From: "Glenn Meadows" 

Close, concept is correct.

The TOC is used for Gracenote and the various Free CD DB.s.

The TOC (Table of Contents) just has the START time of each track, listed
in CD Frames from the beginning of the disk.  A CD frame is 1/75th of a
second. So, the fingerprint becomes virtually unique with the more tracks
on the disc.  If you were to put in a SINGLE (one track only), you'd
probably have hundreds of hits, and the likely hood of proper
identification, on the first attempt would be really slim.

Other players use alternate sources.  All Music Guide is another very
extensive database as well.

For example, if we "re-package" a CD, with a new catalog number
on a re-issue that has been out of print for some time, to make sure that
the correct NEW title, art and package are pulled up, all I have to do is
change the START time of one of the tracks on the re-issued CD, 1/75th of a
second earlier, and the old fingerprint will be invalid, and the new one
will be pulled down.

ISRC's are used solely for broadcast reporting of tracks for
airplay/royalty payments.  When we submit titles to the online services, we
provide those numbers for each track, and it's a UNIQUE number for that
track/selection in the world.

Those are made up as follows:

US-CMG-05-12345

US - Country of Origin
CMG - Owner Company Code
05 - Year of release
12345 - unique number for that track in that years listing.

When we license a song/track/CD to another company for use on one of their
releases, we also provide the ISRC code, which is included on the CD in the
subcode area of the disk, so that it's ownership will be tracked and
performance royalties paid (anywhere but US pays performance royalty, US
does it differently).

When our royalty statements arrive from iTunes, for example, they're listed
by ISRC code for individual track purchases, so we can export the excel
data directly into our Royalties payment program.  Full CD purchases are
reported using the UPC code for the album.  The full purchases
automatically pass down to the individual tracks as coded in the royalties
program.  The UPC code is also embedded in the disk in the subcode data
area of the disk.

Don's correct, not all CD players in computers can read that data, nor can
all of the writers record that data.

--

Glenn M.
"Don Hills"  wrote in message
news:eAQ1CtgaXWfA092yn{at}attglobal.net...
> In article ,
> John Beckett  wrote:
>>
>>My first hint of magic came when I started WMP and it offered to play a
>>Beethoven sample. How did it know that I would like that!?
>
> Gracenote CDDB (http://www.gracenote.com) or similar site.
>
>>Then, after a couple of days (and playing the two music CDs), I am amazed
>>to see that WMP has learnt details of the CD (it doesn't get any better
>>than Schubert piano impromptus played by Rudolf Buchbinder).
>
> Same answer.
>
>>I vaguely recall a year or two ago seeing that WMP could search for stuff
>>on the Internet, but HOW is it possible for it to identify two really old
>>music CDs?
>>
>>I guess there is a serial number encoded on a CD, even old CDs - a fairly
>>boring explanation.
>
> More boring than that. There is an ISRC code on most discs, but some CDROM
> drives can't read it. Instead, an application collects details from the
> CD's
> Table Of Contents: number of tracks and the length of each track in
> minutes
> and seconds. This is a fairly unique combination of numbers. It creates a
> "hash" (short unique number) from the info and sends it to
Gracenote or
> similar. The hash is then used to look up a database record that contains
> the details of the CD. If you pick a really new, or really obscure, or
> home-made compilation CD, you may find it doesn't know the details. With
> many apps, you have the option of entering the info yourself for local
> storage and optionally for forwarding to the CD DB site to update their
> database.
>
>>I recently read about Parsons Code to identify a tune from an amazingly
>>small amount of information by specifying (for only 10 or 20 notes)
>>whether the notes go up or down wrt to each other. Naturally I found this
>>in a Richard Dawkins book where he was explaining a similar procedure for
>>measuring the age of wooden objects from the patterns in the tree rings (a
>>sequence of wider or narrower rings).
>
> The local telco here offer a Song ID service to mobile phone users: Dial
> the
> service, then hold the phone as close as possible to the source of the
> music
> for 30 seconds and it will text message you back the track details.
> http://www.telecom.co.nz/content/0,3900,204595-201463,00.html
> Apparently it has a database of over 2.6 million tracks...
>
> --
> Don Hills    (dmhills at attglobaldotnet)     Wellington, New Zealand
> "New interface closely resembles Presentation Manager,
> preparing you for the wonders of OS/2!"
>    -- Microsoft advertisement on the box for Windows 2.11 for 286

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5