/circus/notes/cddb.html

So how does a band/CD get entered into the database?

--
Dirk

http://www.transcendence.me.uk/ - Transcendence UK
http://www.theconsensus.org/ - A UK political party
http://www.onetribe.me.uk/wordpress/?cat=5 - Our podcasts on weird stuff

[Randy Yates]

Dirk Bruere at NeoPax > writes:

> geoff wrote:
>> Randy Yates wrote:
>>> Dirk Bruere at NeoPax > writes:
>>>
>>>> Where do audio CDs record the track and album names?
>>> Hi Dirk,
>>>
>>> They don't. There is a global internet database called CDDB (CD
>>> database) that stores this information, keyed by the CD number (which
>>> is somewhere in the TOC, I believe).
>>
>> Located by the track time lengths from the TOC
>>
>> http://quimby.gnus.org/circus/notes/cddb.html
>
> So how does a band/CD get entered into the database?

Apparently it's got a bit of history. See here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDDB

Also, I think "freedb" is the new standard used by most
players. Gracenote apparently killed cddb by trying to
squeeze money out of it.
--
% Randy Yates % "So now it's getting late,
%% Fuquay-Varina, NC % and those who hesitate
%%% 919-577-9882 % got no one..."
%%%% > % 'Waterfall', *Face The Music*, ELO
http://www.digitalsignallabs.com

[Dave Platt]

>So how does a band/CD get entered into the database?

Somebody who owns the CD puts it into a computer while running a
program which can read the track count/lengths and consult the
Internet database. The database query comes back with a "No such
album found" response. The kind CD-owner then types in the band name,
CD title, track titles, and selects a genre for the album, and clicks
a "Submit" button to upload the information to the database.

--
Dave Platt > AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

[Michael Black[_2_]]

On Tue, 18 Nov 2008, Dave Platt wrote:

>> So how does a band/CD get entered into the database?
>
> Somebody who owns the CD puts it into a computer while running a
> program which can read the track count/lengths and consult the
> Internet database. The database query comes back with a "No such
> album found" response. The kind CD-owner then types in the band name,
> CD title, track titles, and selects a genre for the album, and clicks
> a "Submit" button to upload the information to the database.
>
Like a lot of things, the results are variable. In going through my
CD collection, wanting to get the information local, I am surprised how
few have not been entered. On the other hand, it's a bit surprising since
one that wasn't would seem to be more common than some of those that are.

Some are missing bits of information, such as the year. In going through
my Christmas CDs, I note that many are marked as either "holiday" or
"Christmas" yet there seems to be no mp3 tag for either (which isn't
the fault of the people entering the data, but does cause a tiny
problem when doing an automated rip of the CD to MP3s). There is
inconsistency for CDs that have various artists, it seems common
to put the artist in the title field along with the song title, but
which comes first is variable, or some don't both with the artist.

If course, like those things that are variable because Joe Nobody
entered the entry, someone else can come along and remedy the situation,
by editing the entry in the database.

Michael