simple as that i think. freedb is one of the major databases used for this kind of thing - the following is taken from the faq at
http://www.freedb.org/en/faq.3.html

"1.1. What is freedb?
freedb is a database to look up CD information using the internet. This is done by a client (a freedb aware application) which calculates a (nearly) unique disc ID for a CD in your CD-Rom and then queries the database. As a result, the client displays the artist, CD-title, tracklist and some additional info."

so when this goes wrong presumably the generated disc id isn't nearly as unique as it should be. i wonder if the database struggles more with various artists discs maybe...? perhaps word staff should be ensuring the correct tagging info for the tracks is submitted to freedb and similar services as part of the pre-publication routine?

ever get added to the freedb database; I expect it's only commercial "Various Artists" titles that get in there.

As you say, the phantom Nick Lowe CD was just a figment of the doomed-to-be-erroneous look-up of a value derived by Windows Media Player. No doubt an equally dodgy key value would have been calculated by i-Whatsit or whatever Macs use.

Word techies might shed some light on this; how exactly does the combination of tracks get sent off for burning? Who does it for you, and with what? Is it Mark Ellen, locked in a darkened room every fourth weekend, heated only by the warmth from countless racks of CD-ROM drives, and armed with a dodgy copy of Nero?

How about an Eagle-style cutaway drawing to explain the magic?

...except when a grumpy Heppo acknowledged a lack of time to "register" with the data base. Occasionally mine will offer a choice, presumably if there are an equivalent number of equivalent legth tracks, in the same order, which must be rare.

...all they have to do is enter the details in the Gracenote database.

Thats the fella that tells me what's on. Or not.
(Did you mean to type 2 "o"s in the last word in your sentence?)

...but then again, Windows Media Player is faintly hateful. every month I have to type the tracklisting myself into WMP (at least once, it has a charming habit of losing information too).

I'd go with another media player, but WMP is the only one that syncs with my music player. Curses.

I've occasionally submitted data to the CDDB after typing in all the names of tracks on Now Hear This CDs. My main problem is that iTunes insists that I pick a genre before I upload. As I've said before on here, I don't use genres as a rule to sort my music, so it tends to end up either being "Other."

I once placed a free CD from one of the Sundays in my iTunes and received the track by track breakdown 'Some/Shitty/CD/You/Got/Free/With/A/Paper". Always wondered who was responsible for that gem.