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At 8/23/2005 06:22 PM, Karl Miller wrote: >Is it not a technical fact that CD's contain data files, which CD players use >to keep track of what they are playing? If so, a catalogue of CD's could be >created by copying that data into a larger database table...is this correct? If you are referring to the way computers display the contents of a commercial audio CD, this is not based on data files on the CD. It's based on the sequence of timing of tracks on the CD. The CD-player program sends the number of tracks on the CD and the duration of each track to the database through the Internet, and the database service returns the title of the CD and of each track. There are several services that maintain data bases of CDs, with the duration of each track on every known CD. The people who created the database claim that no two CDs have identical timing sequences. The only exceptions I have found are operas and broadcast transcriptions with a single 59:00 track. You do hit the occasional "unknown" CD, especially with obscure independent releases. Obviously, this is limited to CDs rather than analog phonodiscs. But it ought to be possible to convince the people who maintain the databases to allow ARSC or some other group to link additional discographical information to their listings. John Ross Seattle