We have talked about how to setup iTunes so that it pulls the correct track information from Gracenote (CDDB) and how to distinguish between Gracenote, CD-Text and ISRC, but here’s a different question: iTunes is pulling track names of a completely different CD, what do I do?

A client recently had a similar issue. First we make sure that the client had submitted the track names to Gracenote, this must be manually done, and usually by the label or the artist themselves, to ensure accuracy of information. Once information is submitted it cannot be changed. Gracenote matches disc information by comparing each individual track lengths. For example, if the disc contains 1 track and it is 50 mins long, it looks through its database for any titles with a single track of 50 mins and will display it on iTunes, and the same information will be saved on the computer (Macs only), and will be displayed on the desktop and whenever you open the disc via finder. It happens quite often that different discs to have the same running times, given the large number of disc titles that are stored in Gracenote. So don’t be too surprised if your disc is displaying information of another disc, especially if your disc info is not stored on Gracenote.

The remedy is simple, follow the simple instruction to submit your track names to Gracenote, wait a couple of days for it to be live, then when people play the discs on their computers, they will be given all the disc titles that match the running times of your disc. There maybe only one or there maybe more. Once the disc information is selected, the individual track info will be saved on the computer (Macs only).

Most music player programs such as iTunes and Window Media Player connects to internet databases such as Gracenote to retreive audio track inforrmation. So the trick is the send your CD information to gracenote so anyone with an internet connection using iTunes will be able to see the name of the songs, album name, year, genre etc.

Step 1: Put the CD in the computer so it will appear in iTunes. Go to iTunes, right click on a track to bring up the Get Info window. Enter as much information as you’d like, then repeat this step for all tracks on the CD.

Step 2: When all track information is entered, go to Advanced then Submit CD Track Names. It will ask you to confirm the Artist and Album information, verify then hit OK. The track information will now be sent to Gracenote. Give it a day or so for the information to be live. Test it out by putting the CD in different computers, the same track info should be showing up now.