There are also databases of that information. IIRC Roxio CD Creator
will access one of them to find that info for a track where it is
missing from the original CD.

IF you google java audio cd metadata you will get a ton of utilities
that can read the metadata, though I found none in Java.  I suspect
this means your best route is to write the metadata grabber in C++
using some Windows library and a JNI hook.

   I can only give you high-level hints which might help you come up with
better Google queries to find sample code.

   I can think of two places where this data is stored off the top of my
head. Some CDs have a "CD TEXT" meta data encoded on them which will include
the artist name, the album name, and track list. Some CD TEXT also contains
an album cover picture. The CD TEXT does not contain track length, AFAIK, as
that info can be determined from the TOC.

   If the CD doesn't have CD TEXT metadata encoded on them, then you'll
have to rely on a centralized database. Different DBs have different APIs,
so you'll probably want to choose one, go to their site, and read the
documentation they have. One such site is http://www.freedb.org/

   The idea is to uniquely identify the CD, send the id to the DB, and the
DB will return all the data it has (including artist name, album name, track
names and track lengths). Unfortunately, the id does NOT uniquely identify a
CD, so occasionally a DB will send back multiple results. It's a design
choice you have to make as to what to do in that scenario (pick the first
one? let the user pick one? etc.)

   - Oliver

Just for a laugh (obviously windows only)

(in case the lines wrap in the try block, line numbers added at the end)

class CD_Info
{
 public CD_Info()
 {
   java.io.PrintWriter writeOut = null;
   try
   {
     java.io.File file = new java.io.File("CD_Info.vbs");//1
     writeOut = new java.io.PrintWriter(new java.io.BufferedWriter(new
java.io.FileWriter(file)));//2
     //writeOut.println("mp3file = \"C:\\Test.mp3\"");//3 - testing c drive
     writeOut.println("mp3file = \"D:\\0101-OrderOfThePhoenix.mp3\"");//4
     writeOut.println("Set winMedia = CreateObject(\"WMPlayer.OCX\")");//5
     writeOut.println("Set cdInfo = winMedia.newMedia(mp3file)");//6
     writeOut.println("msgbox \"Artist = \" & cdInfo.getIteminfo(\"Artist\") & vbnewline & _");//7
     writeOut.println("\"Title = \" & cdInfo.getIteminfo(\"Title\")");//8
     writeOut.println("Set winMedia = Nothing");//9
     writeOut.println("Set cdInfo = Nothing");//10
     writeOut.close();//11
     Runtime.getRuntime().exec("WScript.exe CD_Info.vbs");//12
     Thread.sleep(5000);//13
     file.deleteOnExit();//14
   }
   catch(Exception e){e.printStackTrace();}
 }
 public static void main(String[] args){new CD_Info();}
}

I do not think that info is on the CD itself.
Stick an audio CD into your PC and just
see. You get TRACK 1, TRACK2, . . .
I rip some of the CDs I buy using CDex (freeware)
to make MP3 files. I have to use CDDB in that app
to get the info you seem to want. Not all CDs are in
that database. Those, I have to enter by hand.
Good luck.

Tom the Canuck.