Metadata Query - Just Curious

Please note that this is just a query & not a problem.

I purchased Eric Clapton’s new CD on Friday, the day of release.

I ripped it to my cars hard drive & the track titles appeared but there was no cover art. An attempt to update the album info still failed to find the cover art.

I later ripped it to my Uniti Core &, unsurprisingly, no cover art or track info appeared & updating metadata did nothing.

I know the relevant details & cover art will appear sometime in the next week or so, when the providers databases are updated, but my query/question is ‘Where did my car get the track details from & why was the Core unable to find the same details?’.

As stated, no problem, just curious.

CD rippers rely on a handful of different online databases to retrieve metadata. I have no idea where your car gets it from without knowing how it accesses music but evidently from a source that does have it. If it’s from a streaming service like Spotify it will come with metadata included.

Your car probably uses a different database that already has the track titles

@ChrisSU @Suedkiez

Car is a BMW & I believe they use Gracenote?

If the database use contains the track info I am surprised there is no cover art as this is available for all my other albums in the car. Like the Core, if the album is too new for the BMW database providers there is usually no info at all for the first few days after release.

I don’t recall getting the track info without the cover art before, especially for a major artist.

Apparently Gracenote, yes. The data gets uploaded to Gracenote by someone/something, I suppose mistakes can happen, or the data be incomplete for a short while

That sounds very plausible.

Two weeks tomorrow since the new Clapton album was released & I ripped the CD to my Core.

No metadata at all has turned up despite me checking everyday via the Naim Android app.

Out of curiosity I ripped the album again to WAV (as per my Core version) on my PC using the built in DVD/CD player & EZ CD ripping software (which I have used for over 15 years). As soon as I started the rip the full metadata, including the cover art, appeared. I copied the rip to a USB stick & put this in my Nova. The album played with no trouble at all & the Nova’s screen displayed all the track details & the cover art.

Now here is the odd thing. The metadata provider from my EZ CD software was Musicbrainz.

Musicbrainz can also be used in the Naim app so why is the metadata not picked up by my Core despite it clearly being available & being manually requested by me on numerous occasions?

Note, on previous CD’s purchased on release day the metadata has been available (using the Naim app) within 4 or 5 days. I have always had to manually request the metadata & the Core has never added it automatically, which I thought it was supposed to.

I think the UnitiCore and it’s use of metadata sources is still, unfortunately and surprisingly, a work in progress.

Disappointed to hear that David, especially as the rest of my first day release CD’s (admittedly only about 5 or 6 so far) have updated (manually) within the first week of purchase.

Particularly surprised at this EC album as he is such a major artist, although I suspect the artists status has no relevance to the issue here. As you say, the problem in this instance is obviously Naims & not the metadata providers.

I know its not helping this specific problem, but I downloaded this album from HDTracks & the metadata is included.

Excellent album BTW

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