Monday, July 3, 2017

Windows Media Player Is So Smart that it's Actually Dumb

  I have a love hate relationship with Windows Media Player. I use it primarily to digitize all of my CD's onto my computer so I can sync them to my phone. However Windows Media player maybe a godsend but it's also a major pain in the ass as well.
  As of recently I have been getting more and more fed up with Windows Media Player when it comes to ripping new CDs to the computer. The problem is I have a new release CD and when I go to rip it, Windows Media Player has no damn clue what the CD is that I am ripping. I mean a few weeks ago I bought the new Shakira album, El Dorado and went to rip it to the computer and guess what happened, Windows Media Player had no idea about the albums existence when I went to rip it. This is ludicrous that Windows Media Player doesn't recognize a Shakira album. I mean how on earth can Windows Media Player not be able to recognize a Shakira album? Shakira is one of the most popular Latin singers on the planet and one of the most recognizable here in the US. Now here's the $64,000 question, Why can't Windows Media Player recognize a brand new album that has been released?
  Now it's not that hard to compile album info and data but it can be a hassle to keep track of all of the newest releases that come out every Friday. Now I understand that some albums are very obscure and that Windows Media Player probably won't be able to recognize at all when you go to rip them to the computer. Let's compare two different independent released albums here, Jim Witter's The Piano Men and Bonnie McKee's Bombastic EP. Which independent album do you think Windows Media Player automatically recognized when I went to rip it to the computer? If your guess was Pop Singer/Songwriter Bonnie McKee, your answer was wrong. The correct answer was Jim Witters tribute album of Billy Joel and Elton John songs.
  On Saturday I went out and bought the newest Styx album, The Mission and I went to rip it to the computer. When I put it in the CD Drive, Windows Media Player didn't recognize it at all. If you go to the find album info/update album info and type in Styx The Mission, you won't find the album on there at all. I'll give Windows the Benefit of the doubt here because Styx isn't as popular as they were back in the 1970s and early 80s. Why can't Windows Media Player recognize newly released albums? Windows Media Player is so smart that it's actually dumb. I don't understand half of the crap that this software does half of the time.
  I once went to rip the iconic O Brother Where Art Thou Soundtrack to the computer and Windows Media Player had listed several variation of this album under the find album info. As a matter of fact there were way too many versions with alternate tracklistings which had everything mixed up to beyond my taste.
  Today I finally got around to getting to a Target to buy the Exclusive edition of Katy Perry's new album Witness which contained 2 extra tracks on it. However as usual, Windows Media Player had no idea what this album was when I went to rip it to the computer. This really pissed me off to no end. Why can't Windows Media Player recognize a Katy Perry Album? Katy Perry is one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. So surely Windows Media Player would recognize one of her damn albums. Instead of Windows Media Player recognizing it when I went to rip it, I had to enter all of the album info manually which was a pain in the ass nonetheless.
  What really pisses me off about WMP is that it fails to recognize the newest albums from today's big time artists. Why can't WMP recognize new release music. I've tried ripping newly released albums to WMP a week or so after the album is released but WMP still fails to recognize the albums and the artists. WMP won't recognize Lady Gaga but they'll recognize Gus Polinski and The Kenosha kickers. I so wish Gus Polinski and The Kenosha kickers were a real band. I'd listen to them all the time.
  I don't know who is really to blame for WMP not being able to automatically recognize newly released albums. Is it the programmers at Microsoft who fail to research new releases? Or is it the fact that so much stuff comes out at once and there's a huge amount of upkeep to keep track of all of it? I don't really have a solution but the find album info is useless.