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Thread: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    7

    problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

    Hi

    I have used dBpoweramp for about three years (an older version) and had problems getting metadata for certain music CDs (mostly classical ABC Classics in Australia where I live). Didn't worry about it too much and just typed in the details I required, as it worked for most other CDs.

    I have now had the need to use it a bit more and looked for alternatives on the web - I am a Mac user and mostly the relevant metadata was found and continues to be found for these types of CDs by iTunes but i didn't want to use that. I found an additional free program called XLD which I downloaded and it also finds the correct metadata (but won't find album art unless you subscribe to Amazon!)

    I though the most recent version of dBpoweramp might help so I took a chance and purchased it but still no luck with the metadata for these particular types of CDs! For examples recent 2018 CD set called America:Bold and Brilliant to be found at www.abcclassics.com.

    I am not clever enough to be able to work out what fields I might need to edit in the metadata to allow it to be imported automatically but I find it a bit strange that two free programs can find it without a problem but this program can't......

    Does anyone have and ideas or thoughts?

    Thanks

    Rick

  2. #2
    dBpoweramp Enthusiast
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Austin, TX, USA
    Posts
    50

    Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

    Although iTunes is free to you Apple pays (or at least used to pay) some sort of fee/royalty to access the DB that iTunes uses to look up the metadata. The license info for iTunes indicates that it uses Gracenote, which charges for lookups or use of the API. Free program does not mean free database lookups. All of the titles in one DB are not necessarily in another DB.

  3. #3
    dBpoweramp Guru
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Florida, USA
    Posts
    5,736

    Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

    For things in gracenote db (itunes) and not dbpa lookup, I simply open the CD in itunes, "select and copy" the matrix of information on the CD import screen, then "paste" into EXCEL. A couple of clicks later (deleting some of the columns so I only have track number, title, and artist columns left). At that point I have the info I need. I then save as a "CSV" file. Then I use mp3tag "Convert - Textfile to tag" option (with the settings: "%track%,%title%,%artist%" to import all this info into the file tags automatically.

    This sounds like a lot of work, but once setup, it is basically a few mouse clicks and takes only seconds. A lot easier than manually typing all the info in.
    Last edited by garym; 05-13-2019 at 11:12 AM.

  4. #4

    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    7

    Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

    Quote Originally Posted by garym View Post
    For things in gracenote db (itunes) and not dbpa lookup, I simply open the CD in itunes, "select and copy" the matrix of information on the CD import screen, then "paste" into EXCEL. A couple of clicks later (deleting some of the columns so I only have track number, title, and artist columns left). At that point I have the info I need. I then save as a "CSV" file. Then I use mp3tag "Convert - Textfile to tag" option (with the settings: "%track%,%title%,%artist%" to import all this info into the file tags automatically.

    This sounds like a lot of work, but once setup, it is basically a few mouse clicks and takes only seconds. A lot easier than manually typing all the info in.
    Thank you very much for that! Will give it a go.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    7

    Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

    Quote Originally Posted by Rickwang View Post
    Thank you very much for that! Will give it a go.
    Hi! I have just tried to do as you suggested. No problems till I get to the bit about mp3tag I see there is a limited free version now entitled TidyMyMusic for Mac but there is no Convert option that I can see and the program doesn't allow me to import a .csv file. Does this mean I need to purchase the full product?

    Thanks for your help.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    7

    Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

    Quote Originally Posted by Rickwang View Post
    Hi! I have just tried to do as you suggested. No problems till I get to the bit about mp3tag I see there is a limited free version now entitled TidyMyMusic for Mac but there is no Convert option that I can see and the program doesn't allow me to import a .csv file. Does this mean I need to purchase the full product?

    Thanks for your help.
    Hi again! I have just realised there are multiple mp3tag programs available. I have tried one called Kid3 but it didn't have the appropriate Convert option. Can you tell me which program I should use?

    Thanks again for your help.

  7. #7

    Join Date
    May 2019
    Posts
    7

    Re: problems getting album metadata for certain CDs

    Quote Originally Posted by linkman View Post
    Although iTunes is free to you Apple pays (or at least used to pay) some sort of fee/royalty to access the DB that iTunes uses to look up the metadata. The license info for iTunes indicates that it uses Gracenote, which charges for lookups or use of the API. Free program does not mean free database lookups. All of the titles in one DB are not necessarily in another DB.
    Understood and thanks. I do realise that 'free' was rather a loose term....

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