Get Your CD’s Info into the iTunes Database
I get a lot of CDs sent to me as part of my work for EM, and I’ve noticed that with many independent releases, when I go to play them in iTunes, they show up without any of their track names or CD/artist info. If you’re sending your CD around, or selling copies, you want people to be able to see that info. Since iTunes is on all Macs and on a lot of PCs, it’s very important to get that info into its database if you’re releasing your own CD.
The database that iTunes uses is called CDDB, and it’s from a company called Gracenote . When you load a CD into iTunes that’s had its data uploaded to CDDB, it’s identified based on the length and order of the songs on it, which collectively act as a unique identifier. The idea is that no two CDs will be entirely identical in those respects. That’s also why when load a single song into iTunes, it sometimes shows up with the name of another song. That happens because your song’s duration matched something in the database. If you want more info on how CDDB works, check out this entry from Wikipedia on the subject.
Anyway, if you want to upload your CDs track info to the database so that anybody who plays it will see the track info, this is what you do:
1) Put the CD into your computer and open iTunes.
2) Select all the tracks in the iTunes window.
3) Hit “Get Info” (command-I), and enter in the common info (album name, artist, year, genre, copyright info, etc.).
4) Select each track individually, hit Get Info, and enter its correct name.
5) Go to Advanced>Submit CD Track Names. Your info will be uploaded to CDDB. Once it’s processed in their system, when anybody puts your CD into iTunes, all of your information will show up.
Before uploading, be sure that you have everything correctly entered, including the song order. If you submit the wrong info, it can be a hassle to change it. To do so, you have to contact Gracenote, it can take a while, and in the meantime, people will be seeing incorrect info when they put your CD into iTunes.
May 25th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Another, and possibly superior, way to do this is to register with CDDB and place ISRC codes on your tracks. These codes are assigned to each track on a CD, and can be entered using Jam, and probably several other burning programs. CDDB will issue you a unique prefix, and you just add the digits you want to identify your tunes. You can then enter the information into the Gracenote/CDDB database, and there you are. This seems to me to be a superior technique, as it is not restricted to iTunes and provides a unique identifier that is not based on track length or track order and avoids the possibility of misidentification due to similar properties of other tracks.
May 29th, 2007 at 8:58 am
Jeff,
I agree that using ISRC codes embedded in your master is the best way to go. Thanks for pointing that out. For those interested in more info on ISRC codes, go to this link: http://www.riaa.com/issues/audio/isrc_faq.asp. The method I suggested is aimed more at those who have already released their CDs and therefore can’t embed codes in the tracks. The biggest problem with this “after-the-fact” method is the possible misidentification of songs that are individually downloaded. For entire albums, the odds of two having the same number of songs, track lengths, and order, are miniscule. For those whose CDs are already in circulation, it’s the only way to go that I know of.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
hey guys…
today, i will be picking up our master that has been embedded with ISRC codes.
it’s only a 5 song e.p.
anywho…so now that we have this, how should i/do i get the cd info on GRACENOTE?
i still have to register with them even though there are ISRC codes on the disc right?
also…does GRACENOTE have the album artwork as well?
_chris
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