CDDB problems (Gracenote Services No Longer Work In Winamp: Reason Why Explained)

[DrO]

that's assuming there will still be a pro version - though the Gracenote provided functionality was in the free and pro versions so whatever happens with the versions, it really needs to be maintained in the free option. either way, using setups based on musicbrainz ids makes things simpler in the long run if needing to swap / change the services used (since so many accept / require them) instead of being Gracenote specific. which we've been using for over a decade and i'm sure that for a lot of people it was good to use them, but as the top cause of crashes and bloat in the installer and personally getting bad results too often as well as the underlying cost of things (AOL might have been willing to absorb the costs [especially when it was used across multiple products and systems on their side] but it's not viable now), it's time to move on and we'll have to see what comes out of the decisions and research in things that is being made.

[xenakis]

Do you know which tagging softwares still use Gracenote database? Does e.g. TuneUp use Gracenote?

I completely understand that Winamp as free software is moving towards less expensive alternatives, but my experience with Musicbrainz and other databases is that they are insufficient when compared to Gracenote when used for rare classical music.

[DJ-Garybaldy]

Do you know which tagging softwares still use Gracenote database? Does e.g. TuneUp use Gracenote?

I completely understand that Winamp as free software is moving towards less expensive alternatives, but my experience with Musicbrainz and other databases is that they are insufficient when compared to Gracenote when used for rare classical music.

Last time I had Nero installed that had Gracenote mind that was the 2010 version things may have changed since.

[xenakis]

Thank you, garybaldy72uk, current Nero MediaHome does actually use Gracenote.

[MrSinatra]

I believe iTunes uses gracenote, but I could be wrong.

DrO,

there are two other things I have not mentioned recently that I really hope you will consider when implementing the new system. both may sound familiar as I think I and others have requested them before:

1. create an option to add ONLY "missing" tags. this is something WMP actually has! the way it works is that when you autotag either one file or a whole batch of them, you can instruct the app to only add metadata to those fields which either: A. do not exist / have values, or B. have only "spaces" for values.

this is a great way to flesh out your tags without losing any tagging you already did.

(it would be cool to only add missing artwork as well)

2. check out a Linux app called "puddletag." its kind of like mp3tag but native for Linux. it has a feature that when you autotag a file, you get presented with "old/current tags" and "new/proposed" tags, like how winamp did it.

the wrinkle is that the "new tags" part of it has a checkbox for each field so that you could specify which fields would actually be written or not. very useful for changing only that which you want changed!

ALSO, being able to DIRECTLY EDIT the proposed "new tags" before they are written would be VERY useful!

you could also get fancy and differently color the text font of anything on the "new side" that differs from the old side.

http://puddletag.sourceforge.net/source/tagsources.html

http://puddletag.sourceforge.net/source/tut4.html

[djdonn]

Is there no way to get winamp to point to another lookup service like freedb?

[DrO]

not without it being coded to do so (as everything in the native code is very Gracenote-centric) and to have an update provided (unless some of the masses of supportive developers who signed the save Winamp petition are going to finally show their faces and hack in a 3rd party solution...).

[djdonn]

Thanks, DrO.

I know little about licensing and writing code etc, but if Winamp is never to be saved, can it be made into open source?

[DrO]

eh? "never to be saved"? are you aware that Winamp and SHOUTcast were sold in January (http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=374929) as your post seems to imply not.

and the whole point of this thread is informing why things aren't working and to indicate that work is being done to rectify that issue as part all of the update work that needs to be done to get a non-AOL version of Winamp released towards the end of the year (which is why i'm still up at 1:30am doing work and answering threads i should really not be posting in).

[djdonn]

Ah.. nope. Didn't know that. My apologies for hijacking the thread. Thanks for the insight.

[whitesocks]

Do you know which tagging softwares still use Gracenote database? Does e.g. TuneUp use Gracenote?

I think Tuneup did use Gracenote, but I believe they also ran into financial difficulties.
They have new ownership, but the app I downloaded this week was full of PUPs,
and after Malwarebytes had cleaned up the mess, I could not get the product to run.

Gracenote now have deals with Sony, microsoft/Xbox, apple/itunes and google/play.
I have come to the conclusion that we are just no longer going to be able to find access to their service for free any more.

Arguably it was the users who built up the tagging/fingerprint Gracenote database and we will just need to build up another one. Musicbrainz seem to have made a good start.

[Sabine Klare]

I think, You are right, whitesocks. Maybe Gracenote wants to get money now (and will get it via these new contracts), but not only Gracenote. I have experienced that now with 3 other music-platforms and filehosters: Mixlr, Droplr and Rapidshare.

Okay, starting again with MusicBrainz is a good idea...

[DrO]

Arguably it was the users who built up the tagging/fingerprint Gracenote database and we will just need to build up another one. Musicbrainz seem to have made a good start.

that probably is true, especially in the early days (along with other services that helped fill up that system - which is why it generally does so well for old material). and with so many things using musicbrainz ids now (and having done so for ages e.g. last.fm coverart lookup), even just getting the basic tag handling support into the player for handling will be a bonus to start with as that opens up a number of possibilities as well as interoperability improvements with other software / services which we weren't able to do previously.

and i know that whatever we do, there are going to be people who despise it, but as the Gracenote termination applies to _all_ Winamp clients (even those on 2.x installs), sometimes a change and a fresh start on what is used will be better in the long run, though only time will tell. and it's not like people need to rely on the information which is pulled down from whatever service(s) end up being used since most aspects can be manually overridden (just like has been able to be done for years).

[rambo919]

With the stop on proper winamp development Gracenote was the only reason I still had it installed

I have tried all the alternative autotagging solutions I could find this last week but none of them comes close to the gracenote implementation in winamp, especially concerning lots of seperate files. In fact for most of the alternatives unless you have a specific album to search by it just does not happen.

[DJ Egg]

With the stop on proper winamp development....

Winamp development has not stopped.

(See previous replies)

For various reasons, Gracenote is no longer a viable solution for us.

We will be trying out MusicBrainz as an alternative service for our next release.
Hopefully our users will help to expand the MusicBrainz database and get it up to the levels of Gracenote and beyond.

We thank you for your patience and understanding.