MetaBrainz Blog – MetaBrainz Foundation Community Blog

MusicBrainz database schema change release, 2026-05-11 (with upgrade instructions)

We’re happy to announce the release of our May 2026 database schema change now! Thanks to all who were patient during Monday’s downtime as we released everything to our production servers.

This is a fairly small database schema change release which mostly improves things behind the scenes. Of the schema change tickets, the only one that affects users directly is you are most likely to notice while you browse and edit in MusicBrainz is MBS-14092 (which allows adding series of series, for example for award series for podcasts).

Thanks to chaban, UltimateRiff and yyb987 for having reported bugs and suggested improvements, and thanks to jmrr83, salo.rock and wileyfoxyx for updating the translations.

A new release of MusicBrainz Docker is also available that matches this update of MusicBrainz Server. See the release notes for update instructions.

Downtime for PostgreSQL / MusicBrainz schema change upgrade: Monday, May 11, 15:00 UTC

On Monday, May 11, at 15:00 UTC (8am PT, 11am ET, 5:00pm CEST), we’ll be:

Upgrading our production database server to PostgreSQL v18.
Performing the MusicBrainz schema version 31 upgrade.

See the previous announcement for more information.

We’ll be working to restore services as quickly as possible, but expect MusicBrainz, ListenBrainz, the Cover Art Archive, and BookBrainz to be down for the hour. Thanks in advance for your patience!

Afterward, we’ll post instructions on the blog about how to upgrade your MusicBrainz mirror server.

MusicBrainz Server update, 2026-04-27

This release mostly consists of a very substantial rewrite of the external links editor code, to make that section of our editors more efficient. While doing that we also fixed a few long-standing links editor bugs. While we kept this code in beta for quite a while so the community could help us catch most new bugs, do not hesitate to report any issues you might find.

A new release of MusicBrainz Docker is also available that matches this update of MusicBrainz Server. See the release notes for update instructions.

Thanks to rinsuki for having contributed to the code. Thanks to fabe56, HibiscusKazeneko and Lioncat6 for having reported bugs and suggested improvements. Thanks to Besnik, DenilsonSama, Khaled Salama, Marc Riera, ShimiDoki, Vaclovas Intas, cerberuzzz, coldified_, dddrnzv, dulijuong_artist, imgradeone, karpuzikov, mfmeulenbelt, salo.rock, smreo1590, syntariavoxmortem, wileyfoxyx and yyb987 for updating the translations. And thanks to all others who tested the beta version!

The git tag is v-2026-04-27.0.

Picard 3 beta 1 released

Today, we’re making available another pre-release version for the upcoming MusicBrainz Picard 3. Beta 1 focuses on fixing issues that were found in the previous releases as well as some minor improvements and updated translations.

Download links and a list of changes since Picard 3 alpha 4 are available below. For a more detailed overview of what is new in Picard 3 please see the previous blog post Picard 3 Alpha Release.

While we have all the major features implemented and with the latest bug fixes we are confident in the current code, this is still a pre-release and there might be bugs. If you use this, do so with care, backup your files and please report any issues you encounter.

Some of the changes are also backward incompatible, hence we recommend you make a backup of your Picard.ini config file before trying the beta version. You can do so in Picard’s Options under Advanced > Maintenance.

The MetaBrainz Foundation is seeking a new Executive Director (ED)

This is a copy of the job description at:
https://join.com/companies/metabrainzorg/15986127-executive-director
Please use the above link to apply.

The MetaBrainz Foundation is seeking a new Executive Director (ED) to lead it during a time of great change for how music, data, and code are made, shared and used.

The MetaBrainz Foundation is a non-profit that provides free, open access to data. It is the steward of open source databases and software, including MusicBrainz (a community-maintained open source music metadata encyclopedia that supplies infrastructure to many of the world’s most-used music products and services), and Picard (an open source software application for identifying, tagging, and organizing digital audio recordings). MetaBrainz is supported by its community, sponsors, and by the commercial organizations who rely on what it does.

In collaboration with the Foundation’s Board of Directors, the ED is ultimately responsible for delivering the MetaBrainz mission, guaranteeing the organization’s top priority: the good health of its community. The ED is also in charge of maintaining excellent relationships with industrial partners. Ultimately, you will ensure that MetaBrainz operates with integrity, efficiency and transparency, that it remains in financial good health, and that its small in-house team of developers is supported and managed with sensitivity and professionalism.

Our new ED will be based in Europe. The role involves some travel, as well as virtual meetings in Europe, Asia and the Americas. They will be someone of integrity and good judgement, ideally someone with stature in either the open source or music communities. They will understand the ethical and regulatory requirements of NPOs. They’ll understand the history & mechanics of recorded music and be open to the possibilities and threats from a very rapidly changing technical, commercial and artistic world beyond music.

Tasks

The ED’s primary responsibility is to ensure MetaBrainz fulfils its mission with integrity, transparency, and respect for its community. They will:

Work to keep the MetaBrainz community healthy: welcoming, fair, and constructive.
Represent MetaBrainz, to its community, the public, and the industries it supports, ensuring the Foundation’s strategy and operational activities are communicated appropriately.
Work with the Board to build the Foundation’s strategy and the operational plan to realize it, including budget setting and management, ensuring the organization remains financially stable.
Oversee agreements with commercial partners and suppliers.
Make sure MetaBrainz meets its nonprofit and data-related legal obligations across jurisdictions.
Preempt emerging regulatory and industry changes that could affect the MetaBrainz mission.
Maintain strong, trust-based relationships with current commercial users and sponsors.
Grow relationships with current and prospective partners, encouraging them to support the ecosystem they rely on.
Support and manage the in-house team.

Requirements

Ideally the incoming ED will have:

An excellent understanding of the international music industry.
Experience maintaining healthy, vibrant online communities.
Open source project governance experience.
Knowledge of international copyright frameworks and the commercial framework for music.
Fluency in English (Spanish and other languages a plus).
Experience managing physical and digital events such as community meet-ups, summits, and development intensives.
Knowledge of local and international regulatory frameworks for non-profit organizations.
Experience managing complex software development projects.

MerchBrainz

We have added a range of great new MetaBrainz designs to our merch store: https://www.redbubble.com/people/metabrainz/shop

These designs by Monkey, previously only available to MetaBrainz summit attendees, have been lightly modified (summit-specific text removed) for everyday wear. Are many people going to know what you’re repping? No. Are the ones that do going to go “DAAAAAAAAAAAAMN IT’S THE BRAINZ YO”? Most definitely!

python-discid 1.4.0

A new version of python-discid, a Python wrapper library for libdiscid, is now available. Version 1.4.0 focuses on modernizing the code base and updating the documentation.

The public API is now fully type-hinted and the type hints are also used in the documentation. A Disc.pregap property was added for convenient access to the first track’s pregap. For the full list of changes see the changelog in the documentation.

The new version is available on PyPI. See also the install instructions for more options. Please note that the new minimal Python version supported is now Python 3.10.

Picard 3 alpha 4 released

Today, we’re making available another pre-release version for the upcoming MusicBrainz Picard 3. Alpha 4 focuses on fixing issues that were found in the previous releases as well as some minor improvements and updated translations.

Download links and a list of changes since Picard 3 alpha 3 are available below. For a more detailed overview of what is new in Picard 3 please see the previous blog post Picard 3 Alpha Release.

Some of the changes are also backward incompatible, hence we recommend you make a backup of your Picard.ini config file before trying the alpha version. You can do so in Picard’s Options under Advanced > Maintenance.

Schema change release: May 11, 2026

MusicBrainz is announcing a new schema change release set for May 11, 2026. Schema-wise, this release will be very light. At the same time, we’ll be requiring some major dependency upgrades to Perl, PostgreSQL, and Node.js. We’ll also be switching from Redis to Valkey in production. See below for more information.

The only breaking schema change is MBS-14252. It drops columns which are unused even in MusicBrainz Server, so should have little impact.

Here is the complete list of scheduled tickets:

Database schema

The following tickets change the database schema in some way.

MBS-6551: Database does not prevent a release from having duplicate label/catno pairs. This ticket involves replacing an index on the release_label table for additional data sanity. We’ll introduce a unique index on (release, label, catalog_number) (with NULL values treated as equal). This should have no impact on downstream users.
MBS-14092: Add support for series of series. This will allow connecting series that are related to each other in some way; for example, a series of series that have been honored with the same award, like the Golden Globe Award for Best Podcast. This involves adding a new series_series view, and replacing the allowed_series_entity_type constraint on the series_type table. It doesn’t modify or remove any other parts of the schema.
MBS-14252: Drop “source” column from iswc and isrc tables. As the title says, this drops the unused isrc.source and iswc.source columns from the database. Unless you’ve specifically referenced these columns in a query, this change should have no impact on you.

Server dependencies

MBS-14243: Upgrade the required version of Perl to 5.42. This is required as Perl 5.38 will no longer receive critical security fixes past July 2026.
MBS-14246: Upgrade the required version of PostgreSQL to 18. We last upgraded to PostgreSQL v16 two years ago, and would like to take advantage of the many performance advancements in PostgreSQL since then.

Note that the PGDG maintains an official APT repository for Debian and Ubuntu. PostgreSQL 18.3 is also available on Amazon RDS.

An upgrade script will be available for MusicBrainz Docker users with instructions provided at release time.
MBS-14244: Upgrade the required version of Node.js to 24. This is a straightforward upgrade to the latest LTS release, as Node.js v20 will soon be end-of-life.
MBS-14245: Switch from Redis to Valkey. Valkey is compatible with Redis OSS 7.2, and should be a drop-in replacement. There’s no reason to expect that Redis would stop working either. (The commands that MusicBrainz Server uses are very basic, and work even in Redis v3.)

Search server

SEARCH-756: Trigger reindex from dbmirror2 replication data. This drops the dependency on RabbitMQ and pg_amqp for live updating the Solr search indexes, and triggers the reindex process directly from PostgreSQL instead, by relying on the change data we already generate there for replication packets. If you run a local search indexer, this will simplify the setup/dependencies needed. Database-wise, it will require replacing triggers and creating a new “sir” schema.

We’ll post upgrade instructions for standalone/mirror servers on the day of the release. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or on the relevant above-linked tickets.

He’s the man who made music metadata “free”

Thank you to Giampiero Di Carlo, the editor of Rockol, who gave us permission to repost this article. Originally posted in Italian at: https://musicbiz.rockol.it/news-757360/robert-kaye-1970-2026-scomparso-il-fondatore-di-musicbrainz

The following English translation is courtesy of Google Translate with some manual edits.

On February 21, 2026, Robert Kaye, founder and Executive Director of the
MetaBrainz Foundation, the non-profit organization that supports projects like MusicBrainz and ListenBrainz, passed away. The news was announced a few days later by the MetaBrainz Board, described as an unexpected passing. Reposting this remembrance on Rockol MusicBiz late was intentional: we were friends and he deserves the visibility that the particular nature of the past week would have obscured.

What we lose

For those who work with music—from archives to platforms, from collectors to DJ software—Kaye is one of those figures who rarely make the front cover, yet change everything: he built the “silent” infrastructure that allows music to be found, sorted, recognized, and correctly linked over time, without this data remaining imprisoned in proprietary databases. Robert Kaye was a visionary of the free/open source community and the driving force behind the “Brainz” ecosystem. His loss is felt not only by those who compile metadata, but by anyone who uses tools based on that information.

The reaction of the MetaBrainz community, in the official thread, speaks volumes about the human impact beyond the technical one: for many, he wasn’t “just” a founder, but a daily presence within a project that thrives on volunteers, discussions and patience.

Kaye was an engineer by training (Computer Engineering at Cal Poly) and had worked in companies and projects related to MP3 and music software during the dot-com era. At MetaBrainz, they tell it this way: his work on MP3 and his move to eMusic/FreeAmp was the spark that led him to build MusicBrainz and “fall in love” with open source.

In 2004, he founded the MetaBrainz Foundation in California as a 501(c)(3), with a clear model: free non-commercial use and seeking financial support from commercial entities that benefit from the data and services.

MusicBrainz and Beyond

MusicBrainz is often described as an open music encyclopedia: a community database of artists, releases, and relationships that is the backbone for tagging, cataloging, and software integrations. The MetaBrainz ecosystem has since expanded (into ListenBrainz and other projects) but maintained the core idea: making metadata reusable, interoperable, and verifiable by a community. In practice, Robert Kaye’s work is visible everywhere without his name appearing: when software correctly recognizes an artist despite homonyms, when an archive links releases and reissues, when a DJ tags a library consistently, when an app displays credits and discographies with fewer errors.

MetaBrainz has already clarified that the project continues under the guidance of the Board and the existing structure and that updates on the transition will be shared. This is a very delicate transition: when a founder of an infrastructure passes away, the challenge is not just “keeping the servers running,” but maintaining the trust of communities and commercial partners who depend on the collective effort.

A “visible” founder: style, character, community

Many tributes in recent days have emphasized a detail that is often crucial in open source projects: the founder’s personality as the glue. In a personal recollection, Denny Vrandečić describes him as a “principled”, “determined”, loud and generous figure, capable of both energy and care—a rare combination in someone who must balance vision, inevitable conflicts within a community and sustainability. This isn’t folklore: in community projects “governance” also involves tone, presence and the ability to make things happen without shutting down those who contribute. And we’re not talking about a niche project here, but a piece of the music internet that many industries take for granted.

To honor Robert Kaye today, it’s crucial to emphasize that his legacy isn’t a product but an operationalized idea: that music data can remain a common good, defensible and improvable, rather than becoming merely a closed commodity. And it’s an idea that, in 2026, retains a certain weight.