iTunes shows CD title/track as some other artist/song... Why?

**Cory Ander** · August 5th, 2009, 02:50 PM

I was making a compilation CD on my computer and popped in a CD that had one track on it I wanted to record (not sure it matters but the CD was "Lonely Grill" by the country pop group Lonestar). When I put it in, the information for a completely different CD appeared on the screen instead....a CD that I don't even own. How is that possible? p.s. and no, I wasn't drinking!

**BrunoRepublic** · August 5th, 2009, 03:12 PM

Originally Written by Cory Ander

I was making a compilation CD on my computer and popped in a CD that had one track on it I wanted to record (not sure it matters but the CD was "Lonely Grill" by the country pop group Lonestar). When I put it in, the information for a completely different CD appeared on the screen instead....a CD that I don't even own. How is that possible? p.s. and no, I wasn't drinking!

Yes, you will get that all the time with 1-track radio promo CDs, and with a few other discs as well.

Here's the thing: the track/title information that iTunes/WMP/etc pulls up is *not* actually pulled from the disc itself (because it's not there, aside from the small number of discs with CD-TEXT functionality). Instead, your computer takes a look at the total number of tracks, duration of each track and calculates a key hash based on that, and then goes online to compare that to ones previously submitted to an online database.

So, if you have two albums with the same number of tracks which all have identical durations, you will get the same "key" for both and it will have no way to know which one is correct. This is particularly problematic with 1-track radio promo CDs, as there are probably dozens of one-track CDs for every duration between 3 and 5 minutes.

**Cory Ander** · August 9th, 2009, 08:08 PM

Originally Written by BrunoRepublic

Yes, you will get that all the time with 1-track radio promo CDs, and with a few other discs as well.

Here's the thing: the track/title information that iTunes/WMP/etc pulls up is *not* actually pulled from the disc itself (because it's not there, aside from the small number of discs with CD-TEXT functionality). Instead, your computer takes a look at the total number of tracks, duration of each track and calculates a key hash based on that, and then goes online to compare that to ones previously submitted to an online database.

So, if you have two albums with the same number of tracks which all have identical durations, you will get the same "key" for both and it will have no way to know which one is correct. This is particularly problematic with 1-track radio promo CDs, as there are probably dozens of one-track CDs for every duration between 3 and 5 minutes.

thanks for the explanation, Bruno. I couldn't figure out what had happened. p.s. do you work in the music industry? I doubt most people have that kind of knowledge.