Get your track names to appear in iTunes

www.gracenote.com is the company that maintains the online database your iTunes software checks for track name, artist name, etc (metadata). The situation’s a bit chaotic and frustratingly unpredictable, like most things on the internet. Frustrating and unpredictable because Gracenote accepts bazillions of metadata submissions every day from everyone from huge record companies to indie artists and music fans - way more submissions that can possibly be added to the database each day. And Gracenote keeps to itself its rules for prioritising what goes in and when. But nothing happens until something submits it, and the sooner it gets submitted, the sooner it will appear.

How it works is: Gracenote accepts new entries in their music database (called “CDDB” for “CD Database”) from software programs that lookup the Gracenote database for metadata. The most popular of these programs is good ole iTunes. So the first person to pop the final retail CD in their player and key in all the details gets the honour of being the anonymous contributor of the metadata to Gracenote. As the artist, you’re likely to be that person every time (except if you send one to me first, in which case I’ll carefully enter it all and submit it asap if I see it’s missing). To submit the metadata yourself, key it in like this:

1. Put the final retail copy of the CD into your computer and launch iTunes. You must work off the final retail version, not the master or a self-burned copy. Select the CD in the Source list on the left hand side of iTunes. Select File> Get Info to view the metadata for the first track.
2. Check the boxes next to Artist, Year, Album and Genre - this will allow you to add these details once for all the tracks you’ve selected. You’ll see that you can also add album art. Copy a nice big .JPG image of your album art, click on the album art square and Paste it in. Yes, Virginia, you will have to choose one of Gracenote’s outdated, inappropriate and lame Genre choices. Sigh.
3. Click OK to enter that info for each of the tracks.
4. Now we’re going to enter in the individual track info. Select the first track on the album and select File >Info again.
5. Enter in all the additional metadata for that song, and when you’re done, press the Next button to go to the next track. Repeat for the rest of the album.
6. Now read through all the metadata and make sure you haven’t entered any mistakes. If your CDDB data appears with errors in it, your fans will be staring at your typos for months to come. There’s no telling how long your initial metadata will take to appear in someone’s iTunes, but I can guarantee your corrections to that data will take much, much longer to appear!
7. Now it’s time to upload your fresh metadata to Gracenote. Make sure you’re connected to the internet, then In iTunes navigate to and select the CD in the Source list, then choose Advanced > Submit CD Track Names. Off it goes into the Gracenote ether. When it appears is up to Gracenote, but sometimes it seems to take weeks, other times, it takes months. My guess is that Gracenote’s server looks to see how many individual requests it gets from iTunes, etc for metadata on an album. The more requests it receives per day, the quicker they’ll act to update the CDDB with the info you’ve submitted. So sell CDs! ;-) You can email gracenotesupport@gracenote.com if you like, but in my experience, the response is friendly but unhelpful.
8. Cut out and keep these instructions for your next release!