Hello!
It is with a heavy heart that I share this sad news today; we’ve just found out that one of our most prolific editors, David Saunders (AKA drsaunde) has passed away.
We don’t know much about the circumstances of what happened, but a friend of David’s was kind enough to reach out to us to let us know of his passing. The friend said:
“Our dear friend, David Saunders aka drsaunde sadly passed away March 26, 2025 surrounded by friends listening to his favourite music. Dave was a brilliant man with a great sense of humour and obviously an avid fan of music. I knew he wrote for a music site but never learned which one. Quick search for a common username he used landed me on your site.”
To put into context who drsaunde really was, lets look at his impressive statistics:
He made a total of 2,191,225 edits, with only 37 rejected edits, for an astonishing acceptance rate of 99.998%. He was a member of MusicBrainz since 2006-05-06 for a total of 18 years, 10 months and 20 days, which amounts to 317 edits for each day he was a member of MusicBrainz. 🤯🤯🤯
On top of that he was our Areas editor, the person in charge of maintaining our database of cities and regions in the world. Needless to say, drsaunde has left a giant hole in our community and our hearts.
In keeping with his spirit, his friends will hold a celebration of life for drsaunde on May 3rd. We’ve sent some funds to help ensure that celebration really honors his spirit.
Finally, if you would like to take a moment to remember drsaunde, you could head over to ListenBrainz radio and make a playlist from his most listened tracks.
Rest in peace, drsaunde, you will be missed.
Sorry for your loss ruaok, Musicbrainz loss…
What a legacy to leave to music and to the MB community. You will be greatly missed drsaunde. May I also go surrounded by friends and music!! Rest in peace and good tunes
So sad. I will miss Doctor. 😢
Rest in music, and thank you for making such a significant contribution in building this monument.
What really sad news 😥 Rest in peace David!
This is genuinely sad. hope his family is well, and that drsaunde rests in piece with all the greatest musicians he loves
I’ve known him for many years, editing in MusicBrainz, RIP DrSaunde.
Yesterday I thought of David, because I didn’t see any more edits from him. And now I see the sad reason.
He was the first one who asked me if I wanted to be an auto-editor, after he had “annoyed” me for weeks by correcting my edits and having discussions that he always won 🙂
David, I will miss you and I hope you can finally sleep peacefully now.