Mp3 Disc Doesn't Open In Itunes

[jllphan]

So i just bought Toast11 today, burned an mp3 disc and it will not open in iTunes10 (working on iMac 10.5.8). The disc icon appears on my desktop and i can open the individual tracks in iTunes, but the icon that generally comes up in the iTunes sidebar when you insert a disc does not come up. What do i need to do when burning an mp3 disc in Toast so that when insert the disc in this (or any other) computer the disc shows up in iTunes?

 

I have successfully burned an Audio CD and it opens just fine in iTunes, but i need the track names to remain intact, and as far as i know creating ID3 tags and burning as an Mp3 disc is about the only way to go short of submitting to Gracenote.

[tsantee]

There isn't a solution that meets all your needs. If you burn the MP3 disc in iTunes then inserting it should launch iTunes. But I don't know if it does that with other computers or just the one that burned the disc. As you've seen, burning a MP3 disc with Toast (or other application) isn't recognized that way by iTunes. The Mac sees it as a ISO9660-formatted data disc (which is true). The data just happens to be mp3 files. If you go Here you can download an applescript from dougscripts.com that automates the creation of a new iTunes playlist containing all the tracks on a mp3 disc. This is run from the iTunes Scripts menu (just to the left of the Help menu). However, this doesn't solve your desire to have the disc recognized automatically on any computer in which it is inserted.

 

The applescript doesn't actually save much time or effort. You can simply choose to create a New Playlist in iTunes and drag over the icon from the mp3 disc to the playlist window. All the tracks are quickly entered. But maybe you don't want the playlist to remain after you eject the disc. Sigh.

 

The other problem with mp3 discs is they are alphanumeric so the track order may not end up to be what you want.

 

So that brings us back to the audio CD format which has the problem with no tags. As you mentioned, you can upload info to Gracenote (using either Toast or iTunes) so that it is automatically downloaded whenever the disc is inserted for the first time in any computer connected to the Internet at the time the disc is inserted. That may be your best bet.

 

By the way, there is another dougscript called CD Text to cdinfo which automatically transfers the CD Text information burned by Toast (which the Mac ignores) to the cdinfo database file with iTunes reads and manages. If you are in control of the other computers playing this audio CD you could add that applescript to each computer's iTunes and quickly add the info from the disc when it is first inserted and have no need for Gracenote. After the first insertion iTunes finds the info in its cdinfo file and all is well.

 

Good luck.

[jllphan]

Thanks for the quick response and insight....

 

But it seems hard to believe that in 2011 there's not a way that i can burn a disc, with various songs from various artists, title them as such and have that display in a "foreign" computer (other than burning as .wav and submitting to Gracenote). Once upon a time, i could use iTunes ver. 8 and accomplish this no problem. But the reason i'm here, and bought toast, was because with iTunes 10 this ability has suddenly vanished. Now that i foolishly updated to iTunes 10, it doesn't matter what setting i use, when burning a compilation, any computer the disc is loaded in (including the native computer that created the disc), it automatically sorts the disc by artist. I even made a trip the local Apple store and three "geniuses" couldn't demonstrate how to make this work. Using iTunes, the disc is burned properly (using "finder" you can verify all tracks are in the desired order), but upon opening iTunes, it automatically sorts the tracks by artist (alphabetically). Thing is, I'm creating compilations to send to people, and those recipients will undoubtedly load the disc using iTunes -- AND the compilation MUST be in a specific sequence. Short of deleting the artist info (which I CAN'T do for reasons not mentioned here), there's no way to achieve this? Obviously I made a $100 mistake buying Toast, is there any disc authoring software that will allow me to simply burn mp3's in the desired sequence and then have it default open in iTunes? Seems improbable if not.

 

nice Austin btw.

[tsantee]

Thanks for the quick response and insight....

 

But it seems hard to believe that in 2011 there's not a way that i can burn a disc, with various songs from various artists, title them as such and have that display in a "foreign" computer (other than burning as .wav and submitting to Gracenote). Once upon a time, i could use iTunes ver. 8 and accomplish this no problem. But the reason i'm here, and bought toast, was because with iTunes 10 this ability has suddenly vanished. Now that i foolishly updated to iTunes 10, it doesn't matter what setting i use, when burning a compilation, any computer the disc is loaded in (including the native computer that created the disc), it automatically sorts the disc by artist. I even made a trip the local Apple store and three "geniuses" couldn't demonstrate how to make this work. Using iTunes, the disc is burned properly (using "finder" you can verify all tracks are in the desired order), but upon opening iTunes, it automatically sorts the tracks by artist (alphabetically). Thing is, I'm creating compilations to send to people, and those recipients will undoubtedly load the disc using iTunes -- AND the compilation MUST be in a specific sequence. Short of deleting the artist info (which I CAN'T do for reasons not mentioned here), there's no way to achieve this? Obviously I made a $100 mistake buying Toast, is there any disc authoring software that will allow me to simply burn mp3's in the desired sequence and then have it default open in iTunes? Seems improbable if not.

 

nice Austin btw.

Your frustration is completely reasonable, but your options are few. I'm not clear why sticking with the audio CD format and uploading the info to Gracenote isn't an acceptable option. But assuming that's not okay then the only other thing I can think of is to distribute the mp3 tracks from your own online server rather than sending it via disc.

 

Roxio's hands are pretty much tied when it comes to integration with iTunes. Apple made the cdinfo database file off limits to any third parties so only iTunes can burn an audio CD and have it automatically update the cdinfo database file at the same time. Apparently Apple only lets iTunes do whatever it does to recognize mp3 CDs.

 

As for the mp3 CD format, it is confined to the limitations of the old ISO 9660 format which has an alphanumeric file system. If you don't care if the disc is playable in an mp3 CD player (other than a few car stereos who even has one of those?) then you can burn the tracks in a Mac & PC format. You can include a document instructing users how to play the tracks and provide additional background. Maybe there is a script to automate the creation of the iTunes playlist. Quick Look is a terrific way to play (or view) files from discs on a Mac. I don't know what the equivalent is on a PC. Food for thought.

 

Sorry I don't have an answer that truly meets your needs. I don't think one exists.