Cataloguing CD

Does anybody know of a good PC program for cataloguing CD's.

I believe there is one that reads from the PC CD Rom and automatically registers Artis, CD title, and all tracks.

A shareware would be good, but if need be I will have to buy.

This relates to the recent thread on insurance values.

Ken

 

Music Collector Pro:

http://www.collectorz.com/

-- Ian

 

Another vote for Music Collector Pro. See the "My Music" link in my sig. That was all created by MCP.

Michael.

 

Thanks guys,

Michael, are they all CD's on your list? if so am I correct in thinking that you did no typing.

Ken

 

Yep - all CDs. Correct, no typing. MCP can be configured to use various sources to get the information. CDDB (Gracenote), Amazon UK/US/JP, All Music Guide etc. Only a tiny handful of CDs don't get correctly recognized. Cover art is downloaded from either Amazon or AMG and that very occasionally doesn't work but if you find it manually you can then just drag and drop the image into the right place.

Michael.

 

I use Music Library which also auto-fills the data. I don't have a link, but if you PM me with your email, I can send a copy over the ether.

 

I use CD Trustee - http://www.base40.com/

 

Afternoon All

As an excited observer, I appreciate the links, as the thought has cropped up in my mind from time to time if there was some way of easily cataloging all my CD's DVD's etc.

Hah, being mainly of the Mac persuasion, I figured there would likely be nothing available, but I see that Music Collector Pro is planning an OSX release sometime Q1 2005. Yippee!

Meantime, does anyone know of a similar program that works with OSX at the present time, and also if a barcode scanner is available for the Mac? I assume it would be a pen type instrument, USB connection etc?

Many thanks

Cheers

John...

 

Guys,

Are any of the above cataloguing programs able to handle LPs as well? Would be nice to be able to punch in a cat. number or somesuch and get some sort of auto complete from the web.

Thanks, SM.

 

Re: Barcodes and Music Collector Pro - it's not that useful. I tried entering a few CD barcodes just to try it out and never got a result. Only recently when I've been adding some CDs does a valid barcode occasionally appear in the listing so it would seem that whatever it's using for a barcode database is very sparsely populated.

I believe Ian (sideshowbob) has used MCP for LPs - not sure if you have to enter everything by hand or not. If you type in the artist and the title then the All Music Guide search will probably fill in the rest.

Michael.

 

Thanks Michael. If I've got to type the LP information in, I will have to wait for a nice wet weekend, of which there are plenty this time of year. High time I got all the music catalogued as I want to ensure adequate coverage on the insurance.
Regards, SM.

 

I just started using CD trustee.
it connects automatically to cddb and you can export the datebase to csv
You can even customise the export to album title/artist or album title/artist/songlist and everything else. It allows you to enter LP information as well.
It's shareware, $39.95 USD, but you can always *coughgetakeygencough*

 

I'm another user of Music Collector Pro, after Michael recommended it to me a year or so ago. I've got about 300+ discs catalogued.

I don't know if anyone else has this problem. But sometimes when searching for coverart via Amazon, it comes up with no results. If you do a manual search on their site from a browser the disc come up. It is good you can drag the image from the browser window on to MCP when it does happen.

The other useful thing is the custom fields under the Personal tab for each disc. I have two of the options set for Ripped and Backed Up. So when I buy a load of CDs I catalogue them, I can then apply a filter for discs not yet ripped and it shows me the list, so I know what to feed into the ripper software. Once I've got a DVD load of MP3s I apply the "CDs not BACKED UP" filter and hey presto I know what to burn onto DVD. When you have a large amount of CD lying around it can get confusing which one you've ripped/backed up.

As for insurance purposes, it's gonna save a lot of hassle.

I've just got my contents insurance from Liverpool Victoria. It's a specialised policy for my Partner who belongs to the RCN (Royal College of Nursing). Part of the policy stipulates that there is no maximum single amount for electrical/entertainment equipment. So the whole hifi/av is covered which includes CD/DVDs. Also bolted onto that is freezer food (up to £500!), shed contents (£1000), bicycle (£1000), all for £211 pa paid monthly by DD.

 

Scott, yes, MCP occasionally fails to download the cover image for me also but it's infrequent enough not to be annoying.

Michael.

 

I use Readerware, which is very good with barcodes. I find about 75% of my albums are recovered, although the acurracy of some of the classical stuff is a bit hit and miss. Artist is often the composer, and the conductor never shows up. Easy enough to edit though.

 

CDDB/Gracenote is pretty useless with classical too. It's recognized yes, but as you say, composer and artist are all mixed up and the conductor rarely shows.

Classical music doesn't really fit the "album title, artist, track name" view very well.

Michael.

 

Sadly not the case if many of your CDs happen to be somewhat "obscure" ethnographic releases

 

I'm another Music Collector user. As with all databases it's only as good as the data that's submitted. In other words you may have to do some donkey work especially with classical which, as Michael suggests, don't often fit the standard rock template.

FWIW I haven't yet found a "record" software which meets professional archival standards e.g. ISAD(G) or simalar. If you reall want to go down that route you should use CALM2000 or Idealist but then you'll have to enter all the information by hand.

If anyone wants to use the entries in My Database to save time I'll be happy to pass them on.

 

I haven't even got around to entering any of my classical CDs into Music Collector (in case anyone looking at my page was wondering where they were). I keep puttting it off in anticipation of the extra work it's likely to take.

Michael.