Ian Newson
29th May 2002, 09:13 PM
Found over at www.cdfreaks.com
Gracenote, a company that keeps an database with artists and song titles, to identify the CD when you insert it to software that can read out the Gracenote database (like CDDB), spotted this.
Gracenote maintains a huge online database that can identify CDs by calling up the exact list and length of songs. Most of the popular music software programs for computers, such as Winamp or Windows Media Player, check this database when a new CD is put into a computer, allowing the software to tell a listener the name of the CD and its song titles.
Generally, this high-tech "Top 40" holds few surprises. But last week, Eminem's "The Eminem Show," which was yet to be released, cracked the chart at No. 2. Although pirated versions of the album were widely acknowledged to be online in MP3 format, Gracenote's figures look only at physical CDs, not downloads played on a computer.
"It's pretty safe to say that it's all CD-Rs that people have bought off the streets or burned from friends," said Gracenote CEO David Hyman. "This is the first time anything unreleased has shown up at No. 2."
The full story can be found here (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=70&e=5&cid=70&u=/cn/20020528/tc_cn/923472)
Gracenote, a company that keeps an database with artists and song titles, to identify the CD when you insert it to software that can read out the Gracenote database (like CDDB), spotted this.
Gracenote maintains a huge online database that can identify CDs by calling up the exact list and length of songs. Most of the popular music software programs for computers, such as Winamp or Windows Media Player, check this database when a new CD is put into a computer, allowing the software to tell a listener the name of the CD and its song titles.
Generally, this high-tech "Top 40" holds few surprises. But last week, Eminem's "The Eminem Show," which was yet to be released, cracked the chart at No. 2. Although pirated versions of the album were widely acknowledged to be online in MP3 format, Gracenote's figures look only at physical CDs, not downloads played on a computer.
"It's pretty safe to say that it's all CD-Rs that people have bought off the streets or burned from friends," said Gracenote CEO David Hyman. "This is the first time anything unreleased has shown up at No. 2."
The full story can be found here (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=70&e=5&cid=70&u=/cn/20020528/tc_cn/923472)