MusicBrainz – MetaBrainz 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.

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!

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.

MusicBrainz Server update, 2026-02-12

We have a small release coming mid-week for once since we wanted to deploy some behind-the-scenes updates to remove potential vulnerabilities. Other than that, this release includes a few small URL and interface improvements, and converts a few more pages to use React.

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 SuperSaltyGamer for having contributed to the code. Thanks to chaban, Griomo, iamdrowning, Raman Sinclair, salo.rock and SuperSaltyGamer for having reported bugs and suggested improvements. Thanks to BestSteve, EmO686, Lise Andersen, djtusa, karpuzikov, m67186636, mfmeulenbelt, wileyfoxyx and yyb987 for updating the translations. And thanks to all others who tested the beta version!

The git tag is v-2026-02-12.0.

MusicBrainz Server update, 2026-01-19

Another year starts, and another MusicBrainz update that brings with it small improvements and fixes a bunch of bugs! In addition to a good amount of URL handling improvements, we have found the tables of contents for our documentation which had decided to play hide and seek over the holidays.

Additionally, we have blocked submitting tags that include commas via the API. Tags with commas were never supposed to be supported (commas are generally our tag separator character), and their existence broke in-site tag handling, but the API would until now accept them without complaints. From now on they will be rejected and you will be asked to try again without the commas.

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 helpimnotdrowning, kellnerd, Shreeshanth Shetty and SuperSaltyGamer for having contributed to the code. Thanks to chaban, helpimnotdrowning, HibiscusKazeneko, ivoireshi, jesus2099, kellnerd, SuperSaltyGamer, wileyfoxyx and yomo12 for having reported bugs and suggested improvements. Thanks to -alex., Besnik, KenParker_CN, NorwayFun, Philipp Wolfer, dumbbird, gaahmua, imgradeone, liilliil, salo.rock, wileyfoxyx and yyb987 for updating the translations. And thanks to all others who tested the beta version!

The git tag is v-2026-01-19.0.

MusicBrainz Server update, 2025-12-16

We are back with one last small release before the holidays, which mostly improves URL handling, fixing some broken cleanups and allowing linking to a few new databases. We are also including one small new feature, allowing to browse events by series in the API (to get, for example, all the concerts in a tour in one go). And finally, recording and release group edits entered while editing a release will now also indicate the release they were entered from, mirroring the feature that we recently added for the relationship editor.

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 Jim DeLaHunt and owlpharoah for having contributed to the code. Thanks to Anesidora, Aszazin, dvirtz, fabi123, finalsummer, Griomo, Raman Sinclair, Relaxo5, sanojjonas, yindesu and xodus for having reported bugs and suggested improvements. Thanks to Avava_Ava, Besnik, Echelon, GABG, LeoVallejo, Pioneers, kKZvtcqX, karpuzikov, mfmeulenbelt, miausalvaje, salo.rock, wileyfoxyx and yyb987 for updating the translations. And thanks to all others who tested the beta version!

The git tag is v-2025-12-16.0.

MusicBrainz Server update, 2025-11-03

For this release we have a bunch of URL improvements, a couple of bug fixes (including one which was causing broken cover art reorder edits), and some progress in the React conversion. Additionally, address verification emails will be sent with the new email service now, and look substantially nicer!

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 dvirtz, Jade Ellis, jesus2099 and owlpharoah for having contributed to the code. Thanks to dvirtz, Freso, Jade Ellis, jesus2099, nope, practik, Time Dilation and zabey for having reported bugs and suggested improvements. Thanks to Besnik, craftersmine, Dino RTX, Echelon, hamaryns, KenParker_CN, salo.rock, Vaclovas Intas, vacuousVersifier, wileyfoxyx and yyb987 for updating the translations. And thanks to all others who tested the beta version!

The git tag is v-2025-11-03.0.

MusicBrainz Server update, 2025-10-13

Do you remember us? Late Summer and then our September summit has meant again a long break between releases – hopefully we’ll get back to a more consistent update schedule soon (releasing at least once a month if not biweekly).

Other than fixing a bunch of bugs, this release includes one significant new feature and a few noticeable improvements.

It’s now possible to use an API browse query to get all sub-events of a specific event. This means you can get all the events that are part of a specific festival: for example, all events from Wacken 2024 (and the same query including artist and event relationships).

When entering edits from the release relationship editor, the edit will include information about the release it was entered from (no more wondering about which release’s cover art that “See cover art” edit note refers to!).

After not running any captchas for a couple years since we turned off Google’s reCAPTCHA in 2023, we are now running MTCaptcha, a GDPR-compliant captcha. Hopefully this will limit the amount of spammers a bit.

Additionally, you can now select the language you want to receive emails in from your user preferences. This only affects emails that are using our new email service; for now, that is just messages sent to you by other editors.

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 dvirtz and Piper McCorkle for having contributed to the code. Thanks to angriestchair, chaban, dvirtz, Jade, KenParker_CN, Muxxer, Piper McCorkle, RandomMushroom128, Relaxo5, rinsuki, sanojjonas and yindesu for having reported bugs and suggested improvements. Thanks to aboettger, Beteix, djdhsjhshsh, Echelon, erykmichalak, KenParker_CN, Languages add-on, Libra, Ljcbaby, Manuela Silva, matecik, Metafono, mfmeulenbelt, MoeCaa, nitzanakrai, Philipp Wolfer, Poesty Li, Puyol, robertgarrigos, salo.rock, TefWw, tuba56, Vaclovas Intas, vacuousVersifier, vimutti, wileyfoxyx, yyb987 and לוכסן for updating the translations. And thanks to all others who tested the beta version!

The git tag is v-2025-10-13.0.