CD-Text is an extension of the Red Book Compact Disc specifications standard for audio CDs. It allows for storage of additional information (e.g. album name, song name, and artist name) on a standards-compliant audio CD.
The specification for CD-Text was included in the Multi-Media Commands Set 3 R01 (MMC-3) standard, released in September 1996 and backed by Sony. It was also added to new revisions of the Red Book. The actual text is stored in a format compatible with Interactive Text Transmission System (ITTS), defined in the IEC 61866 standard. The ITTS standard is also applied in the MiniDisc format, as well as in Digital Audio Broadcasting technology.
The CD-Text information is stored in the subchannels R to W on the disc. This information is usually stored in the subchannels in the lead-in area of the disc, where there is roughly five kilobytes of space available. It can also be stored on the main program area of the disc (where the audio tracks are), which can store about 31 megabytes. Since the R to W channels are not used in the Red Book specification of audio CDs, they are not read by all CD players, which prevents some devices from reading CD-Text information.
MMC-3 specifies 16 types. Of these, three are reserved and therefore they don't have keywords.
The character encoding is not specified, and there is no provision for indicating in the CD-Text data which encoding is in use. The original Sony authoring tools and specifications supported ASCII and two of its supersets, ISO-8859-1 and "MS-JIS". Annex J of the MMC-2 specification mentions only ASCII, but provides for "double byte character codes" to be indicated.
AIMP can read CD-Text since version 2.50
Audiograbber has support for reading CD-Text to fill in artist/title information (if present) when ripping CD's
Brasero has support for CD-Text from version 0.5.90
burnatonce can edit and burn CD-Text.
cdrdao, Linux command line tool that supports writing CD-Text.
CDex can read CD-Text.
CDRWIN can burn CD-Text
Exact Audio Copy has support for reading CD-Text to fill in artist/title information (if present) when ripping CD's.
foobar2000 Since version 1.0 has support for reading CD-Text to fill in artist/title information (if present) when playing and ripping CD's.
fre:ac has support for reading CD-Text to fill in artist/title information (if present) when ripping CD's.
icedax, Linux command line tool that supports reading CD-Text.
ImgBurn can burn CD-Text. This information can be added/modified during the creation of a .CUE file.
IsoBuster copies CD-Text (if available) when a CD is ripped in raw format and saves it to a .cdt file.
iTunes 7 or higher supports burning (but not reading) CD Text. It is by default an unchecked option in the burning preferences.
K3b has support for reading and writing CD-Text on Linux.
MediaMonkey has full CD-Text Support.
Media Player Classic reads from CD-Text and will automatically display track title and author.
MusicBee audio player/organizer can read CD-Text when playing or ripping CDs.
Nero Burning ROM can burn CD-Text since version 5.5.10; its track saving utility can read CD-Text when ripping.
RealPlayer 10 supports reading and writing of CD-Text
Sound Juicer can read from CD-Text
Toast on Mac OS X has support for CD-Text.
VLC media player can read CD-Text on all platforms
Winamp has had support for reading CD-Text since version 5.31, but does not write CD-Text.
Windows Media Player 10 and higher with the WMPCDText plug-in supports reading CD-Text.
X-CD-Roast for Linux has had reading/writing support since version 0.98alpha10.
The underlying command-line utilities cdrecord/cdda2wav have support in (at least) version 2.01, but it must be enabled. See the documentation.
JVC's Arsenal KD-AR400 automotive CD AM-FM receiver (briefly) displays CD-Text data
Pioneer CD Receivers support CD-Text
Acura TL 2009-2014 ELS DVD-A Systems supports CD-Text for importing audio CDs into the internal hard drive.
Professional Pioneer DJ CD players (CDJ-200/350/400/800/1000/2000, CMX-3000) support CD-Text, up to 48 characters are displayed on the latest CDJ-400 and CDJ-1000 MK3
Holden VE Commodore (2006>)
Sony Super Audio player SCD-CE595 supports it.
BMW/MINI automotive CD players will display CD-Text data.
Pioneer CDJ Line of Professional CD Players
Denon DN Line of Professional DJ CD Players
