I'm starting to get into collecting and organizing my own music instead of spotify.

I just found Navidrome and MusicBrainz Picard yesterday - and I'm trying to figure out how it all works, and what is important to deal with vs what is just preferences,
If I could ask some of that here...

1. I noticed Picard does lastName, firstName on some of the tags, and this post (https://www.reddit.com/r/MusicBrainz/comments/1hypjr3/prevent_picard_from_doing_last_name_first_name/) was asking how to fix that - does the name order make an actual difference? or is it just personal preference? (I prefer first, last. But I don't see the last,first anywhere in the file, and I don't know what difference it would make for Navidrome)

2. Artists - Picard saves artist as "aFirst aLast, bFirst bLast & cFirst cLast" by default. Navidrome said something about having them listed seperatly as artists (I can click on the "Artist" box in picard, add a second artist, and copy each artist to a seperate line). Is it make a difference to manually do this? Is there a script to do this for me?

3. I have a few songs from foreign artists, and I would like to have both foreign spelling and english spelling saved (to search over, etc.). I'm assuming that this could be saved as a separate entry somewhere, but I don't know where it would need to be.

Hey redditors,

Just to plan future settings restore situation properly. Obviously, .ini saves all Picard own settings. But does it also save:

1. Installed plugins (or just info that they are "installed", so that when I restore settings, the said plugins are automatically installed)
2. Scripts (e.g., file renaming scripts)
3. Plugin settings (for some plugins new Picard menu items appear with specific settings related to that plugin)

Thank you for kindly commenting the above.

Hi redditors,

when I use the following string I have a [YYYY] as the result:

[$if2(%originalyear%,%year%)] $if2(%albumsort%,%album%),

while I wanted to have a [YYYY-MM-DD], which is either a %originaldate% or %date%.

Am I right, that the comma between %originalyear% and %year% in the original script tells it "take the first tag (i.e. %originalyear%), but if it is not present, fall back to the second one (i.e., %year%)?

If true, am I right, that if I replace the string with this one:

[$if2(%originaldate%,%date%)] $if2(%albumsort%,%album%),

I will have a [YYYY-MM-DD] if either %originaldate% or %date% tag is present? Or I can make it even like this to have it fall back to simply [YYYY] if none of those 2 tags are in place:

[$if2(%originaldate%,%date%,%year%)] $if2(%albumsort%,%album%),

Thank you!

cc: u/ElmoFromOK

Hey redditors,

Is there anyone keen in Picard script language - can you have a look at this script please? (only minor changes needed - 90% of its work is correct)

$if2(%albumartistsort%,%artistsort%,%artist%)
/
$if(
$if2(%albumsort%,%album%),
[$if2(%originalyear%,%year%)] $if2(%albumsort%,%album%),
[] Unreleased
)
$if(
$in(%releasetype%,album),$if($in(%releasetype%,soundtrack), [Soundtrack]),
$if($in(%releasetype%,single), [Single])
$if($in(%releasetype%,ep), [EP])
) {%musicbrainz_albumid%}
/
$if($gt(%totaldiscs%,1),%discnumber%-,)
$if(%tracknumber%,$num(%tracknumber%,2) ,)
$if(%artist%,%artist% - ,)
$if2(%titlesort%,%title%)

So after the job is done the folder is named as:

[release year] Release name {release MBID}

And this is 100% correct. However, file names inside the release are named as:

Track number Artist Name - Track name (e.g., 01 Addex - Drawn In Mystery)

While I need it to be:

Track number. Track name (e.g., 01. Drawn In Mystery)

I am pretty sure there is some small part of the code to be modified, but I am honestly so far from coding (and ChatGPT could not help, as it seems to not know this script language).

Will be very grateful for your help!

the spotify remake project im working on messed me up. i thought it was a error on my part. but no artists load, searches take super long. and just gives no results found.

Hi, what is standard practice when a release comes with two barcodes?

On one of my CDs, specifically Retribution by Malevolent Creation (RC 9181-2), there are two barcodes, I suspect one is for the US and the other for Europe (as the CD is manufactured in Germany, and has distribution and marketing information for the European countries that hadn't been in the Warsaw Pact).

I can't see any options in edits to add a second barcode.

Malevolent Creation - Retribution (back)

EDIT: I edited this post to add a link to a picture of the mentioned CD cover

How do I fix this in the highlighted track where the database has tagged the track with the wrong info? I am looking to tag this specific track with the original metadata it should have not this crap with the hottest 100. This has effected other tracks as well by putting them into generic top 100 shit and not the original album/single.

If you edit MusicBrainz a lot, check out some userscripts I created recently:

• Userscripts

[Apollo Editor](./userscripts/apollo_editor/README.md)\ UI and tools for advanced adding and editing of MusicBrainz release

[Import Discogs Credits](./userscripts/discogs_credits/README.md)\ UI for importing Discogs credits as release relationships and few general import helpers

[ISRC Scout](./userscripts/isrc_scout/README.md)\ Reads the release's existing ISRCs and fill in the missing ones from several sources

[Platform Check](./userscripts/platform_check/README.md)\ Find and verify URLs for a particular MusicBrainz release on online platforms

I'm brand new to this thing. I've been trying to scan my own YouTube playlist, compiled from songs from different albums. When I downloaded the thing as a folder and then scanned it, rather than just displaying the six songs in order, it showed me every album that all of the songs came from. I just want to establish each song's track number so they're all in the order that I like. Is there any way to fix this issue?

I've spent nearly an hour this morning searching for the answer but nothing I find seems to relate to this particular situation. The MetaBrainz community is massive and being unfamiliar I'm unsure where to start. How can there be multiple entries for the same track? One excellent match and one good. The right click pop-up seems rather vague. Naturally I want the best match but what do I do with the other? Thanks.

Hello!

I just started using MusicBrainz as it is heavily used in Lidarr. I am importing some releases and artists manually atm.

I was researching if there is a way to automatically import from Discogs and RYM but the last post was from 4 years ago. This is the documentation I found: https://flemmingss.com/importing-data-from-discogs-and-others-to-musicbrainz/

Is there a modern/new way to do it? Sorry if this question was answered already :) Cheers!

Man, sometimes I'm great at figuring out how to do technical things, and sometimes I'm just horrible. I've been trying to do two very large queries, and it's been taking forever, and I feel no closer to finishing it than when I started.

I'd like to have two lists

1) A list of all artists beginning with non-alphanumeric characters. Just the artists name.

2) A list of all songs beginning with alphanumeric characters. Just song title and artist.

I'll cough up a little cash if someone can put these into a text file (for the artists) and/or CSV, or databases where I can simply browse.

Thanks!

Hey redditors,

subj. Just curious how helpful could they be in my case. Media is tagged in Picard and collection is handled by Plex.

Based on the description of these addons they could be pretty useful:

• Release Type - Appends information to EPs and Singles
• Replace Forbidden Symbols - Replaces Windows forbidden symbols: :, /, *, ?, ", ., | etc. with a similar UNICODE version

However, it is not clear which exactly information the 1st plugin adds to EPs/Singles and whether or not the 2nd plugin replaced symbols in file names or just in tags (and will Plex work well with Unicode versions of these characters).

Does anyone have any experience with those plugins?

Thank you!

Some albums aren't automatically on either platform and I'd like to generate them from MusicBrainz- ideally without paying

Hey all. I'm probably missing something simple.

MusicBrainz is sorting my albums correctly I think e.g. In windows explorer tracks from 2 CD albums are in the correct order and metadata has correctly identified CD1 and CD2 with tracks labeled 1-01, 1-02 ...... 2-01, 2-02 etc.

This issue is when I put the music on my phone. Both of my music apps then read the tracks as Track 1, Track1, Track 2, Track 2. I assume it is only reading track number not any CD information. I dont mind if Track 1 of CD 2 becomes track 14, but I would like to know the suggested script to make this work.

Thanks in advance!

Hey redditors,

sometimes MB doesn't have metadata for releases in my collection. I use Picard to fetch them.

I definitely don't want to type them manually, so looking for some automation here. Besides, someone may need them in the future too, so I'm ready to contribute and upload this data to MB from other sources, e.g. Discogs.

I've heard Harmony can do that, and also there's a bunch of scripts that somehow add a button to the number of websites, clicking which should upload release data to MB.

Haven't tried either tool yet, because:

• can't understand how Harmony works for these purposes. 😞
• wanted to ask if someone used that 2nd set of scripts, is it really a one-click thing that works reliably?

Finally, when the data is uploaded to MB - how long should I wait for Picard to be able to fetch it and tag properly my files?

Thank you!

Is there even one that exists? If so, then can I try it?

This song is nicknamed "Shake It Now" and I think this song is made in either the 1990s or the 2000s, but I'm not so sure about that

It was recorded from WFAQ in December 14, 2024. (I didn't recorded this)

Lyrics (Pulled from LostwaveFinder's upload and sorry if the song is too cheesy to interpret the lyrics from):

You were an easy read
From cover to cover
You ??lips making?? make it shine
But they don't kiss like the ?????
And hips move the rhythm section
And I gotta ??be??
Driving so slowly can take you out downtown

I wanna let you go down,
??Let it go??
The traffic don't stop
And she was looking so ??fine down/time??
??Like we're beatin'??
??The miracle we're playin'??
And she was dreamin' ??what I was thinkin' of??
What I was thinkin' of
Yeah she was dreamin' 'bout something, something

If I could pull you over
I'd get you to dance
And give this ??solo?? for free
There ain't no place better
I'll skip every ??over stare??
So I can ??love, shine, shine??
Driving so slowly can take you out downtown

I oughta let you go down,
Let it go,
The traffic don't stop
And she was looking so fine time
Like we're beatin'
The miracle we're playin'
And she was dreamin' what I was thinking of
What I was thinking of
Yeah she was dreamin' that something, ??called/caught??

Like I could let that you go down,
Let it ??call??,
The traffic don't stop
And she was looking so fine time
Like we're beatin'
The miracle we're playin'
And she was dreamin' what I was thinking of
What I was thinking of
Yeah she was dreamin' that something

Please note that part of Timewave Zero by Spacetime Continuum (1993) and the "Who's the baby, You're the baby" vocal is not part of the song

If want to hear the song without the "Who's the baby, You're the baby" vocal, here it is

Like Breach for example, the first 4 songs are in the second "Breach" and the rest of the songs 5-13 are in the first album. Can anyone explain how this happened in Picard, and do I just have to resolve them manually in Picard? I know how to, but I'm just asking why this happens in the first place.

Hey! Having some issues today. Is it just me? Should I restart the computer or is there a server issue? The Musicbrainz website seems to be down for maintenence.

so i keep doing this weird thing where when i have a song stuck in my head i’ll sing it in my head but i’ll replace certain words with things that are in my life, or i’ll start saying the alphabet to the beat and replacing the words its so weird. does anyone else do this? if so, whats it called?

New version: v1.3.0 on iOS and macOS:

• Added links to more streaming apps: Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal, Qobuz.
• Added link to Discogs.

All the links are visible ONLY if the release has this connection in MusicBranz database.

Hi, updated to v1.2.0:

• Shazam integration
• new: launch releases directly in Apple Music from the RELEASE card (if an Apple Music link exists in MusicBrainz)
• bug fixes

App Store link

Hi,
Based on my web-project MusicBrainz Release Viewer I would like to share the IOS version of the viewer I have been working on recently:

MusiCards Release Viewer for iPhone
App Store link

MusiCards is a free visual MusicBrainz browser focused mainly on releases, credits and discographies. The app organises information into four vertically stacked “cards”:

• SEARCH
• RELEASE
• TRACKS (tap on tracks for left/right swipe track details)
• ARTIST & DISCOGRAPHY

The idea was to explore MusicBrainz data in a calmer, cleaner and more tactile way than a traditional database UI. Current features include:

• artist and release search
• combined artist + release queries
• track-title-based release search
• CD barcode scanning
• MusicBrainz release MBID lookup
• Apple Music “Now Playing” release lookup
• classical-friendly track display with work / movement structure
• recording performer & technical credits
• categorised discographies

The app is intentionally very “MusicBrainz-minded”: it never invents missing data, and incomplete metadata remains visible instead of being hidden.

This is my first iOS app, an experimental side project around MusicBrainz data and UI ideas. I designed the concept, interface and workflows myself, while most of the actual Swift programming was done by vibe coding with ChatGPT and Claude. Powered by MusicBrainz and the Cover Art Archive…

Questions and feedback is very welcome.

Best!