WMPCDText is a free Windows Media Player plug-in for reading CD-Text information from audio CDs.

CD-Text is an extension of the audio CD-standard that allows you to store additional information on an audio CD, such as album name, album artist and track info. Many audio players like Winamp and RealPlayer can read CD-Text but Windows Media Player never supported it. Until now, because WMPCDText will read CD-Text directly from within Windows Media Player.

There is an option to automatically read CD-Text from unknown audio CDs. Alternatively, you can also right-click on a CD-track in the Now Playing-pane while the CD is playing, and click "Read CD-Text" (see screenshot below).

WMPCDText especially comes in handy when using Windows Media Player for playing home-made audio CDs. Before WMPCDText, you would have to insert all the track information of such a CD manually into Windows Media Player. Now, just make sure that the CD-Text information is burned onto the CD, play the burned CD with Windows Media Player, and WMPCDText will automatically read the track information from the CD itself and insert it into the Media Library.

The plug-in is written for Windows Media Player 10 and higher. For reading CD-Text on Windows XP and 2003, administrator rights are required. However, you can use Nero BurnRights to make it work without administrator rights too.