# Please recommend CD database software **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 6, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-cd-database-software/293223 "2005-03-06T18:36:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-cd-database-software/293223/1 "2005-03-06T18:36:55Z")
I’ve got over 1000 CDs, and I average 5-10 new ones a week. I’m looking for a way to catalogue them. Can anyone recommend software to accomplish this? I would prefer freeware but of course will pay for a good application. Bells and whistles are great. I found something called Collectorz, and even though I hate anything with a z substituting for s, it has a lot of them (bells and whistles). But they want forty bucks. Anybody have any suggestions? Thanking you. PS I know, I know, why don’t I spend the forty bucks if I’m spending so much on CDs. Two words. Value. I am a cheap Yankee, and forty bucks goes a long way on eBay. Why, just last week I got 10 classical CDs, Brahms, Strauss, Handel, Dvorak, etc. for 22.62. That’s with shipping. So again, I’ll spend the dough if I have to, but I would like to see some options, and I know my fellow Dopers will have good insight on this. ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-cd-database-software/293223/2 "2005-03-07T16:31:56Z")
Sigh. That’ll learn me to ask a question on a sunny Sunday morning. Or else (snif) nobody loves me, everybody hates me, might as well go eat worms. Cmon you guys! ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-cd-database-software/293223/3 "2005-03-07T17:22:07Z")
Sorry, we didn’t mean to make you feel left out! I know there’s software that lets you enter every kind of detail imaginable, scan the covers into it, link to sound files on your hard drive, read CDDB data, etc., but I don’t know a single person who uses any of it. With 12,000 individual records/CDs, I use a Works database. Maybe try Google, enter “CD database software” or something like it. You’ll find something. ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-cd-database-software/293223/4 "2005-03-07T19:07:57Z")
Jesus Christ, fish, you make me feel like a piker. My main desire is to not do all that typing. I did Google this; that’s how I came up with Collectorz. All you do is put the CD in and then it talks to CDDB and whatever to get the album tracks and musicians (most important with jazz, as the individual players are different almost every time). I’m mainly worried about downloading something nasty with it. Cool Web Search is still hanging around fucking up the process, even though I use Firefox now. I can’t get rid of it without reformatting, which I am loathe to do for reasons that the SD powers that be don’t like to be discussed here. I haven’t found any reviews of Collectorz that compare and contrast it with other options. I was hoping the Dope would help me out. Help a fella out! ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-cd-database-software/293223/5 "2005-03-07T20:41:00Z")
As much as it shames me sometimes, I am a guy at heart. And somewhere down in the atavistic, lizard-brain guy part of my soul, I am feeling inadequate that my CD collection is so, well, _small_ compared to fishbicycle’s. Hey, a thousand CDs is still, um, quite _big_, isn’t it? Somebody? Anybody? Hold me. ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-cd-database-software/293223/6 "2005-03-08T13:43:26Z")
You might take a look at [CATraxx](http://www.fnprg.com/catraxx/catraxx.html). I don’t have that particular program, but I do have the sister program BookCAT, which I bought recently, so I could catalog my 600+ books (and _constantly_ growing…we’re literally going to have to move next year to have room for more bookshelves) for insurance and personal purposes. I love the BookCAT program, all I have to do is enter the ISBN and it looks up all the book info and auto-enters it for me! The CATraxx program looks like it has some cool features, too. > [@](#): > > CATraxx is a powerful database program designed to help you maintain an inventory of your music collection. You can quickly catalog your collection by downloading CD data from CDDB - the worlds largest music database. > > CATraxx has a comprehensive set of data fields for both albums and tracks, enabling you to catalog a wide range of information: artist, album title, media format, release year, label, catalog number, purchase price, current value, music category, playing time, song titles, songwriters, producers, recording studios, musicians and instruments. > > CATraxx even enables you to store an image of the album cover, attach an MP3 file to each track, and add your own personal comments for albums and tracks. > > Other features include customized data fields, a loan module (to keep track of albums on loan), flexible searching, a report designer, more than 100 pre-defined report formats, a HTML generator, a CD player, pop-up menus for quick feature access and navigation, and comprehensive context-sensitive on-line documentation available at the touch of a button. There’s some additional add-on software you can purchase if you want to include LPs and cassettes, it looks like. There’s also a couple links on that site to PDA and Pocket PC versions, so you could transfer the CATraxx DB file on your main PC to a PDA/Pocket PC to take to the store with you. Hope that helps some. =) ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-cd-database-software/293223/7 "2005-03-08T15:04:03Z")
Well, if you were a Mac user, I’d recommend [CDPedia](http://www.bruji.com/cdpedia/index.html). I use the same company’s DVD tracking program, DVDPedia, and love it muchly. But I’ll go ahead and mention it anyway, in case there’s a Mac user out there who can make use of this advice. ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-cd-database-software/293223/8 "2005-03-08T21:29:26Z")
Thanks, guys. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-cd-database-software/293223/9 "2005-03-08T22:07:13Z")
I use Readerware, [www.readerware.com/](http://www.readerware.com/). It was originally designed for books, but there are now versions that do CD’s & VCR/DVD’s. It looks up online databases to find most of the information, saving you a lot of keying on data entry. I’ve been real pleased with the company & it’s personal service.