Broken CD Rip: A MusicBrainz Metadata Nightmare
2025-06-12
The author ripped a CD of Finish Ticket's 'Echo Afternoon', only to find discrepancies: a misspelled track name, an incorrectly timed track, and a missing song. The culprit? Inaccurate metadata in the MusicBrainz database. CD ripping software uses the disc's Table of Contents (TOC) to match and retrieve metadata from MusicBrainz. Errors in the database, including merged tracks and incorrect titles, led to the flawed rip. The author corrected the MusicBrainz database entries and updated their music library, highlighting the double-edged sword of editable databases and the crucial role of data quality.