5 ms·

When I was building out infrastructure to support streaming at Sony Music Entertainment, it was well known that interns would input the metadata. Typos were rif

When I was building out infrastructure to support streaming at Sony Music Entertainment, it was well known that interns would input the metadata. Typos were rife and genres? Made up out of whole cloth. It feels safe to assume that the situation has improved since then, but I doubt seriously we’ll ever be free of typos ;)

lloydatkinson 1y ago
It's sad Sony put the effort into writing rootkits for music CD's but did nothing to automate, flag, fix typos for metadata...
- Henchman21 1y ago
  Agreed. I could say tons here, but it’ll suffice to say that I am wildly happy I no longer work there!
- mxuribe 1y ago
  I remember the Sony rootkits...Since then and to this day, i avoid buying anything related to Sony as best i can. Funny thing is, folks who know me know that i am not the kind of person who holds a grudge....but something about that rootkit event really brought the ire in me....one of the extremely few times where i held a grudge. So, i avoid Sony and go on with my life. I also stop buying at other companies...but for other companies for some reason i don;'t hold onto the ire...i just stop buying from them, and quietly move on...but Sony....i don't get it, but the dislike is crazy.
  - Henchman21 1y ago
    I recall a meeting where my team was asked to do some technical legwork for the implementation. To his credit, my boss stood up, said some words about ethics, and led our team out the door. It wasn’t the entire org… just the music business folks as I recall. I left shortly thereafter.
    - mxuribe 1y ago
      I highly commend you, your boss, and any others who stood up or otherwise rebelled against the despicable Sony leaders who wanted this to be done. I can only imagine that it would not have been easy. My appreciation goes out to you, your boss, and the rest of the team...and i only wish there were more folks like you in the world! For that, thank you sincerely!
      - Henchman21 1y ago
        All that praise goes to my old boss; the rest of us were a bit shocked we’d been asked such a thing! But he was already saying no before I’d even processed the request. He succeeded in delaying that “project” several years — I left in ‘04. IIRC this became public late ‘05-early ‘06?
    - qingcharles 1y ago
      I was doing digital ingestion for Sony in Europe and they sent us all those hobbled "unrippable" CDs and asked us to rip them for streaming. They were kinda embarrassed about it.
      - Henchman21 1y ago
        Man, I bet you guys went through a couple boxes of sharpies getting those ready to rip! :)
        47282847 1y ago
        Many Plextor models were known to beat basically any copy protection; otherwise it was mostly luck which drive managed, and some lists with shared findings.
        qingcharles 1y ago
        Yeah, we had stacks of different drives to try and get the worst offenders ripped. The Plextors were our primaries, though.
JohnFen 1y ago
> genres? Made up out of whole cloth. The problem with genre remains entirely unsolved across the board. The solution I use in my collection is to do what everyone else seems to do: make them up out of whole cloth. Because I'm the only one making them up, it means my labeling is at least internally consistent.
- Henchman21 1y ago
  I will admit that I do precisely the same with my collection! But I truly felt that those interns should’ve received a list to choose from, not an open text field.
- TylerE 1y ago
  The biggest issue with genres is most databases treating them as one to one rather than one to many.
  - JohnFen 1y ago
    That's a real issue. I think the biggest issue with genre, though, is that even if people agree on a list of possible genre labels, there is often disagreement about what music belongs in which genre. This isn't a new problem at all. Even music labels often disagree. Back when record stores were a thing, it was pretty common for different stores to categorize the same albums differently in terms of genre. I think the only way to avoid it is to stick to very, very broad categories. "Rock", for instance, covers an amazingly broad set of styles.

lloydatkinson 1y ago

It's sad Sony put the effort into writing rootkits for music CD's but did nothing to automate, flag, fix typos for metadata...

Henchman21 1y ago
Agreed. I could say tons here, but it’ll suffice to say that I am wildly happy I no longer work there!
mxuribe 1y ago
I remember the Sony rootkits...Since then and to this day, i avoid buying anything related to Sony as best i can. Funny thing is, folks who know me know that i am not the kind of person who holds a grudge....but something about that rootkit event really brought the ire in me....one of the extremely few times where i held a grudge. So, i avoid Sony and go on with my life. I also stop buying at other companies...but for other companies for some reason i don;'t hold onto the ire...i just stop buying from them, and quietly move on...but Sony....i don't get it, but the dislike is crazy.
- Henchman21 1y ago
  I recall a meeting where my team was asked to do some technical legwork for the implementation. To his credit, my boss stood up, said some words about ethics, and led our team out the door. It wasn’t the entire org… just the music business folks as I recall. I left shortly thereafter.
  - mxuribe 1y ago
    I highly commend you, your boss, and any others who stood up or otherwise rebelled against the despicable Sony leaders who wanted this to be done. I can only imagine that it would not have been easy. My appreciation goes out to you, your boss, and the rest of the team...and i only wish there were more folks like you in the world! For that, thank you sincerely!
    - Henchman21 1y ago
      All that praise goes to my old boss; the rest of us were a bit shocked we’d been asked such a thing! But he was already saying no before I’d even processed the request. He succeeded in delaying that “project” several years — I left in ‘04. IIRC this became public late ‘05-early ‘06?
  - qingcharles 1y ago
    I was doing digital ingestion for Sony in Europe and they sent us all those hobbled "unrippable" CDs and asked us to rip them for streaming. They were kinda embarrassed about it.
    - Henchman21 1y ago
      Man, I bet you guys went through a couple boxes of sharpies getting those ready to rip! :)
      - 47282847 1y ago
        Many Plextor models were known to beat basically any copy protection; otherwise it was mostly luck which drive managed, and some lists with shared findings.
        qingcharles 1y ago
        Yeah, we had stacks of different drives to try and get the worst offenders ripped. The Plextors were our primaries, though.

JohnFen 1y ago

> genres? Made up out of whole cloth. The problem with genre remains entirely unsolved across the board. The solution I use in my collection is to do what everyone else seems to do: make them up out of whole cloth. Because I'm the only one making them up, it means my labeling is at least internally consistent.

Henchman21 1y ago
I will admit that I do precisely the same with my collection! But I truly felt that those interns should’ve received a list to choose from, not an open text field.
TylerE 1y ago
The biggest issue with genres is most databases treating them as one to one rather than one to many.
- JohnFen 1y ago
  That's a real issue. I think the biggest issue with genre, though, is that even if people agree on a list of possible genre labels, there is often disagreement about what music belongs in which genre. This isn't a new problem at all. Even music labels often disagree. Back when record stores were a thing, it was pretty common for different stores to categorize the same albums differently in terms of genre. I think the only way to avoid it is to stick to very, very broad categories. "Rock", for instance, covers an amazingly broad set of styles.