Internet database issues

This post is a spot to post comments about Internet databases.

I have investigated using freedb (as opposed to gnudb) and I've found freedb's search utility to be a little lacking. I might be able to work around it, but it could potentially dramatically increase bandwidth usage over a better search utility. I've started a dialog with freedb about making their search feature a little more friendly. In return, I'm going to try to implement a "correct titles" feature so that if you find errors in a freedb entry, there will be a way to submit it back to freedb.

AutoTagX 3.00 beta 2

Download it here

AutoTagX v3.00 beta 2 was released today. The main difference is that AutoTagX now supports gnudb, one of the projects that arose from the ashes of FreeDB.


Release notes:

• Changed the way All Music Guide entries are searched. Should get better results.


• Added support for gnudb.org, a new incarnation of FreeDB. Source Code U.


• Always back up .m4p files, whether you asked for backups or not.


• Changed some score weightings so to make better entries bubble up to the top better.

This beta is operative for until February 26. Please feel free to provide constructive feedback to this blog.

AutoTagX Support Blog

Hi all -

This is the new AutoTagX support blog. This is going to be the main vehicle of support for AutoTagX. Due to the overwhelming amount of spam I get on my support email address, I am going to phase it out. If you have questions, tips, or if you need to contact me for any reason, this is going to be the place to do it. New releases, notes, etc. will all be hosted here.

AutoTagX 3.00 beta 1

Download it here

Hi folks - it's been a long time, and a lot has happened since the last major version of AutoTagX. The demise of FreeDB really threw me for a loop but I hope to eventually get support for the sites that rose from its ashes.

In the meantime, I have a version which should take care of a few things. Here is a synopsis of the things that have changed since v2.80.

• Universal Binary.


• Handles AAC files, both .m4a and .m4p files.


• Supports an option to back up music files before retagging them. Make sure this option is turned on at least until a formal release.


• Searches All Music Guide (Source Code A) for cover art and album/track information.


• Searches Google Music (Source Code G) for album/track information and cover art. Google Music does not provide the year or genre, though. Further, it looks like Google gets all its track information from AMG. And, its cover art looks like it's the same as AMG's only smaller. I'm leaving this in just in case searching AMG doesn't find something (because Google's search capability is a little bit more robust).


• Tries to extract title, album, artist, and year information from the file names (Source Code F).


• Gives you an option to use album, artist, title, year, and genre information from the current tags (Source Code T).


• Individual file tagging has not been widely tested.


• AutoTagTools, just a contextual menu to launch AutoTagX on a file or folder, has been crashing for a long time now. I've disabled the "Install" option.

Warnings

• There was a time when AutoTagX hit All Music Guide's website so hard during a search that they banned me. Since their takeover, I think they have reset their blacklists, and AutoTagX now also doesn't hit it anywhere near as hard.
  However, one way I have accomplished this is by adding a throttle to each internet database that gets hit. The effect of this is that it slows the program down, but it's not terribly noticeable unless you're doing a lot of albums at once. Hopefully it will keep AutoTagX under their radar.

This beta is operative for approximately 90 days. Please feel free to provide constructive feedback to this blog.