Preparing a CD - Metatags Question

B

Beatlesfan1225

New member
Hey everyone,

So I'm a bit confused; I'm hoping you all could help me understand this further.

I've been preparing CD's for local radio stations in my area, along with some independent blogs and labels that have requested CD's of me. Now, I'm doing the CD's on my own, so I have a couple questions -

I'm fine when it comes to packaging, I'm doing the jewel cases nicely with laser etched CD's. It's the actual files I'm having trouble with.

When I burn the CD's as an "audio" CD, the metatags aren't included. My understanding is that this is normal, because most CD's metatags are filled in by Gracenote on iTunes or the like. Now, if I burn an MP3 CD, the metatags are included, but, it's a catch-22, because the MP3 CD is far less compatible, and must be played on a computer or MP3 enabled CD player.

Obviously I can't get my tags included in Gracenote anytime soon, so here's my question: How should I be burning these CD's for these stations? I feel that a station or label who receives a CD that doesn't have metatags on it my thing down upon it, since the artwork and track names won't pop up in their player. But, I'm afraid if I sent an MP3 CD and they try to play it on a normal CD player, it won't work.

Please advise; thank you so much!
 
Hey thanks for the replies, I apologize if this was in the wrong forum. I'm new here and wasn't sure; I suppose I considered promotional CD's and their functionality more of a promotional/marketing thing than a mastering thing.

I actually figured it all out, though. Gracenote is actually very easy to submit music to, so I set up my CD's so their audio will automatically trigger their Gracenote tags. If someone pulls it into a player like Windows Media Player, they may not get the tags, but players like iTunes, they will. CD Text doesn't seem to be compatible with too much, so I elected not to use that.

Now, if you burn an MP3 CD, the entire problem is solved, because it'll house that info. However, it can only be used in MP3 compatible devices, so I elected to not use it, since I was preparing these CD's for radio stations.
 
I'll move this thread over to the Mastering section for you. No problem.

I know all about gracenote and what I need to do, but I have never been successful in getting my cd's in their database. Not sure why.
 
Chili said:
I'll move this thread over to the Mastering section for you. No problem.

I know all about gracenote and what I need to do, but I have never been successful in getting my cd's in their database. Not sure why.
Click to expand...


It may be more difficult to enter their database independently via the submission feature in iTunes or the like. I learned that my distributor, (Record Union, but previously CD Baby) seemed to have already taken care of this. As soon as my record went live on iTunes via their distribution, it seems to have been incorporated into the Gracenote database.
 
Chili said:
I'll move this thread over to the Mastering section for you. No problem.

I know all about gracenote and what I need to do, but I have never been successful in getting my cd's in their database. Not sure why.
Click to expand...

I had no problems at all Chili - just loaded it up and submitted it and in 15 minutes time the CD was showing track titles in iTunes... I used a production CD as I never actually had a master, but from what I read it works off number of tunes and their length and the CD Text but possibly I read it wrong...
 
Beatlesfan1225 said:
It may be more difficult to enter their database independently via the submission feature in iTunes or the like. I learned that my distributor, (Record Union, but previously CD Baby) seemed to have already taken care of this. As soon as my record went live on iTunes via their distribution, it seems to have been incorporated into the Gracenote database.
Click to expand...

I don't think the two are related - there's appearing in iTunes as digital distribution and there's your track titles appearing in iTunes when you try to rip a CD. As I said in the previous post my CD was in iTunes as a rip as soon as I uploaded it to Gracenote, but I put a delay on digital distribution and so the album didn't appear in iTunes for sale as digital download until my stated release date.

I think if you want your actual CD to appear in iTunes for when people rip it, you need to upload it to Gracenote... now if CD Baby made the CD, as well as being your digital distribution, then they're probably doing both for you...
 
like pinky, I also use nero which includes the cd text..

also concerning iTunes metadata;
sorry if this has already been mentioned in the thread.
I've successfully gotten a couple albums into I-tunes by waiting until the printed cd's come in, and editing the track/artist/etc. fields of one of the finished cd's in itunes, then clicking submit. then wait a week or two and it will be in their database. I did this a year or two ago so they may have changed the process.
 
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