Category: MusicBrainz

Posts related to the MusicBrainz encyclopedia in general: community, data, client, server, etc.

Schema change release: May 15, 2023

MusicBrainz is announcing a new schema change release for May 15, 2023. The actual schema (database) changes we’ve detailed below shouldn’t have much perceivable impact on mirror servers, especially if you only use the web service; most are to remove unused tables/columns or tweak how certain tables are materialized.

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Picard 2.9 alpha 1 available for testing

Today we have released an alpha version for the upcoming Picard 2.9. The main change coming with this release is limiting Picard to a single instance by default and the ability to run commands inside this running Picard instance from the command line. This work was done by skelly37 as part of last year’s Google Summer of Code.

Keep in mind that we consider this an alpha release and it might contain bugs. As the single-instance mode by default is a significant change on how Picard is being run we want to gather some feedback on the new functionality before we do a final 2.9 release.

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Unexpected Picard Setups

This article is showcasing some of the more unusual ways MusicBrainz Picard can be run. Some are useful, some are more technically interesting solutions.

The description in MusicBrainz Picard’s README file says:

MusicBrainz Picard is a cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows) audio tagging application.

So yes, Linux, macOS and Windows are our officially supported platforms and the main targets for running Picard. If you are using Picard you likely do this on a laptop or desktop computer running one of these three operating systems. We already offer plenty of options to install and run Picard, including our official downloads for Windows and macOS, Picard in the Microsoft Store for Windows 10 and 11 and the popular Linux packages Flatpak and Snap.

But as Picard is free software you can get it running essentially anywhere were Python and PyQt5 are available. Let’s start this year with showcasing some of the more unusual ways Picard can be run. Some are useful, some are more technically interesting solutions.

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Picard 2.8.5 released

Picard 2.8.5 is a maintenance release for Picard 2.8, fixing two regressions found in the previous release.

The latest release is available for download on the Picard download page.

Thanks a lot to everyone who gave feedback and reported issues.

What’s new?

Bugfixes

  • [PICARD-2590] – Relative paths for cover art file names no longer work
  • [PICARD-2593] – Toolbar icon text disappears when saving options
  • [PICARD-2596] – “Show icons in menus” option is applied without saving options

Get in touch

Please use the MetaBrainz community forums and the ticket system to give feedback, suggest new features or report bugs.

Picard 2.8.4 released

Picard 2.8.4 is a maintenance release for Picard 2.8. This release contains multiple bug fixes, please see the list of changes below.

The latest release is available for download on the Picard download page.

Thanks a lot to everyone who gave feedback and reported issues.

What’s new?

Bugfixes

  • PICARD-2520 – Null bytes in tag values can cause crashes when sorting
  • PICARD-2539 – Picard crashes on huge releases if no cover art provider is active
  • PICARD-2548 – Loaded album does not update cover art display
  • PICARD-2549 – Moving tracks between albums shows tracks differ even when they do not
  • PICARD-2554 – Submit AcoustIDs submits even IDs that are in center pane
  • PICARD-2556 – Player popovers for volume and playback speed crash on Wayland and open on wrong position
  • PICARD-2557 – Add New Tag autocomplete list contains value typed so far
  • PICARD-2558 – Floatable toolbars unusable under Wayland
  • PICARD-2564 – Options for “Windows compatibility” and “Replace non-ASCII” get incorrectly set to inactive
  • PICARD-2565 – Rules for file name compatibility and max. path shortening are not applied when saving cover art
  • PICARD-2568 – $cleanmulti() has no effect for hidden variables
  • PICARD-2570 – Unable to drag tracks from right hand pane to Clusters
  • PICARD-2582 – distutils.errors.DistutilsClassError when building with setup.py
  • PICARD-2588 – QObject::startTimer: Timers can only be used with threads started with QThread

Improvements

  • PICARD-2589 – Support media types “DualDisc (DVD side)” and “Betacam SP”

Get in touch

Please use the MetaBrainz community forums and the ticket system to give feedback, suggest new features or report bugs.

Ensembling: Endelig Belg MiniVersion

Yes! It’s been quite some time since you last heard from me, hasn’t it! But despite the lack of blog posts, I haven’t been faffing around the *entire* corona time! Instead we have been updating quite a lot of instruments with IROM images and also doing a few tickets here and there, as well as updating A LOT of aliases.

But thankfully now we’ve stepped up a gear again and can release a proper (albeit small) release! I present to you Endelig Belg!

MiniVersion Endelig Belg!

Closed as not applicable / Reopen if more information can be discerned

Finally we also looked into some other instruments, including checking the aliases and disambiguations for harmonium/reed organ as well as adding and sorting out various other related instruments and their aliases and IROM images. These don’t all have tickets, but see the list of things that have been closed in the meantime for some of it.

Do not despair Fellow Instrument Afficionadoes! The broad strokes of another MiniVersion have already been done as well!

Watch this space!

Mobile Apps: Let’s welcome the ListenBrainz App!

Greetings, Everyone!

During the recent summit, we discussed the future of our mobile apps. We believe that the MusicBrainz app serves a particular user base which is highly interested in scrolling through their collections, using the barcode scanner, searching for entities and viewing this data with a native mobile experience. The tagger in the android app is not accurate and doesn’t carry forward the expectations brought in from using Picard on the Desktop. Hence, we have decided to retire the tagger from the MusicBrainz app.

Recently, we have added the BrainzPlayer to the app, Spotify support and functionalities to review and submit listens to ListenBrainz. While the features are really good, they don’t align with the MusicBrainz app and confuse the two separate user bases, that of MusicBrainz and ListenBrainz.

Given that we have limited contributors working on our mobile apps, we have decided to separate the two mobile apps with their respective features. MusicBrainz App will be stripped of these excessive features, while also removing the tagger and continue to be available on the Play store as a minimalistic app.

Our major focus will move to the ListenBrainz app which will continue to have regular updates and features made while existing on the Play store as a separate app.

We are excited and happy with this announcement. Hope you agree with our decision. Thank you!

MusicBrainz Android App: Adding BrainzPlayer in Android App

Greetings, Everyone!

I am Ashutosh Aswal (IRC nick yellowhatpro), pursuing my bachelor’s from Punjab Engineering College Chandigarh, India. As a Google Summer of Code’22 contributor, I worked for MetaBrainz, on the MusicBrainz Android app and added a music playback feature to the app, which we call BrainzPlayer.

During the GSoC period, I was mentored by Akshat Tiwari (akshaaatt). Through this post, I will be summarizing my journey throughout the summer with MetaBrainz.

Let’s begin!! ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

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