An Accurate ID3 Tag Database? 139
Andy Le Couteur Bisson asks: "Can anyone suggest an ID3 tag database that doesn't label everything from Gabber to Ambient as Electronica & Dance, or worse? I am currently ripping more of my CD collection and it is annoying to have to review and edit almost all of the tags after every session. The odd error or difference of opinion is understandable, but I struggle to comprehend the logic that categorizes The Liberators and Luke Slater as R&B (for the uninitiated they are Techno). I guess I'm looking for a more UK centric database but Googling hasn't helped much, thus far."
The best source of info is... YOU! (Score:4, Insightful)
Alternative & Punk (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Limited Suggestion (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Limited Suggestion (Score:3, Insightful)
The real catch is defining your genre set, but that gets very tricky to do in a way that you'll be satisfied with.
Genre is overrated (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't bother with ID3 databases, either. Even if one were "accurate," it would not be right for most individual listeners. Here's a small list of the problems I encounter when trying to use tags pulled from a database, even when there are no obvious typos or fuckups...
For non-classical music:
- Genres are wacked (duh)
- Both artist and album names often differ from what the album cover says: shortened or on the other hand made "more informative"
- Year is wrong. I don't give a fuck when the album (or even worse, the greatest hits collection) was first sold. I care when the song was put in its final form (if I can find out)
- Song titles may be shortened, and almost always have gratuitous Caps At The Start Of Each Word whether or not the artist put them there
- Due to changes in the database over the years fields may be switched or missing
For classical music and opera the situation is far worse. I have my own tagging system refined during years of keeping digital music and figuring out how best to shoehorn orchestra/chorus/conductor/soloist(s)/ensembles/mo vement titles/opus numbers/acts/scenes into "Artist," "Song," "Album" and "Grouping" fields. I would hazard the guess that for any serious classical music listener there is no point in a database -- different information is important to all of us and we will all perform the field-consolidation shuffle differently. We can whine about the need for entirely new tagging systems but we are enough of a minority that no one listens, so in the meantime, we have to Optimize Very Highly.
In short, just type the damn information in yourself if you want it to be accurate. There is no other way.
Re:Limited Suggestion (Score:2, Insightful)
I also think that there is no ideal third-party solution for this problem. Everyone has different tastes, and different ideas on how things should be organized. Any music collection will need some tweaking, at a minimum, to get things the way you like.
Re:Tag & Rename (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Tag & Rename (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Alternative & Punk (Score:3, Insightful)
Or maybe it's a fan problem - after all, the Industrial you listen to is better than the Industrial everybody else listens to, so it *has* to have a new genre, right?
Personally, I think there should just be 3 different genres - "sucks", "doesn't suck", and "I'm not sure"...
Simple solution: just wait. What you call "Alternative" now will be "Pop" in 5 years time, and "Easy Listening" in 20...