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Using CDDB to Fill ID3 Information in Existing MP3s?

Posted by Cliff on from the name-that-tune dept.

masonbrown asks: "I've got about 2000 songs in my MP3 collection, using iTunes on the Mac. I'd love to fill in the empty ID3 tags such as Album Title, Date, etc. automatically from something like CDDB. Is there any way to automate this after the song is already in MP3 format (like going by Artist and Song Title)?"

3 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. CDDB? Shouldn't we be using freedb instead? by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unless you've been living in a cave for the past two years you'd know that CDDB has been hijacked by Gracenote who've turned what was a nice, cooperative development, steadily built up by thousands of unpaid users into a private, commercial venture.

    Nowadays, if you're developing commercial software that accesses the CDDB database you have to pony up licensing fees or look elsewhere.

    That elsewhere is freedb. Check it out and use it instead of using CDDB.

    --

    "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
    1. Re:CDDB? Shouldn't we be using freedb instead? by tswinzig · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Unless you've been living in a cave for the past two years you'd know that CDDB [cddb.com] has been hijacked by Gracenote who've turned what was a nice, cooperative development, steadily built up by thousands of unpaid users into a private, commercial venture

      And who provided the service of hosting this data and providing network access to it all these years, for free? Gracenote.

      I'm so sick of this B.S. argument, "they hijacked our data!"

      1. It's not your data, it belongs to the songwriters and record companies. You just re-typed it, big frigging deal.

      2. You provided a service to Gracenote -- you retyped the information. In exchange, you were provided a service by Gracenote, free access to their index of CD information. On average, I would wager people took WAY more than they gave.

      It's fine to promote a free service like freedb. I use it. But please for chrissakes stop complaining about gracenote, they didn't hijack anything!

      --

      "And like that ... he's gone."
  2. Re:A common mistake by Sabriel · · Score: 3, Insightful
    But then some yutz comes along and, like a fresh-hatched cuckoo, opens his mouth wide and peeps, "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" Thanks, but I have no particular interest in feeding leeches.
    The dude asked for help. If you can't or won't help, leave it at that. Ranting at him for being a sheep not only doesn't help him, it hurts you. Someday you might need a wool coat to help keep out the cold.
    If you want to understand the preceding command, RTFM. And if you want to accomplish this task on Windows 2000, pay somebody. Linux is an OS for builders, for creators, for makers of things. Windows is an OS for consumers. If you want to act like a consumer, then get out that credit card.
    Windows is an OS for people who are builders, creators and makers of things IN FIELDS OTHER THAN PROGRAMMING! There are plenty of folks too busy working at their own specialties to learn ours, from farmers to firefighters. The "but it is so simple for ME" attitude is one more reason why Linux is having such a hard slog at displacing Windows.