"Sometime before Christmas, the metadata servers stopped working and on Windows 10 or 11, the result is the same: album not found. We tried this out at Vulture Central on some sacrificial Windows devices that had media drives and can confirm that a variety of compact discs were met with stony indifference."
"A message on a Reddit forum purporting to be a chat with a Microsoft support representative suggested that the servers have indeed been shut down, and that a third-party alternative should be sourced. Alternatively, customers can manually enter the information, like it's the 1990s all over again. The timing is unfortunate. Tired of content vanishing from streaming services or disappearing into algorithmic feeds, consumers are returning to physical media like CDs."
The Windows Media Player metadata servers stopped responding sometime before Christmas, causing album information and artwork lookups on Windows 10 and 11 to return "album not found." Tests on Windows devices with optical drives showed many CDs, including old personal rips and recent reissues, no longer resolved. Microsoft PR offered no clarification about the service status. A Reddit conversation purportedly with Microsoft support indicated the servers were shut down and recommended third-party alternatives. The default metadata endpoint musicmatch-ssl.xboxlive.com appears not to serve metadata anymore. Consumers are increasingly returning to physical media like CDs.
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