A Calibre for Music?

[johnwhelan]

CDs have bar codes so technically it should be possible to scan in CDS. You'd need headings such as composer etc. Many people who read also have fairly large Music collections but no catalogue. Would there be value in this?

Thoughts

Thanks John

[Mike L]

John,

Yes, it would be useful. But don't such programs already exist?

I feel sure I have seen software that reads the CD itself (not the barcode), and retrieves the relavant metadata. In fact, most of the relevant information is on the actual disk: titles of each track, performer. running time, etc.

Come to think of it, isn't that what iTunes does?

(If I'm talking rubbish, please correct me. I'm not an expert in these matters.)

Mike

[alanHd]

I use media monkey to organise my music, are you trying to do something specific.

http://www.mediamonkey.com/

[johnwhelan]

Classical music is a little different, the tendency is not to use mp3 or other file compression for quality reasons, the volume fluctuates rather more than pop music. Also the background hum from a computer is more noticeable.

Bar code readers are fairly cheap, you can input an ISBN to Calibre with a bar code reader from a physical book and let Calibre find the details and enter them. Scan a bar code on a CD and Amazon amongst others will return the details.

Cheerio John

[alanHd]

I'm still not sure what you are trying to do.

Any music manager can pull a Cd's metadata from online sources so you have no reason to scan anything. Media monkey has specific metadata fields for classical music and as for quality you can rip anything to Flac if you require lossless audio.

Volume fluctation shouldnt figure in anything and i have never heard anyone complain of computer hum. if you get hum somethings wrong. just invest in a half decent set of speakers or headphones.

[johnwhelan]

Originally Posted by alanHd

I'm still not sure what you are trying to do.

Any music manager can pull a Cd's metadata from online sources so you have no reason to scan anything. Media monkey has specific metadata fields for classical music and as for quality you can rip anything to Flac if you require lossless audio.

Volume fluctation shouldnt figure in anything and i have never heard anyone complain of computer hum. if you get hum somethings wrong. just invest in a half decent set of speakers or headphones.

I listen to classical music using a TEAC CD player, a TEAC amplifier and a pair of Paradigm speakers, there is no hum. If I play any CD on a computer then there is normally a low hum from the fans but its something I'd never do. The dynamic range of Classical music doesn't lend itself to computers. Something like the Beatles doesn't have the same dynamic range and the music is loud enough to hide a slight hum from the cooling fans.

A Music Manager would require me to insert the CD into the computer. Why would I want to do that? Using a Bar code reader on the case is quick simple and doesn't need me to open up the CD case.

Technically I could probably code up something myself but Calibre already does more than half the job so I wondered if it could be extended. It's probably a niche market compared to e-books but I suspect it might be viable if linked into ArkivMusic.

Cheerio John

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by johnwhelan

A Music Manager would require me to insert the CD into the computer. Why would I want to do that? Using a Bar code reader on the case is quick simple and doesn't need me to open up the CD case.

A Music Management Program is much more likely to know about music publishers, sellers and sources of music metadata than a Book Management Program. Have you asked the folks over at MediaMonkey, Quod Libet etc if they have something.

The bar codes on books are ISBN numbers, which are 'universally' known. I can scan the number, paste it into the Id field of an empty book, and have Calibre fetch details of the book from multiple sources.

However AFAIK there's is no equivalent to ISBN for music. The bar codes on the CD's I have at hand look like publisher specific SKU's. Both Mediamonkey and Quod Libet support plugins so maybe something already exists there.

BR

[DoctorOhh]

There is limited support for MP3 metadata reading from a file but not for downloading metadata. Probably best to use a program designed for music management.

[johnwhelan]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

A Music Management Program is much more likely to know about music publishers, sellers and sources of music metadata than a Book Management Program. Have you asked the folks over at MediaMonkey, Quod Libet etc if they have something.

The bar codes on books are ISBN numbers, which are 'universally' known. I can scan the number, paste it into the Id field of an empty book, and have Calibre fetch details of the book from multiple sources.

However AFAIK there's is no equivalent to ISBN for music. The bar codes on the CD's I have at hand look like publisher specific SKU's. Both Mediamonkey and Quod Libet support plugins so maybe something already exists there.

BR

Three bar code scans for three different CDs chosen at random

658592110029
4010072016829
614477050521

Plug these into Amazon.com and you get the correct titles etc.

Cheerio John

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by johnwhelan

Three bar code scans for three different CDs chosen at random

658592110029
4010072016829
614477050521

Plug these into Amazon.com and you get the correct titles etc.

Cheerio John

There are apps for managing classical music collections listing and collecting classical music is not something new so there are already many such apps out there you just have to find the one that is good for you I guess musicbrainz support barcode scanning from what I can tell.

http://musicbrainz.org/
http://www.classicalmusiccollector.com
http://www.fnprg.com/catraxx/index.html
http://maestromanager.com/

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

... collecting classical music is not something new

Doh!
There is a reason they call it 'Classical Music'

They sure did not call it that, back when some of it was composed.

[johnwhelan]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

There are apps for managing classical music collections listing and collecting classical music is not something new so there are already many such apps out there you just have to find the one that is good for you I guess musicbrainz support barcode scanning from what I can tell.

http://musicbrainz.org/
http://www.classicalmusiccollector.com
http://www.fnprg.com/catraxx/index.html
http://maestromanager.com/

Calibre can be used for physical books as well as ebooks and is quite useful in that respect as it means I can check if I already have a title or not. Think in terms of physical CDs not music on computers. I understand some people prefer vinyl rather than other formats, I don't question their freedom to choose nor do I question other people's freedom to choose to only listen to music on MP3 players. Please accept that some people choose a comfortable chair, and a high end stereo system to listen to music from physical CDs.

As far as I can see none of the suggested solutions will accept one of the three values previously mentioned and return the CD title etc. They are geared to music being stored on a computer. Any of three values if entered in a search of Amazon.com will return a CD title.

Financially Calibre has get books, potentially it could have get Cds.

Cheerio John

[exaltedwombat]

Originally Posted by johnwhelan

A Music Manager would require me to insert the CD into the computer. Why would I want to do that?

In order to let the computer download the information you're asking for? :-)

[alanHd]

a quick google search turned up this, it has an app to scan your barcodes on your phone. i dont use it so i have no idea what its like.

http://www.collectorz.com/music/music_catalog.php

[edbro]

Originally Posted by theducks

Doh!
There is a reason they call it 'Classical Music'

They sure did not call it that, back when some of it was composed.

Back then it was considered music from the devil that corrupts our kids. Just like Rock was to my parents and Rap is to me.

A bunch of no-good hooligans hanging out on the street corner listening to the latest symphony.