I'm
a bit obsessive-compulsive when it comes to having useful and correct information about the media in my library. I thought I'd share some useful places I've found over the years to get some of this information. Maybe others can do the same? Please keep it to sharing links to legitimate sources of information or coverart (
not media download sites)
MUSICPopular MusicAllmusicWikipediaI've found you can get most of what you want for mainstream artists and albums with these two. Wikipedia might seem obvious but is a great source of discographies for artists in general and has tracklists + basic info about the release of an album as well. Very often it will have composers if you're interested in tagging that information too.
Allmusic is more standardised and has more useful album genres. If you're keen, you can also make use of their styles, moods and themes which can make interesting smartlists. Good reviews and artist bios as well.
If you're stuck, amazon will also usually have basic tracklists and sometimes contributing artists if you're lucky.
Classical MusicArkivmusiccduniverseIt's always been hard to find reliable information on classical recordings - they very often have generic album titles and mainstream sites usually only list the composer and not other contributing artists. Arkivmusic is great - it lists detailed information about the recording itself (release and recording dates, label and catalog) as well as information about contributing artists (conductors, orchestra/ensemble, chorus and often individual performers). cduniverse does this for many (but not all) albums. Both websites often have extended information like genre and period, as well as dates written and countries for many recordings.
Both are searchable by composer, conductor, label and catalog etc which makes tracking your recording down just that little bit easier!
Soundtracks & ScoresSoundtrackCollectorWikipediaI hate it when I get metadata from yadb or cddb for a soundtrack and the artist comes up as "The Matrix" or "The Lion King". I'm sorry, but these aren't artists! Film titles can go in another field. Soundtrack collector is the most complete database I've found so far for movie soundtracks (although cast album collector beats it for musical films). It usually lists performing artists (when present) as well as the composer. For many movies wikipedia will link to a soundtrack recording where one is available and this can often have useful information.
Cast RecordingsCastalbumCollectorInternet Broadway Database (IBDB)Broadway World (Just Broadway)
WikipediaMusicals can be complicated to tag as you have multiple contributing artists - the Composer, Lyricist, Performers and then also the roles they play. I put the performers in the [Artist] field (or the composer if no-one's singing). Sometimes you'll pull metadata from yadb/cddb with Jean Valjean or Simba as the artist... I put roles in a separate [Artist Roles] field if I think the information will be useful - eg I can find Eponine's songs from Les Miserables if I can't remember the name of them
The first two will usually give you most of what you need - CastAlbumCollector has very comprehensive info about the recording itself + the tracklist, but won't give track specific information. You can use IBDB and wikipedia to identify individual artists. Also, I've never really used the site itself much, but I've found
rateyourmusic often has the individual artists for each track when other sites won't.
Game SoundtracksVideo Game Music Database (VGMDb)You won't find a more complete database online for video game music than this one. Full tracklists, album info, contributing artists and coverart.
Album ArtAlbum Art ExchangeGoogle ImagesJust off the top of my head...
VIDEOWikipedia naturally has a lot of info on all these categories. It's just less standardised than the dedicated databases listed below.
Allmovie &
IMDb cover all categories here, but both are less reliable for series.
- As a general rule, I find IMDb to be most useful for credits and release details. The Top 250 / votes fields are also great for ranking which of your movies are popular
- Allmovie has really excellent extended data like tones, themes, keywords. Their descriptions and reviews are professionally written (and generally much better than IMDb which can be hit & miss in this regard).
TheMovieDb and
TheTVDb are both open databases (with an API designed for home theatre programs just like MC!). Both have very active communities, and are used in programs like MediaPortal and XBMC. The big attraction with these is the banner / poster / custom art system which can be accessed by your home theatre program through the API.
FilmAllmovieIMDbTheMovieDbTelevision/SeriesAllmovieIMDbTheTVDbAnimeAnime News NetworkAllmovieIMDbTheTVDbNot really that into anime, but all of these are useful. Anime News Network gives very comprehensive credits + episode lists.
PostersMoviePosterDb (you pay for points but it's the best one I've found)
IMPAwardsTheMovieDb (posters, banners, custom art)
TheTVDb (posters, banners, custom art)
And that's all I can really think of! Any other useful gems out there?
