Yamp Track Recognition (last update: August 1, 2014)

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Track names from an external server can be obtained in Yamp when creating a new playlist from a folder of existing music tracks.

freedb.org data up to the September 1, 2018 update is available on the server.

There are two sources for track names:

freedb.org is an open-source project where many individuals using different computer programs have submitted track names when ripping a CD.
Important considerations:
  • Data submitted to freedb.org is not curated for the most part. As such, data may not be accurate. There are over 3 million entries in freedb.org
  • In order to get a track listing, all of the music tracks of a CD, in the correct order, without length modification, must be present in a Yamp folder when the request for track data is made.
  • A small number of tracks on a CD reduces the chances of a successful match being made. Yamp will not attempt to get freedb.org track names for a single-track CD. The ability to get two-track CD's are also limited.
  • The specification of freedb.org CD data does not include language.
  • freedb.org specifies how characters should be encoded however if the person entering the track name or the program making the submission chooses to ignore this specification, then the track name may be unreadable in any language.
  • Music can be encoded in any of the formats supported by Yamp.
Note: freedb.org contains the CD data and programs used to manage that data. Only the data is used here.

findclassmusic.net is a classical music website (data only, no downloadable music).
Important considerations:
  • There is less data available - about 128,000 tracks, just about all of it classical music or classical music crossover.
  • Music tracks must be encoded in FLAC.
  • The music track cannot be altered - either in length or the underlying bytes of the music.
  • Tracks do not have to be in the original order, or grouped with tracks from the same CD.
  • It may take longer (usually up to a minute or so) to recognize the tracks.
Yamp provides 3 options - using freedb.org data only, using findclassmusic.net data only or using both. If you don't have classical music, you should use the freedb.org-only option. The only case where one should use the findclassmusic.net-only option is when one has classical music in folders which do not follow the track order of the CD in which the music came from. Data from freedb.org and findclassmusic.net are cross-matched so that if a match can be made, the findclassumusic.net track names will be used. This is because track data is curated in findclassmusic.net.

Data sent to the server
Track timing data is sent to the server. If findclassmusic.net matching is requested, the server sends back data from which track identification can be made. This data is very small (typically under 1K). Yamp will then send a track ID. No music stream data is sent or received.

Data collection
The IP address from which the request originates will be collected to try to identify bot requests. If a reasonable number of requests is being made from a specific IP address, that data will be discarded at least once a month. Also, data about which albums track data is requested from will be collected in aggregate (a sum count). Data about which IP address is requesting which track data is NOT collected.

Server use
Use of the external server with track names is limited to authorized applications (Yamp being one of them).