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MusicBrainz

MusicBrainz is an open music encyclopedia that collects music metadata and makes it available to the public.

MusicBrainz aims to be:

  • The ultimate source of music information by allowing anyone to contribute and releasing the data under open licenses.
  • The universal lingua franca for music by providing a reliable and unambiguous form of music identification, enabling both people and machines to have meaningful conversations about music.

Like Wikipedia, MusicBrainz is maintained by a global community of users and we want everyone — including you — to participate and contribute.

Contributing⚑

Creating an account is free and easy. To be able to add new releases easier, I've seen that there are some UserScript importers, they suggest to use the ViolentMonkey addon and install the desired plugins.

With the Discogs one, if you don't see the Import into MB button is because you can't import a Master release, you have to click on a specific release. If that doesn't work for you, check these issues (1 and 2). It works without authentication.

All the data is fetched for you except for the album cover, which you have to manually add.

Make sure that you fill up the Release Status otherwise it won't show up in Lidarr.

Then be patient, sometimes you need to wait hours before the changes are propagated to Lidarr.

Filling up releases⚑

Some notes on the release fields

Primary types⚑

  • Album: Perhaps better defined as a "Long Play" (LP) release, generally consists of previously unreleased material (unless this type is combined with secondary types which change that, such as "Compilation").

  • Single: A single typically has one main song and possibly a handful of additional tracks or remixes of the main track; the single is usually named after its main song; the single is primarily released to get radio play and to promote release sales.

  • EP: An EP is a so-called "Extended Play" release and often contains the letters EP in the title. Generally an EP will be shorter than a full length release (an LP or "Long Play"), usually less than four tracks, and the tracks are usually exclusive to the EP, in other words the tracks don't come from a previously issued release. EP is fairly difficult to define; usually it should only be assumed that a release is an EP if the artist defines it as such.

  • Broadcast: An episodic release that was originally broadcast via radio, television, or the Internet, including podcasts.

  • Other: Any release that does not fit or can't decisively be placed in any of the categories above.

Secondary types⚑

  • Compilation: A compilation, for the purposes of the MusicBrainz database, covers the following types of releases:

    • A collection of recordings from various old sources (not necessarily released) combined together. For example a "best of", retrospective or rarities type release.
    • A various artists song collection, usually based on a general theme ("Songs for Lovers"), a particular time period ("Hits of 1998"), or some other kind of grouping ("Songs From the Movies", the "Café del Mar" series, etc).

    The MusicBrainz project does not generally consider the following to be compilations:

    • A reissue of an album, even if it includes bonus tracks.
    • A tribute release containing covers of music by another artist.
    • A classical release containing new recordings of works by a classical artist.
    • A split release containing new music by several artists

    Compilation should be used in addition to, not instead of, other types: for example, a various artists soundtrack using pre-released music should be marked as both a soundtrack and a compilation. As a general rule, always select every secondary type that applies.

  • Soundtrack: A soundtrack is the musical score to a movie, TV series, stage show, video game, or other medium. Video game CDs with audio tracks should be classified as soundtracks because the musical properties of the CDs are more interesting to MusicBrainz than their data properties.

  • Spokenword: Non-music spoken word releases.

  • Interview: An interview release contains an interview, generally with an artist.

  • Audiobook: An audiobook is a book read by a narrator without music.

  • Audio drama: An audio drama is an audio-only performance of a play (often, but not always, meant for radio). Unlike audiobooks, it usually has multiple performers rather than a main narrator.

  • Live: A release that was recorded live.

  • Remix: A release that primarily contains remixed material.

  • DJ-mix: A DJ-mix is a sequence of several recordings played one after the other, each one modified so that they blend together into a continuous flow of music. A DJ mix release requires that the recordings be modified in some manner, and the DJ who does this modification is usually (although not always) credited in a fairly prominent way.

  • Mixtape/Street: Promotional in nature (but not necessarily free), mixtapes and street albums are often released by artists to promote new artists, or upcoming studio albums by prominent artists. They are also sometimes used to keep fans' attention between studio releases and are most common in rap & hip hop genres. They are often not sanctioned by the artist's label, may lack proper sample or song clearances and vary widely in production and recording quality. While mixtapes are generally DJ-mixed, they are distinct from commercial DJ mixes (which are usually deemed compilations) and are defined by having a significant proportion of new material, including original production or original vocals over top of other artists' instrumentals. They are distinct from demos in that they are designed for release directly to the public and fans; not to labels.

Release status⚑

Status describes how "official" a release is. Possible values are:

  • Official: Any release officially sanctioned by the artist and/or their record company. Most releases will fit into this category.
  • Promotional: A give-away release or a release intended to promote an upcoming official release (e.g. pre-release versions, releases included with a magazine, versions supplied to radio DJs for air-play).
  • Bootleg: An unofficial/underground release that was not sanctioned by the artist and/or the record company. This includes unofficial live recordings and pirated releases.
  • Pseudo-release: An alternate version of a release where the titles have been changed. These don't correspond to any real release and should be linked to the original release using the transl(iter)ation relationship.

References⚑