MusicBrainz Server update, 2023-03-20

We’re hopefully back to a normal schedule after the crazy relationship editor testing period! That means we have the usual small amount of bug fixes and improvements this time, including a couple further fixes for small issues of said relationship editor which were not found during beta testing. We also have a text version of the list of historical MusicBrainz events that could only be seen before as bars on our timeline – which hopefully will help remind us to actually update that with new events on a regular basis.

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 CatQuest, chaban, mr_maxis, satanisch_opium, sound.and.vision and yyoung for having reported bugs and suggested improvements. Thanks to salo.rock and an anonymous Albanian translator for updating the translations. And thanks to all others who tested the beta version!

The git tag is v-2023-03-21-hotfix.

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Style Guideline Updates

If you’ve been lurking on our forums, you will know that our style guidelines have been receiving lots of attention lately! Both MusicBrainz docs and BookBrainz docs have been getting new additions and updates, and there’s still plenty being discussed. As I type these very words, there are greased-up editors in what’s known to us only as “the pit” – pitting their words, experience, and muscular bodies against each other in a bid for dominance over typographical punctuation.

Okay, okay, so there’s not really a pit, but here’s a rundown of some of the style discussions that are taking place, or have taken place, this year:

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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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MusicBrainz Server update, 2023-02-28

After about three years of development and almost six months of beta testing, here is the new implementation in React of all the relationship editors, including the release relationship editor. During the beta period, a hundred more smaller changes have accumulated; mostly bugfixes, but also some URL handling improvements and a fair number of other pages converted to React.

This is a major step forward in development as it makes the project more open to JavaScript contributors and allows for implementing more refinements.

From an editor point of view, the relationship editing dialog slightly changed visually, but overall the page offers the same features, fixes a large amount of bugs, and has some additional improvements:

  • Better handling of very big releases by not loading all tracks at once
  • Added ability to edit batch-created works before they’re submitted
  • “+” icons to quickly add additional relationships of the same type are now also available on the release relationship editor
  • Now remembering which entity type was selected last in the relationship dialog
  • New type-to-search functionality for the relationship type selector
  • Better internationalization as the layout ordering of fields is based on their dependencies rather than on the English grammar of link phrases.
  • Better seeding of data: easier to script, more reliable, and more available fields
  • Recording-work relationships can now be reordered straight from the release relationship editor
  • Reordering relationships can now also be done by entering the order number rather than using up and down arrows
  • A preview of the relationship (and any changes) is now shown in the add/edit relationship popup

During the beta period, another hundred tickets or so relating to the new editors were reported and addressed. There still are a few tickets reported during the beta that have not yet been resolved, but their drawbacks are outweighed by the benefits of this server update. They are still tracked and will be addressed later on.

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 jesus2099, julian45, and Maxr1998 for having contributed some code. Thanks to kellnerd for working with us to make sure his data seeding scripts worked in the new editors and through that helping us improve script and seeding support. Special thanks to chaban for his thorough dedication at identifying/reporting/detailing issues during these months. Thanks to Admiy, CatQuest, cherryblossom000, chiark, Cyberskull, drsaunde, Eincrou, Griomo, HibiscusKazeneko, johnnyjd, mcboing, mfmeulenbelt, Midness, MXS, otringal, outsidecontext, sound.and.vision, timmart.in, UltimateRiff, vzell, withered.silence, yindesu and zos18 for having reported bugs and suggested improvements. Thanks to 3Johnny, Blu777, dongrimaldo42, homersimpsons, perea and salo.rock for updating the translations. And thanks to all the many others who tested the beta version!

Edit: The changes for MBS-10614 accidentally allowed editors without a confirmed email to vote for a while – this has now been hotfixed.

The git tag is v-2023-03-03-hotfixes.

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libdiscid 0.6.3 and bindings for D, Rust, Go and Hare

A new version 0.6.3 of libdiscid has been released. libdiscid is a C library that allows applications to easily calculate MusicBrainz and freedb disc IDs from audio CDs. It also can extract MCN and ISRC information.

The main focus for this release has been to provide updated source and binary packages compatible with current systems. But there is also new platform support for the Haiku operating system.

Version 0.6.3 of libdiscid provides the following changes:

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We’ve been accepted to Google’s Summer of Code program 2023!

I’m very pleased to announce that the MetaBrainz Foundation has been accepted into Google’s Summer of Code program for 2023. This amazing project has been incredibly influential for us and our teams, so we’re pleased to be part of it for another round.

Anyone wishing to participate in the program should carefully read the terms for contributors and if you are eligible, go ahead and take a look at our Summer of Code landing page where you can find our project ideas that we listed for this year. Our landing page will tell you what we require of our participants and how to pick up a project.

Good luck to all who are interested in participating!

MusicBrainz Server hotfix, 2023-01-10

A spam technique has been discovered that consisted in creating an account with a malicious URL in the username and the email of the intended victim, so that the victim would receive a verification email with the malicious URL inside it. It was most often combined with control characters to make the malicious URL even more visible.

Thanks to Devin McGovern from the Cyber Security Operations Department at Hyatt who responsibly disclosed this issue to the team.

To deal with the issue:

  1. Creating new such accounts has been blocked; See MBS-12827.
  2. Existing such accounts, around 40,000, have been removed (since new verification emails could still be requested); See MBBE-68.

It doesn’t affect mirrors so there is no update for MusicBrainz Docker.

The git tag is v-2023-01-10-hotfixes.

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Explore Your Year in Music 2022

ListenBrainz is excited to announce the release of your #YEARINMUSIC reports for 2022! Log in to your ListenBrainz (LB) and click here to see your report. Don’t have a LB account? See what you’re missing.

Revisit and share your top artists, albums, tracks and neighbours from last year. Topped off with oodles of interesting statistics, a browsable cover collage, and brand new playlists of songs that you may have missed that our currently-benign algorithm thinks you will love.

You made it through, and you listened to some great tunes along the way.

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