Editing MusicBrainz

{{Short description|Online music metadata database}}
{{Infobox website
| name = MusicBrainz
| logo = [[Image:MusicBrainz Logo with text (2016).svg|228px|MusicBrainz logo since February 2016]]
| screenshot = [[Image:MusicBrainz homepage.png|300px|MusicBrainz homepage.]]
| caption = MusicBrainz homepage
| url = {{Official URL}}
| commercial = No
| type = Online music encyclopedia<ref>{{cite web|title=About|url=https://musicbrainz.org/doc/About|website=MusicBrainz|publisher=MetaBrainz|access-date=4 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150508173335/http://musicbrainz.org/doc/About|archive-date=2015-05-08|url-status=live}}</ref>
| registration = Optional (required for editing data)
| language = English
| num_users = Over 2 million registered accounts
| content_license = Part [[Creative Commons Zero]] ([[open data]]) and part [[CC BY-NC-SA]] (not open); commercial licensing available
| programming_language = [[Perl]] with [[PostgreSQL]] database
| owner = MetaBrainz Foundation
| author = Robert Kaye
| launch_date = {{start date and age|2000|7|17}}<ref>{{cite web|title=WHOIS Lookup|url=http://whois.icann.org/en/lookup?name=musicbrainz.org|publisher=[[ICANN]]|access-date=23 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402135738/http://whois.icann.org/en/lookup?name=musicbrainz.org|archive-date=2015-04-02|url-status=live}}</ref>
| current_status = Online
}}

'''MusicBrainz''' is a MetaBrainz project that aims to create a collaborative music database that is similar to the [[freedb]] project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the restrictions placed on the [[CDDB|Compact Disc Database]] (CDDB), a database for software applications to look up audio [[Compact disc|CD]] information on the Internet. MusicBrainz has expanded its goals to reach beyond a CD [[Metadata (computing)|metadata]] (information about the performers, artists, songwriters, etc.) storehouse to become a structured online database for music.<ref>Highfield, Ashley. "[https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/speeches/stories/highfield_iea.shtml Keynote speech given at IEA Future Of Broadcasting Conference] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080422180033/http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/speeches/stories/highfield_iea.shtml|date=2008-04-22}}", [[BBC]] Press Office, 2007-06-27. Retrieved on 2008-02-11.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Swartz|first1=A.|author-link=Aaron Swartz|doi=10.1109/5254.988466|title=MusicBrainz: A semantic Web service|journal=IEEE Intelligent Systems|volume=17|pages=76–77|year=2002|url=http://www.csee.umbc.edu/courses/771/papers/ieeeIntelligentSystems/webservices/musicBrainz.pdf|access-date=2015-08-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403083930/http://www.csee.umbc.edu/courses/771/papers/ieeeIntelligentSystems/webservices/musicBrainz.pdf|archive-date=2015-04-03|url-status=live|citeseerx=10.1.1.380.9338}}</ref>

MusicBrainz captures information about artists, their recorded works, and the relationships between them. Recorded works entries capture the album title, track titles, and the length of each track at a minimum. These entries are maintained by volunteer editors who follow community written style guidelines. Recorded works can also store information about release date and country, the CD ID, [[cover art]], [[acoustic fingerprint]], free-form annotation text and other metadata. {{As of|2025|5}}, MusicBrainz contains information on over 2.6 million artists, 4.7 million releases, and 35.2 million recordings.<ref name="statistics">{{cite web |title=Database Statistics |url=https://musicbrainz.org/statistics |access-date=2023-10-10 |publisher=MusicBrainz}}</ref> End-users can use software that communicates with MusicBrainz to add [[ID3 tag|metadata tag]]s to their digital media files, such as [[Apple Lossless|ALAC]], [[FLAC]], [[MP3]], [[Ogg Vorbis]] or [[Advanced Audio Coding|AAC]].

==Image archives==

=== Cover Art Archive ===
[[File:Cover Art Archive Logo with text (2020).svg|thumb|left|Logo of Cover Art Archive]]
MusicBrainz allows contributors to upload cover art images of releases to the database; these images are hosted by Cover Art Archive (CAA), a joint project between [[Internet Archive]] and MusicBrainz started in 2012. Internet Archive provides the bandwidth, storage and legal protection for hosting the images, while MusicBrainz stores metadata and provides public access through the Web and via an [[Application programming interface|API]] for third parties to use. As with other contributions, the MusicBrainz community is in charge of maintaining and reviewing the data.<ref>{{cite news|author=Fabian Scherschel|title=MusicBrainz and Internet Archive create cover art database|date=10 October 2012|publisher=The H|url=http://h-online.com/-1727322|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207234912/http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/MusicBrainz-and-Internet-Archive-create-cover-art-database-1727322.html|archive-date=7 December 2013}}</ref> Until May 16, 2022,<ref>{{Cite web |title=MetaBrainz Blog |url=https://blog.metabrainz.org/ |access-date=2022-08-04 |website=MetaBrainz Blog |language=en}}</ref> cover art was also provided for items on sale at [[Amazon.com]] and some other online resources, but CAA is now preferred, because it gives the community more control and flexibility for managing the images. {{As of|2025|5}}, over 6 million images are stored in the archive.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Database Statistics – Cover Art |url=https://musicbrainz.org/statistics/coverart |access-date=2023-10-10 |publisher=MusicBrainz}}</ref>

=== Event Art Archive ===
In June 2024, MusicBrainz launched the Event Art Archive, another joint venture with the Internet Archive.<ref>{{Cite web |last=aerozol |date=2024-06-30 |title=Announcing the Event Art Archive |url=https://blog.metabrainz.org/2024/06/30/announcing-the-event-art-archive/ |access-date=2024-11-19 |website=MetaBrainz Blog |language=en}}</ref> The project is labeled as "the internet's greatest repository for event art", and {{As of|2025|5|lc=y}}, contains over 8,000 images.<ref name=":0" />


==Fingerprinting==
[[File:MusicBrainz Picard 2.7 screenshot.png|thumb|Screenshot of MusicBrainz Picard]]
In addition to collecting metadata about music, MusicBrainz also allows users to match recordings by their [[acoustic fingerprint]]. A separate application, such as MusicBrainz Picard, is used to do this.

===Proprietary services===
In 2000, MusicBrainz started using ''Relatable's'' patented TRM (a [[recursive acronym]] for TRM Recognizes Music) for acoustic fingerprint matching. The popularity of this feature drew in a large user base into the platform, enabling the database to expand rapidly. By 2005, TRM was experiencing difficulties in handling the sheer volume of data, as the number of tracks stored in the database had surpassed one million. This issue was resolved in May 2006 when MusicBrainz partnered with MusicIP (now [[AmpliFIND]]), replacing TRM with MusicDNS.<ref name="musicdns_announcement">{{cite press release|title=New fingerprinting technology available now!|date=2006-03-12|publisher=MusicBrainz community blog|url=http://blog.musicbrainz.org/archives/2006/03/new_fingerprint.html|access-date=2006-08-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080807161630/http://blog.musicbrainz.org/archives/2006/03/new_fingerprint.html|archive-date=2008-08-07|url-status=live}}</ref> TRMs were phased out and replaced by MusicDNS in November 2008.

In October 2009 MusicIP was acquired by [[AmpliFIND]].<ref>[http://www.amplifindmusicservices.com/news/press/amplified-music-aims-to-liberate-your-music.php AmpliFIND Music Services: News<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921055804/http://www.amplifindmusicservices.com/news/press/amplified-music-aims-to-liberate-your-music.php|date=2013-09-21}}</ref>

===AcoustID and Chromaprint===
Since the future of the free identification service was uncertain, a replacement for it was sought. The Chromaprint acoustic fingerprinting algorithm, the basis for [[AcoustID]] identification service, was started in February 2010 by a long-time MusicBrainz contributor Lukáš Lalinský.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://oxygene.sk/2010/07/introducing-chromaprint|title=Introducing Chromaprint – Lukáš Lalinský|publisher=Oxygene.sk|date=2010-07-24|access-date=2018-04-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010193315/https://oxygene.sk/2010/07/introducing-chromaprint|archive-date=2018-10-10|url-status=live}}</ref> While AcoustID and Chromaprint are not officially MusicBrainz projects, they are closely tied with each other and both are open source. Chromaprint works by analyzing the first two minutes of a track, detecting the strength for each of 12 [[pitch class]]es, storing these eight times per second. Additional post-processing is then applied to compress the fingerprint while retaining patterns.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://oxygene.sk/2011/01/how-does-chromaprint-work|title=How does Chromaprint work? – Lukáš Lalinský|journal=IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security|volume=4|issue=4|pages=995–1004|doi=10.1109/TIFS.2009.2034452|date=2011-01-18|access-date=2018-04-10|last1=Jang|first1=Dalwon|last2=Yoo|first2=Chang D|last3=Lee|first3=Sunil|last4=Kim|first4=Sungwoong|last5=Kalker|first5=Ton|s2cid=1502596}}</ref> The AcoustID search server then searches from the database of fingerprints by similarity and returns the AcoustID identifier along with MusicBrainz recording identifiers, if known.

==Licensing==
Since 2003,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://musicbrainz.org/news/licenses.html|title=MusicBrainz Licenses|access-date=2015-10-23|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030413174459/https://musicbrainz.org/news/licenses.html|archive-date=April 13, 2003 }}</ref> MusicBrainz's core data (artists, recordings, releases, and so on) are in the [[public domain]], and additional content, including moderation data (essentially every [[Threshold of originality|original content]] contributed by users and its elaborations), is placed under the Creative Commons [[CC BY-NC-SA]]-2.0 license.<ref>[https://wiki.musicbrainz.org/MusicBrainz_License?oldid=33484 MusicBrainz License] as of 13-11-2010.</ref> The [[relational database management system]] is [[PostgreSQL]]. The server software is covered by the [[GNU General Public License]].
The MusicBrainz client [[Library (computing)|software library]], ''libmusicbrainz'', is licensed under the [[GNU Lesser General Public License]], which allows use of the code by proprietary software products.

In December 2004, the MusicBrainz project was turned over to the MetaBrainz Foundation – a [[non-profit]] group based in [[San Luis Obispo, California]] – by its creator Robert Kaye.<ref name="metabrainz_announcement">{{cite press release|first=Robert|last=Kaye|title=The MetaBrainz Foundation launches!|date=2006-03-12|publisher=MusicBrainz community blog|url=http://blog.musicbrainz.org/?p=102|access-date=2006-08-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519073229/http://blog.musicbrainz.org/?p=102|archive-date=2011-05-19|url-status=live }}</ref> On 20 January 2006, the first commercial venture to use MusicBrainz data was the [[Barcelona]], Spain-based ''Linkara'' in their "Linkara Música" service.<ref>{{cite news|first=Robert|last=Kaye|url=http://blog.musicbrainz.org/archives/2006/01/introducing_lin_1.html|title=Introducing: Linkara Musica|publisher=MusicBrainz|date=2006-01-20|access-date=2006-08-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907114640/http://blog.musicbrainz.org/archives/2006/01/introducing_lin_1.html|archive-date=2008-09-07|url-status=live }}</ref>

On 28 June 2007, [[BBC]] announced that it had licensed MusicBrainz's live data feed to augment their music web pages. The [[BBC Music|BBC online music editors]] would also join the MusicBrainz community to contribute their knowledge to the database.<ref>{{cite news|first=Robert|last=Kaye|url=http://blog.musicbrainz.org/archives/2007/06/the_bbc_partner.html|title=The BBC partners with MusicBrainz for Music Metadata|publisher=MusicBrainz|date=2007-06-28|access-date=2007-07-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070630132119/http://blog.musicbrainz.org/archives/2007/06/the_bbc_partner.html|archive-date=2007-06-30|url-status=live }}</ref>

On 28 July 2008, the beta of the new BBC Music site was launched, which publishes a page for each MusicBrainz artist.<ref>{{cite news|first=Matthew|last=Shorter|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/07/bbc_music_artist_pages_beta.html|title=BBC Music Artist Pages Beta|publisher=BBC|date=2008-07-28|access-date=2009-02-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090124015619/http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/07/bbc_music_artist_pages_beta.html|archive-date=2009-01-24|url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/brainz  MusicBrainz and the BBC] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180220070709/http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/brainz/|date=2018-02-20 }} as of 2013-03-16</ref>

== MusicBrainz Picard ==
MusicBrainz Picard is a [[free and open-source]] [[software application]] for identifying, [[Tag editor|tagging]], and organising [[digital audio]] recordings.<ref name="pcworld">{{Cite web |author=Staff writer |author-link=Staff writer |date=28 July 2011 |title=MusicBrainz Picard at a Glance |url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/232471/musicbrainz_picard.html |access-date=2015-09-14 |website=[[PC World]] |publisher=IDG Consumer & SMB}}</ref>

Picard identifies [[audio files]] and [[compact disc]]s by comparing either their [[metadata]] or their [[acoustic fingerprint]]s with records in the database.<ref name="pcworld" /> Audio file metadata (or "tags") are a means of storing information about a recording in the file. When Picard identifies an [[audio file]], it can add new information to it, such as the recording artist, the album title, the [[record label]], and the date of release.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lightner |first=Rob |date=11 June 2012 |title=Tag your music files correctly with MusicBrainz Picard |url=http://www.cnet.com/how-to/tag-your-music-files-correctly-with-musicbrainz-picard/#! |access-date=2015-09-14 |website=[[CNET]] |publisher=CBS Interactive}}</ref>

==<span class="anchor" id="ListenBrainz"></span>ListenBrainz==
<!-- "ListenBrainz" redirects here. -->
[[File:ListenBrainz Logo (2020).svg|thumb|170x170px|Logo of ListenBrainz]]
'''ListenBrainz''' is a [[free and open source]] project that aims to [[Crowdsourcing|crowdsource]] listening data related to digital music and release it under an [[open license]].<ref>{{cite web |title=ListenBrainz Goals |url=https://listenbrainz.org/goals |website=ListenBrainz |access-date=13 February 2021}}</ref> It is a MetaBrainz Foundation project tied to MusicBrainz. It aims to re-implement Last.fm features that were lost following that platform's acquisition by CBS.<ref>{{cite web |last1=O'Brien |first1=Danny |title=Organizing in the Public Interest: MusicBrainz |url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/06/organizing-public-interest-musicbrainz |website=Electronic Frontier Foundation |access-date=9 December 2023 |date=3 June 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vigliensoni |first1=Gabriel |last2=Fujinaga |first2=Ichiro |title=The Music Listening Histories Dataset |journal=Proceedings of the 18th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference |date=23 October 2017 |pages=96–102 |doi=10.5281/zenodo.1417499 |url=https://zenodo.org/records/1417499 |access-date=17 February 2024 |publisher=ISMIR |location=Suzhou, China}}</ref>

ListenBrainz takes submissions from various media players and services such as [[Music Player Daemon]], [[Spotify]], and [[Rhythmbox]] in the form of listens. ListenBrainz can also import [[Last.fm]] and [[Libre.fm]] scrobbles in order to build listening history. As listens are released under an open license, ListenBrainz is useful for music research in industry and development research.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=Param |last2=Kamlesh |first2=Dutta |last3=Kaye |first3=Robert |last4=Garg |first4=Suyash |title=Proceedings of ICETIT 2019 |chapter=Music Listening History Dataset Curation and Distributed Music Recommendation Engines Using Collaborative Filtering |series=Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-30577-2_55 |year=2020 |volume=605 |pages=623–632 |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-30577-2_55 |isbn=978-3-030-30576-5 |s2cid=204103568 |access-date=13 February 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Yadav |first1=Naina |last2=Singh |first2=Anil |title=Forum for Information Retrieval Evaluation |chapter=Bi-directional Encoder Representation of Transformer model for Sequential Music Recommender System |date=December 2020 |pages=49–53 |doi=10.1145/3441501.3441503 |isbn=9781450389785 |s2cid=231628582 |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3441501.3441503 |access-date=13 February 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Schedl |first1=Markus |last2=Knees |first2=Peter |last3=McFee |first3=Brian |last4=Bogdanov |first4=Dmitry |chapter=Music Recommendation Systems: Techniques, Use Cases, and Challenges |title=Recommender Systems Handbook |date=22 November 2021 |pages=927–971 |doi=10.1007/978-1-0716-2197-4_24 |isbn=978-1-0716-2196-7 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-0716-2197-4_24 |access-date=9 December 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pocaro |first1=Lorenzo |last2=Gómez |first2=Emilia |last3=Castillo |first3=Carlos |title=Assessing the Impact of Music Recommendation Diversity on Listeners: A Longitudinal Study |journal=ACM Transactions on Recommender Systems |date=12 July 2023 |volume=2 |pages=1–47 |doi=10.1145/3608487 |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3608487 |access-date=17 February 2024|arxiv=2212.00592 |s2cid=254125611 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[List of online music databases]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* ''[http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/files/student_projects/jhemerly_mims_finalproject.pdf Making Metadata: The Case of MusicBrainz]''. Jess Hemerly. Master's project at UC Berkeley. 2011.
*{{cite web|url=https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/06/organizing-public-interest-musicbrainz|title=Organizing in the Public Interest: MusicBrainz|last=O'Brien|first=Danny|website=[[Electronic Frontier Foundation]]|date=3 June 2021|access-date=8 December 2023}}
*{{cite conference|url=http://www.icicte.org/ICICTE_2017_Proceedings/9.3_Mesnage%202017.pdf|title=Using the MusicBrainz database in the classroom|last=Mesnage|first=Cédric|pages=338–344|conference=International Conference on Information, Communication Technologies in Education|conference-url=http://www.icicte.org/ICICTE17Proceedings.htm|date=July 2017|access-date=10 December 2023}}<!-- full proceeding papers at http://www.icicte.org/ICICTE2017Proceedings.pdf -->

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Official website|https://musicbrainz.org|MusicBrainz}} – official site
* {{Official website|https://coverartarchive.org|Cover Art Archive}} – official site
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/brainz MusicBrainz] info at the [[BBC Online|BBC Music]] site

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musicbrainz}}
[[Category:MusicBrainz| ]]
[[Category:Acoustic fingerprinting]]
[[Category:Free-content websites]]
[[Category:Library 2.0]]
[[Category:Library cataloging and classification]]
[[Category:Metadata registry]]
[[Category:Multilingual websites]]
[[Category:Online music and lyrics databases]]
[[Category:Tag editors that use Qt]]
[[Category:American online encyclopedias]]