Be careful about automatically populating your metadata from
online databases because the information is not consistent, nor is it always
accurate.
In the first two installments of this series 1,
2, we discussed how metadata can impact the usability and enjoyment of your iPod.
Now it is not just metadata, but accurate metadata that truly unleashes the
potential of these devices. Unfortunately, there are all sorts of barriers to
accuracy.
Perhaps the biggest contributor to getting all that metadata
into your iPod will be the online music database Gracenote.
Most digital music software relies on the Gracenote database to automatically
populate your musical metadata. If you are connected to the Internet when you
pop a CD into your drive to rip the songs, you’ve probably used Gracenote (it
used to be called CDDB).
And Gracenote is awesome for many reasons. Foremost among
them, though, is that it automatically identifies the CD based on its content
(and almost always gets it right). And then Gracenote automatically populates
the artist, title, recording name, and other metadata fields so you don’t have
to. Without this technology a lot of people would have multiple songs out on
their hard disks and iPods with titles like Track 1, Track 2, etc.
OK, sounds great right? So what is the problem? Well, if you
are a stickler for accuracy, like me, Gracenote might at times annoy you (even
though you’d never do without it). For example, one of the things I like is
consistency. If I am ripping a double disk set (say, something like Hymns to
the Silence by Van Morrison).
The way I want the album/CD title to appear is “Hymns to the Silence (Disc 1)”
and “Hymns to the Silence (Disc 2)”. Gracenote will not always be this
consistent. Sometimes it will put the parenthetical subtitles in, sometimes it
won’t; sometimes it will use parentheses sometimes brackets, sometimes a dash (it depends on the actual album and what is stored for it).
But where things can really gets inconsistent is box sets.
Take something like Beg, Scream & Shout!: The Big Ol' Box Of 60's Soul.
There are six discs in this box. But it also has a subtitle. So, making sure
that we consistently label each of the six discs, as well as making sure that
the subtitle is there (or not there) for all six discs, can be quite a chore.
Of course, you may not care if things are quite that consistent, but I find it
makes it easier to navigate through thousands of titles if they are. And I'm also a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to documenting my record collection.
By the way, Beg, Scream & Shout! is a great collection,
but is a bit hard to find now-a-days. It was released in 1997 and the six CDs are
disguised as full-size 45s, dropped into authentically designed sleeves, and
packed into a replica of the old 7" 45 carrying case we all had as kids
(well, I did anyway). If you're looking for a nice, broad R&B overview,
then this box is not to be missed.
Sorry about that, but I sometimes have to comment on the
discs I mention (I guess it is the repressed record reviewer inside of me
struggling to get out). But back to metadata…
Of course, there are other metadata consistency issues
you’ll likely struggle with. How about artist name? Do you want complete
accuracy, or should we fudge things to make finding things easier? For example,
do you have both Ben Folds and Ben Folds Five, or is everything Ben-related
just under Ben Folds? This is probably a poor example because they’d sort right
next to each other. How about Paul McCartney? Do we have Paul McCartney, Paul
McCartney & Wings, and Wings all based on the actual artist name associated
with the disc in question? Or do we just lump all Paul into one of these
categories. I’d choose one, Paul McCartney, and be
done with it. But that doesn’t mean Gracenote will ensure that consistency –
you’ll have to do it.
And, of course, you can specify different Artist names while using the Sort Artist tag (available in iTunes, not sure about others) to group them all together. So you could have 'Them' as the Artist, but 'Morrison, Van' as the Sort Artist, if you like.
But this gets us into another issue and I think we've discussed enough for today… In the next
installment I’ll talk a bit more about the metadata consistency and usability
issues when dealing with Artist Name…