Gracenote and All Music Database Info

If you’re wondering why iTunes or other music playback software on your computer will not recognize song titles, artist name, album name, cover art and other info when you insert your audio CD, it’s because your audio CD is not registered with the Gracenote database (for iTunes support) and/or All Music (for Windows Media Player support). It’s also possible for iTunes to believe your CD is of another artist if the total track numbers and times happen to match, which is more common with CDs with lower track totals.

The information embedded on your audio CD (self-burned, duplicated, or professionally replicated) is called CD-Text, and can only be displayed by CD players that support CDText. This usually includes car stereos and high-end home CD players. Most music playback software such as iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Winamp can’t read or display the CD-Text embedded on your audio CD though there is a script that can be used to allow iTunes to read CD-Text.

Because of the way Gracenote and All Music databases work, your computer needs to be connected to the Internet to match and retrieve data for any given audio CD that is inserted. For example, even if you insert a popular CD that is registered with the databases into your computer, it will only automatically retrieve the CD info if the computer is connected to the Internet (or if the device is pre-loaded with existing data). It is not currently possible to embed the artwork or any other metadata info directly onto a burned audio CD or the production master for your CD. CD-Text and Gracenote/All Music metadata are two separate things.

Until the CD’s info is submitted to Gracenote and All Music, your computer’s software will only read the songs/tracks as Track 01, Track 02, etc. This is normal.

The way that Gracenote and All Music identify an audio CD is by analyzing the number of tracks, their exact lengths, and finding a match in their database. This is why it’s not uncommon to see a few possible matches when you insert a CD with only a few tracks. The odds of the number of tracks and their respective lengths matching an existing CD are much greater for CDs with fewer tracks. It’s important to wait until you have a final master to submit the info to Gracenote and All Music, as sometimes track lengths can change slightly throughout the mastering process as changes are made.

Once you have a final master, you can submit the info to Gracenote via Internet using iTunes. CLICK HERE for instructions on how to submit the info.

Submissions to All Music must be done by mailing them a physical copy of your CD. More info HERE:

Once the info is submitted, it can take roughly 48 hours to be active via Gracenote, and 4-6 weeks for All Music (Windows Media Player).