Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with MP3s

Itunes Not Getting Info from CDBB (Mac) (though it seems to be trying)

snap_dragon — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:59:08 -0800

Itunes is not retrieving titles for CDs from CDBB. It tries to but gets nothing after a few seconds. I am not sure it is even connecting to CDBB or what error(s) are occurring. I even reinstalled Itunes 9 (9.0.2 - newest) and it still does it. I do get the response "This CD was not found in CDBB database. You can enter information for the CD and each of its tracks. If this is not a commercial CD etc etc etc"...I've tried several CDs such as the Doors, Pete Townsend, Roxy Music...all ones that have worked on previous Itunes incarnations. I am not sure if it is an Itunes thing, a Mac/computer thing, or CDBB thing. This is a new thing and wasn't happening before. I have had the computer about a year if that matters. Any suggestions? Thanks for your help and have a good upcoming holiday.

The Past Decade's Changes in the Music Industry

manos_frias — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:47:10 -0800

Do you think this is a good overview of the changes in the music business in the last 10 years (for someone like me, who could charitably be called a non-musician)? Do you recommend other sources?

Too much music! I should have such a problem...

chez shoes — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:39:12 -0800

Perl script to manage enormous, and growing, music library? First things first - I am not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have some SQL and Perl knowledge (more SQL, less Perl). And, I'm willing to learn more.

The problem: 1000's of MP3 files. Some are duplicates (and triplicates) from compilation albums, some have really bad metadata. What I'd like to do is run a script that will pull all the dupes into a file, so I can see how bad it is. Then, in the interest of saving space, I'd like to delete all redundancies. And further, I'd like to be able to manipulate the metadata - normalize such things as &/and, bulk-change misspellings, etc.

If a tried and true script to do this sort of thing exists, can you point me to it? Thanks in advance.

How to make the music stop skipping?

st starseed — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:44:10 -0800

Calling all network experts...How can I make the music on my PC stop skipping? Greetings...okay, trying to provide all relevant details: My main PC in my den/playroom stores my entire MP3 collection. It's a fine computer, and I never have any issues playing music on it.

It is one of two PCs on my home's wireless network.

The other PC on the network is out in the living room. It's a perfectly fine, not-ancient (2005 or so) laptop hooked up to my home theater system with a sole purpose of playing music through said system.

Yet whenever it's playing, about three times per song (so about once every 90 or so seconds), the song will just stop and then pick right back up about 2 seconds later. It's almost like a buffering effect...the music is playing, then it disappears, then it's back.

Does anyone know why this is happening, and if there's any way to fix it?

Potentially key details:

1. The MP3s are not stored on the laptop; they are stored on the main PC...which shares them with the laptop. (I like it this way so I only have to maintain one library.)

2. There's a wall between the den and the living room.

3. Both machines run Windows XP (fully updated with service packs, etc.).

4. The cable modem and router are always going strong.

Cleaning up messy music folders

1024x768 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 10:11:46 -0800

Help me clean up my messy music files I am embarking on a clean up of my enormously messy MP3 folders. After several computer switches, and crash+restore jobs I have approximately a dozen different folders containing between hundreds and thousands of MP3s each. The issue is each folder is at least a partial duplicate of several others. Each of these dozen folders contains subfolders in various organizational formats. There's far too many files for me to devote the time to manually eliminating duplicates. Confounding matters slightly is that many of the MP3s have woefully inadequate tagging/ID3 data.

This motley collection lives on a Macbook pro running 10.5. I'd like to find an app/script/method that does the following

1) Eliminates all the dupes
2) Cleans up the ID3 info

The cleaned up collection will then be put into an iTunes library which I will let keep things from getting too messy in the future. I would prefer to use iTunes due to ease of syncing with my iPhone, but if there is a truly compelling alternative that will take care of everything, I am willing to consider it.

I'd prefer a free method of doing this, but would shell out a little bit of scratch if there were an app out there that did exactly what I wanted.

Renaming MP3s simply and easily

different — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:59:06 -0800

I have a bunch of assorted MP3s (maybe about 6000) that I would like to rename. What program do you recommend? I have so many duplicate MP3s, files with names that are so long that iTunes can't handle them, files that I ripped so long ago that they're using a different naming convention to what I prefer now (artist + song name).

My ideal program will be able to handle the whole library (even if I need to feed it in several batches) and rename all files using the same convention. This will also allow me to remove duplicates very easily. Anapod Copygear does this when copying files from my iPod to the computer, so I'm hoping that there's also a standalone program that can handle it.

Free is ideal, will happily pay for something that does what I want though. I have a PC.

Free Mixes for the Masses?

jammy — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:41:08 -0800

MixFilter: I'm looking for free online music mixes to help get me & my collective crew through the most strenuous & stressful part of the year. Tell me about your favorite mix blog &/or website. Mix style? I mostly enjoy stuff along the funky hiphop worldbeat side of the spectrum and my cohorts seem to enjoy it too (gets them dancing at least). The mixes at Cherryfunk and Captain's Crate are good examples. I've found good stuff at Monotape as well.

Thanks!

p.s. There's often parents & their young'uns about so I'd prefer mixes that sport little in the way of gratuitous swearing (e.g.).

p.p.s. I imagine someone may suggest online radio sites like Pandora or SomaFM, which are great, but I'm looking for stuff that doesn't rely on streaming.

Free Audio Hosting? Does it Exist?

spacelux — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:16:01 -0800

I'm trying to find a way to stream some Mp3s of songs (about 60) on a website (completely self created) from a host/website but I am unable to find anything similar to Flickr or Youtube or ad infinitum for music. Is there something similar for audio? My husband is a musician, and the mp3 hosting he had previously changed avenues and dropped his files. Now the website doesn't work, and unfortunately there isn't enough server space on the domain to host the Mp3s ourselves or we would.

I was wondering if there's any such thing as free mp3 hosting, I've searched, and haven't been able to find anything. I find it hard to believe that photos and videos have tons of places but not music? Thanks in advance for any hints. :)

(I know, it's a tough arena due to RIAA, but I'm talking about honest user created content)

How do different cultures consume popular media?

MoreForMad — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 13:26:17 -0800

How do different countries of the world consume media (TV, music, movies, etc)? Hi! I'm looking for a site or sites that explains and details how different cultures and countries consume/buy/rent popular media. (As an example, I had a friend recently mention that it was his understanding that the vast majority of people in South Korea didn't download MP3s, but rather had a subscription service that would stream, on demand, all available music as often as they chose for a flat fee each month.)

Software for copying CDs to computer

tonci — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:27:26 -0800

What's the best software for turning CDs into music files for any kind of player including Ipods and cellphones? Finally embarking on copying my CD collection to the computer. I've got an ipod but want the flexibility to put songs on my cellphone too. Have a Mac and a PC. What's the most versatile reliable approach to get the best quality file? Will Itunes work or should I avoid? Thanks for your help!

Is there a better Musicbrainz client than Picard?

Bonzai — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:38:58 -0800

I have been using Musicbrainz Picard for a few weeks now and I am running into a consistance problem with certain files. When I use the Scan function it finds the most recent album which is almost always a compilation album. There is no way to change this default behavior and there is now way to automatically give you a list of all albums this song appears on so you can choose. Is there another free/open source implimentation of MusicBrainz or a Picard Plugin that fixes this problem?

How to freely distribute my music online

saul wright — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:25:06 -0800

So I basically just want to give out some of my music for free online. What's the best way? Most of my friends are on facebook but it seems like myspace is more suited to this sort of thing. Is there another website I should use? I basically just want to upload mp3s and have people be able to download them. If myspace is the way to go, can anyone recommend some super clean and simple layouts? I really just want a little text and the mp3s for download. Also, is there a limit to how many songs you can put for download on your myspace?

Automatically generate mix from folder of mp3s

jcruelty — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:01:23 -0800

Is there a program/script that will automatically create a beatmatched mix a from a folder filled with techno mp3s? I have a bunch of techno tracks on my computer that I haven't listened to, and I was thinking it would be great to have some script or program that creates a 'preview mix' so I don't have to sit there fast-forwarding past the intro parts for each song.

There's this program 'musicmatch jukebox' that automatically beatmatches tunes into a mix, but you have to manually select each track, drop it in at the right place, configure the transitions, etc. Ditto with Reason. Anybody know how this could be done more automagically (i.e. computer picks the tracks and track order, either based on bpm or randomly or using some rule)

Legalities of Selling Legally Downloaded Music?

Effigy2000 — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:56:34 -0800

Assuming I am true and honest to my word and delete the music from my hard drive once I sell it, how can I legally make money selling old music that I have legally downloaded and no longer want? I have bought a lot of music from the iTunes Store over the years. My music tastes have changed a bit since the days that I first started downloading music from them and so now I'd like to get rid of some of the older songs and albums that I no longer want, preferably for cold hard cash if I could. But unlike an old unwanted CD, I can't just go and sell it down at the local music shop. Is it OK to do this on eBay? If not, and assuming I am true and honest to my word and delete the music from my hard drive once I've actually sold it, how can I legally make money selling old music that I have legally downloaded and no longer want?

Is there a script or program that will automatically download the names of jazz album sidemen?

tweebiscuit — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:54:14 -0800

I have a few hundred jazz albums on MP3 in my iTunes library. I'd to add the names of the sidemen on the albums to the MP3's comment tags, but I'd rather not enter the info manually, for obvious reasons. Is there any form of script or program that exists that will do this for me -- perhaps pulling from Amazon, or some other source? (Prefix this with, "Hey, Lazyweb," if desired.) So, for example, I'd like the comment (or some other) tag for "Kind of Blue - So What" to read Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb

educational mp3s - speeches/radioshows/lectures

figTree — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:46:51 -0800

looking for social science lectures and/or radioshow interviews Im looking for mp3s i can download do make me smarter while on the bus. Im looking to get informative mp3s on

-economics
-psychology
-technology/the future
-human geography
-philosophy

amoung other areas. Preferably im looking for something that is not just under a broad "science" banner if its a radioshow, since i would like to know more or less what sorts of topics to exactly expect, but a radioshow would be great as its likely more entertaining/pleasurable to listen to.

For example, i am interested in the theories of macro economics, itd be great to have an interesting set of mp3s that are enjoyable to listen to and dont rely on me having a video of the lecture (when they are writing stuff down). Im not sure if many such "podcast lectures" exist?

thank you!

podcasting from scratch

the bricabrac man — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:31:02 -0800

I would like to create a podcast that involves me playing music (mp3s) and talking about it. One minor problem: I know absolutely nothing about podcasts. I really miss being a college DJ, I've got a huge music collection and plenty to say about it. I've often toyed with the idea of convincing one of the local college stations to give me a show (I know several people involved with them socially). But then I figured, what about these newfangled podcasts the kids are talking about?? I'm not interested in just playing a bunch of stuff I like, I plan on theme shows with historical/educational info to go along with the music.

So many questions! What kind of software do I use? (right now I have soundforge, which I've been using to transfer some of my rare vinyl to mp3, and magix. Either of these useful at all?). What kind of microphone do I need? I'm capable but not enthusiastic about learning new software, I'd rather have something simple to learn & basic than something hard to learn with lots of cool extra features (unless, of course, they're REALLY REALLY cool).

Do I create a blog to give them exposure? are there "podcast blogs" where people can post comments/questions on the podcasts? Is there free hosting, or better hosting that is worth paying for?

Are there already thousands of people doing this? If so, what podcasts should I be listening to get a good idea of what works? How do I get exposure? Are there legal questions regarding copyrights I have to address?

Looking for mp3s to use for my alarm clock

alligatorman — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:42:27 -0800

Looking for mp3s to use for my alarm clock. I'd like to wake up to a 5-10 minute track that progressively gets louder so that my awakening feels more natural. I want to burn a CD with such tracks so that I can put them into my CD Player alarm clock. I tried Google, but could not find anything.

Do you know where I could download tracks that progress in volume?

If not, I could settle for a simple mp3 editor that could let me adjust levels appropriately.

Any ideas? Thanks!

Who's listening?

Karlos the Jackal — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:55:40 -0800

I have a website on which I have mp3s. This month, according to my usage stats, I had a bunch of mp3 downloads -- way more that usual. They show up on my stats page under the heading of "Top 10 of 341 Total URLs By KBytes." Are these necessarily people downloading my mp3s, or do spiders or crawlers or whatever they're called hit these links as well? Also, if it is some sort of webcrawling thing, what are they doing with the downloads? I've just gone over my monthly traffic limit, so if it is just useless spammy bot-things, how can I cut down on them?

I am on vicodin right now and a little woozy; I hope this makes sense.

Help me backup my system.

arniec — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:39:08 -0800

Data Backup Filter: I have about 6TB (yes TB, not GB) of data. I need to back it up BEFORE it crashes. I also need a good way to share it on the network. How can I do this? Details within... Yes, this topic revisited again. None of the questions asked so far have helped in my situation.

It seems the era of digital video and digital audio has created a storage nightmare for me. I have 6TB of data spread across 5 external hard drives (3 500GBs and 4 1 TBs, not all full). They are all currently connected to a Windows PC.

I have 1 blank 1TB drive which I just attached to my Mac Mini as I'm trying to retire my Windows PC and migrate all data to the Mac FS so I can run it off my Airport Extreme's USB port (the Airport Extreme won't read NTFS).

I've looked at "mirroring" my external drives nightly using a backup program but this does not safeguard me in case of electrical storm, fire, angry wife, etc. Besides, there must be a limit to the number of external drives I have...I'm running out of outlets quickly.

But I cannot imagine putting all of this information on DVDs, the time and expense would be insane. Online backup systems are not optimal as there is sensitive personal data in the files and I don't trust the privacy of online backup solutions, but the cost for 6TB is prohibitive.

I do have a lot of "redundant" files that I am attempting to clean up (previous hard drive crashes in my Windows PC resulted in panicked "copy off all my files!" moments, and as such I'm sure at least 1TB of my data is redundant, but the time it's taking me to sort this out file by file is crazy). Are there any programs (Windows or Mac) that can find these and only back them up once, saving me on DVDs?

Do I have any other options besides "buy a lot more external hard drives"?

Help Me Rebuild My iTunes Library

grumblebee — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:39:45 -0800

My Macbook Pro was stolen. Just about the only non-shitty thing about it is that I keep my huge iTunes library on an external drive. All the music files are on the drive, but the data files (library.xml) were on the stolen Mac. I have another Macbook. What's the simplest way I can rebuild my library on it? I don't use playlists or ratings. All I want is the ability to see all my music in iTunes.

The music is now in two places: On the external usb drive and on my iPod.

On the new Macbook I'm using, I have an empty iTunes. Should I add all the music? Plug in my iPod and download from there? Something else?

(By the way, my stolen machine was a 17" Macbook Pro. It has a missing S key on the keyboard and is in generally bad condition. It takes forever to boot up. If anyone sees someone selling it online, let them know they can make more selling it to me. No questions asked. The machine isn't worth much. But there are chapters on it of a book I'm writing.)

mp3 or aif?

citybuddha — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:13:04 -0800

How should I rip my cds...mp3 or aif? The cd are taking over my office. I need to digitize.
What do you mefis recommend. MP3 or aiffs?

I'm getting jittery. And so are my high-res MP3s.

saulgoodman — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:06:42 -0800

Why are some of the high resolution MP3s I've encoded recently (at 320 kbps) still turning out with traces of faint, but audible jitter? As I understand it, MP3s encoded at such a high bit-rate really shouldn't turn out with any audible jitter, and most other MP3s I've heard encoded at that bit rate are noticeably cleaner. It might be relevant that I've been using a very old version of WaveLab to encode my MP3s. I've been using fixed rather than variable bit rate encoding methods to minimize the lossiness of the compression. I'm wondering if there have been any significant improvements to the core MP3 compression algorithms over the last few years that I might not be up-to-date with?

The current machine I use for recording and mastering audio hasn't been on-line in close to five years so I've missed a lot of software updates, although I did install an upgrade to XP (I think SP2) a while back. Could it be that my audio codecs are old and inferior? Or does that even factor into it? (I'm a pretty technically-oriented guy, but some of this is a little outside my domain.)

I don't find the issue with my source wave files, so I don't think it's a problem with the wave files prior to encoding, although it's possible I haven't been using the best dithering methods when I mix down from 24 bit to 16 bit (normally I mix down and master in 24 bit, but for these mixes, I've been mixing down straight to 16-bit).

Anyway, what are some other possibilities I might explore to improve the fidelity of my high resolution MP3s?

Best way to archive my music?

drezdn — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:55:58 -0800

How can I archive my music? I have approximately 15 GBs worth of music (with a few audiobooks) in iTunes on my work computer. I'm worried that if anything ever happens to my job that I'll have to re-rip/re-buy some of it if I don't find a good way of archiving it.

Fortunately, some of the tracks are from eMusic, so I'm not worried about them. For everything else (including and especially the stuff I purchased from the iTunes store), what's the best way to ensure that I'll have access to these files in the future? Should I burn a bunch of MP3 CDs/DVDs? Should I buy a small portable hard-drive? Should I get an MP3 player?

If I do go the MP3 player route, it has to be one that functions essentially as a hard-drive, and be cheap (say a used Creative Zen). I'm not really interested in anything iPod related.

A minor rub is that my work computer is a Mac and my home computer is an old PC, and will probably stay a PC (or linux) for many years to come.

So how should I hold onto my music?

Before we play name that tune, you're going to have to tell me how to play you that tune

rileyray3000 — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:31:55 -0800

How would I go about posting some files? I want to ask metafilter about the last 16 songs in my itunes library that I can't identify, but I don't know how to go about putting those files up so you all can get to them. What's the easiest way to do this? I'm down to the final 16 files for whom I have neither artist OR album and I'd like to clear this in my lifetime. But that will involve all of YOU playing "Name that Tune" with said files. And that's where we do the question BEFORE the question. How do I put em up so you all can listen to em down?

For our purposes, let's assume I know very little about hosting, and FTPs and web...thingys. What's the simplest way to do this...other than me burning about 1000 cds and passing them out to metafilter members individually?