It’s getting too much.
- It thinks everything is a ‘song’. This used to be amusing. Now it’s just really annoying.
- It thinks J.S. Bach himself just released his new album of Bach cantatas. In other words, it doesn’t understand that different musicians might make the same piece sound a little different. Karajan or Gardiner in charge? It’s all just Bach.*
- If it doesn’t fill in the ‘Artist’ column with the composer’s name, it makes the opposite mistake. It assumes that the performer is also the origin of the work. It thinks that ‘Cuncti simus concanentes’ is a song by Jordi Savall** instead of being part of an anonymous compilation dating from the fourteenth century which has inspired diverse musicians since to create their own unique versions.
- It thinks that a piece can’t be recorded by more than one person. Enter the erroneous YouTube copyright claim.***
*You’d think that even a bot would notice a few subtle differences in the length of different recordings of, say, the Matthew Passion.
**Update: Google just changed its mind and told me that it’s a song by the Choirs of the Diocese of Leeds.
***YouTube just told me that somebody else made about half a minute of my recording of the Biber Passagalia, although it didn’t pick up any problems with a movement of Bach. I’m not sure which scenario is more flattering, but it’s definitely an excuse to add all the ornaments I can.