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I am developing an application to generate many thousands of MP3 files for testing porpoises.

I want it to have real and consistent, but random, artists, album & track names which I will use to generate the file name and to insert ID3V1 tags.

As it might be run a few times a day, each requesting information on 20,000 tracks, I thought that I would reduce GraceNote's server load by using a local copy of the database (this is a test app for my company, which is a large multimedia device manufacture who licenses GraceNote's technology, so I legally have a copy of the database).

Question: in a hex edit, the first 4 characters of each database file are GNDB, which I presume stands for GraceNote Database. Since this seems to be a proprietary format, can anyone tell me how to access it? (I expect that @cweichen can help answer that :-)

I am a new hire in a huge company and no one seems interested in helping or even knows who our official contact person for GraceNote is.

If I approach them through their website, I doubt that I can provide required information like developer ID, etc, so I am taking a three pronged approach by asking here while asking around to find our GraceNote liaison person and developing using the web API, requesting only a few tracks at a time.

halfer
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Mawg says reinstate Monica
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    This question appears to be off-topic because it is about the law. – Ben Nov 12 '14 at 12:39
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    simple solution: ask the creators/maintainers. Fact that you don't seem to want to do that indicates that you really already know the answer... – jwenting Nov 12 '14 at 12:41
  • They have provided you the [Web API](https://developer.gracenote.com/web-api#php) isn't it enough? – Rahil Wazir Nov 12 '14 at 12:42
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    I didn't know you could use porpoises for testing. – JJJ Nov 12 '14 at 12:42
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    @Juhana, he is testing the porpoises, presumably to find out if they can distinguish randomly generated MP3s from Garage music. – Ben Nov 12 '14 at 12:44
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    No trees, ozone layers or porpoises will be harmed in the testing of this product (additionally, porpoises in your rear view mirror may be closer than they appear). – Mawg says reinstate Monica Nov 12 '14 at 14:06

1 Answers1

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What you want to do cannot be done.

Not mentioning the fact that as you mentioned, this database format is proprietary and also it cannot be accessed as you like. You cannot query the database for a list of artists or a list of albums. It has not been built for that purpose. Your Gracenote contact will tell you the same. Eventually, you could buy a data export from Gracenote that has the info you need, but that's about it.

To find your contact at Gracenote, you could just go through https://www.gracenote.com/support/ and submit a request using your company's email. We will get your request on the other side and your existing contact should get back at you.

You should rather look at Echonest or MusicBrainz or others that have public APIs that do what you ask.

Jonx
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  • Do you work for GraceNote? – Mawg says reinstate Monica Nov 14 '14 at 07:54
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    I do. And know that people answering questions here, even those working at GN do it on their free time ;) – Jonx Nov 14 '14 at 17:57
  • Then I tip my hat to you, sir and award you the answer. I am coding my app on the weekend, in my own time, because I did not want to be known as the newbie who could not get it done. But I see no reason not to use Discogs if they want it offline, or your web API (how many enquires am I allowed per day?). I will insist that the one who set me the task clarifies things over official channels. Thanks for your help. – Mawg says reinstate Monica Nov 16 '14 at 10:01