Media Player web address for album info changed in recent Windows 10 upgrade

After the latest Microsoft update, I found that my original solution was no longer working. So, after some hunting around, I can confirm that this is now the new, proper solution for correcting WMP in Windows 10 (and thanks to Chris-itsmee)...

...BUT...

...there are a couple of additional few steps involved, i.e. we need to remove the XBox app, because this is the app that keeps replacing "fai.music.metaservices.microsoft.com" with its own sub-standard offering.

This, then, is the new solution I'm putting out for you guys, because it works for me:

STEP 1: update the registry

1. Start regedit.exe
2. Navigate to "Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\TunerConfig"
3. Look for setting PREFERREDMETADATAPROVIDER -- it should have a value "pmpMusicMatch"
4. Edit the setting PREFERREDMETADATAPROVIDER, and clear the value so you have a blank value OR enter "fai.music.metaservices.microsoft.com"
5. Save / exit regedit.exe

STEP 2: remove the XBox app from Windows. (This is detailed in https://www.askvg.com/guide-how-to-remove-all-built-in-apps-in-windows-10/)

1. Open the Windows 10 Search Bar, and type in PowerShell.
2. Right-click the PowerShell app and click “Run as administrator”.
3. Type the following command and press the Enter key: Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.XboxApp | Remove-AppxPackage
4. Wait until the process is finished. It should only take a few seconds to run.
5. Type exit and press the Enter key to exit PowerShell.
6. Exit Windows

When you restart Windows, and then restart Windows Media Player, you should be restored back to fai.music.metaservices.microsoft.com.

Once again, this is a royal pain in the proverbial, and you should feel rightly aggrieved in having to do this.

what about people who haven't got windows 10 I have windows 8.1 how do I fix with that

I am running Win 10, after one of the regular updates  some time ago I had this issue  and the setting of the PREFERREDMETADATAPROVIDER value to blank did at that time eliminate the problem resulting in the Media player using  fai.music.metaservices.microsoft.com

I found today that it had somehow reverted back to the musicmatch-ssl.xboxlive.com

I thus reset PREFERREDMETADATAPROVIDER  to fai.music.metaservices.microsoft.com    and followed step 2  as above to remove the xbox app.

Having restarted my PC I am sad to report Media Player is STILL looking to musicmatch-ssl.xboxlive.com

I have checked in PowerShell, I cannot see an entry for Microsoft.XboxApp thus it does appear to have been removed.

I look forward to see if anyone can Sort this every change seems to screw up the association of tracks on some of my albums.

In this original fix that I used (and still works, just tested again) it was stated to leave the "PREFERREDMETADATAPROVIDER" field empty...do not populate it with **"**fai.music.metaservices.microsoft.com"

"Found a solution that worked for me:

Start regedit.exe

Navigate to "Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\TunerConfig"

Look for setting PREFERREDMETADATAPROVIDER -- it should have a value "pmpMusicMatch"

Edit the setting PREFERREDMETADATAPROVIDER, and clear the value so you have a blank value

Save / exit regedit.exe

Restart Windows Media Player, you should be restored back to fai.music.metaservices.microsoft.com

What an unnecessary pain in the proverbial."

I posted this screenshot of my registry entry:

https://learn-attachment.microsoft.com/api/attachments/1292f756-e3c1-4f3a-816b-1320f1cd4a5d?platform=QnA

Ciao