Pulling hair out over "lost" Gracenotes/iTunes Classical

[mhschmieder]

Sorry, it was hard to find a way to summarize this problem with such a short topic title character limit.

I am increasingly finding myself pulling my hair out over all the errors and inconsistencies in the Gracenotes database, as my uploaded classical collection increases.

A year ago, I sold all my hi fi gear and went 100% towards computer-based listening. So now, when I buy a new CD, I upload it and listen to it afterwards. I do save the CD, of course.

As my uploaded library grows, it becomes more and more difficult to find the material I just uploaded -- especially if more than one performer and/or composer is represented on the disc, or if it's a multi-disc set.

Up until recently, as the library was smaller, I was able to quickly scroll in the Classical "smart list" and find stuff, then correct it so album tracks once again are grouped together.

Guessing which variant will succeed in finding the album artwork is a whole other game that I usually lose, but that is far less annoying than not finding the uploaded music at all -- though the album artwork can make it MUCH quicker to find material when dealing with all the inconsistencies with Gracenotes' filing system (not even mentioning the errors).

I have tried everything I can think of, but am finally stumped tonight on my latest upload, as it doesn't show up under the composer in any variant of first name or last name, under song titles such as "concerto", "violin", or movement number or tempo etc., or even under the orchestra or the conductor (in any order of the names) -- though I did notice some inconsistencies in London Symphony vs. London Philharmonic in tracks that are part of the same performance.

I must emphasize that this is the NORM with classical, not the exception! And this problem is common for jazz recordings as well, but not to the same degree -- probably just because jazz recordings typically have less complex information to file and cross-file, so there's less room for error to start with.

So, having described the problem, and how it is now at the point where even going back and forth between different views, different columns for sorting, searching by album list, classical vs. all music in the library, etc., can result in being stymied more and more, I'm wondering what strategies people have developed to correct Gracenotes mistakes so that they can find the music in their collection.

[SmilesLots]

Not a strategy per se, but data for many cd's, especially classical and jazz, simply has not yet been uploaded. Maybe you should take the time to do so yourself.

If I you have the cd, correcting bad entries (probably mostly from pc users in a hurry) on your own seems to be the most viable course.

[mikehalloran]

I feel your pain. This issue has kept me from storing my classical library on my computer.

[kgdrum]

what it gets wrong or misses I correct myself,sometimes its a pain but once it's updated you are good to go until you move to a bigger drive.
Recently I changed drives,out of 1300 cd's it is missing artwork for about 100 and yes with classical CD's I find I must correct or change info more than other genres,I am glad it is not all manual .

[mhschmieder]

FWIW, in the pop/rock world, there are also problems in attribution of writer credits. I've also grown weary of filling out all of this information.

I'll probably hold onto original CD's in most cases, after uploading, even though storage space is precious. At the very least, holding onto liner notes is a must.

I did eventually find the Hindemith Violin Concerto on my disc last night -- it was missing composer and artist credits entirely, and was filed under rock.

[mhschmieder]

Also, I think I MIGHT still have notes and contact info for Gracenotes (who are just around the corner from my office) based on some discussions I had with them at the AES SHow last autumn. I was respectful, but minced no words about the problems, and asked how one could help, and if it is an extremely time-consuming process requiring a lot of peer review.

I unfortunately don't remember all the details of that conversation, except that I didn't get a favourable answer. There IS a process to follow, and I'll see if I can find it, but it isn't formal or regularized enough that I feel confident that the efforts of individuals would be worth the time and not potentially be undone later. Maybe if I find my notes I'll discover otherwise though.

[synergy543]

I have several thousand CDs and I store and organize my classical library in the Finder in folders by CD (after I rip in iTunes, I drag the folder to my media drive). Then I simply drag the folder containing the CD I wish to hear to a play list. This gives me control and has worked extremely well. And the playlist contains the ones I've recently listened to (I copy the folder name right onto the playlist so its rather quick and painless to build). I can find any classical CD by any artist or conductor within a few seconds.

The Finder is the best organization tool (although few think of it like that). And Spotlight is a far better search engine.

Why not use what's best?

[Frodo]

I am increasingly finding myself pulling my hair out...

You still have hair?

[SixStringGeek]

Yep, I have a lot of compilations of old blues recordings - also some giant box sets of Chess Records and I'm sick of finding "Various Artists" in the artist field and then the song title is Title-Artist or Artist-Title.

And don't get me started on the complete lack of liner notes. I agree with that guy.

[mhschmieder]

Oh yeah, I've used the Finder to correct problems with Gracenotes before (in terms of album organization; not the details such as writers). I had trouble bootstrapping iTunes to "accept" my file system level changes when rationalizing the database, so stopped doing it as it seemed too much work, but probably it is less work than what I am doing now.

OTOH, I hadn't thought of combining Finder-level organization with a post-drag to a playlist. That's worth a try, instead of depending on iTunes' Classical "smart playlist" feature.