MusicBrainz Server mirror-only fix update, 2023-10-24

If you are running a mirror, you may have seen replication packet #162718 fail to apply with the following error:

Failed query:
'INSERT INTO musicbrainz.tag (id, name, ref_count) VALUES (?, ?, ?)'
(259975 girl group 0)
23505 DBD::Pg::st execute failed: ERROR: duplicate key value violates unique constraint "tag_idx_name"
DETAIL: Key (name)=(girl group) already exists. [for Statement "INSERT INTO musicbrainz.tag (id, name, ref_count) VALUES (?, ?, ?)" with ParamValues: 1='259975', 2='girl group', 3='0']

This occurs because the index tag_idx_name was temporarily corrupted in production after yesterday’s database switchover, due to an ICU collation version mismatch. This allowed people to enter tags with duplicate names.

Since then we’ve fixed the broken packets, and published the fixed versions.

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

The git tag is v-2023-10-24-hotfix.

Notes

  • If you encountered the error above, you’ll have a “previously aborted load,” and must update your MusicBrainz Server to v-2023-10-24-hotfix. After that, replication should operate smoothly without any further action being needed.
  • If you haven’t replicated up to packet #162718 yet, then no action is needed.

We apologize for the inconvenience. We’re improving our database upgrade process to always rebuild indexes using ICU collations.

Fixed Bug

  • [MBS-13333] – Replication is blocked by tag duplicates

MusicBrainz Server update, 2023-10-02

At the dawn of the Summit 23, here is a comfort release with some improvements, a few bugfixes, and even some small new features.

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, HibiscusKazeneko, Kurumi, Mark Bakker, Q_FDB, and yindesu for having reported bugs and suggested improvements. Thanks to emiguel1960, salo.rock, Vac31, and Yllelder for updating the translations. And thanks to all others who tested the beta version!

The git tag is v-2023-10-02.

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MusicBrainz Server update, 2023-09-18

A tiny release this time. The main change if you are hosting your own server is that we’ve upgraded to Node 18 since Node 16 is EOL. For everyone else, now you can see if someone has been blocked from editing or leaving edit notes before you report them (look for “Restrictions” in their profile); this can also help explain why some user is not answering your notes.

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  HibiscusKazeneko, jesus2099 and kakawup for having reported bugs and suggested improvements. Thanks to claybiockiller, mfmeulenbelt, outsidecontext, salo.rock and Vac31. for updating the translations. And thanks to all others who tested the beta version!

The git tag is v-2023-09-18.

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MusicBrainz website mirror will require Node.js 20 starting from November 13, 2023

This announcement is uniquely intended for administrators having installed any mirror of MusicBrainz website with manually installed dependencies instead of using the Docker Compose project musicbrainz-docker.

MusicBrainz website is rendered using Node.js whose minimum required version was 16 so far. This version is reaching end-of-life next week according to their Release Working Group. Therefore MusicBrainz Server will switch to the active LTS Node.js 18 for a transitioning period of two months. It will still support Node.js 16 for previous installations during this period. After that, Node.js 20 will enter its active LTS phase and be required by MusicBrainz website. It has already been used locally in development for a long time, so we don’t expect any major issue when switching mirrors to it.

MusicBrainz Server update, 2023-08-28

On the menu of the day there are some improvements to the editing interface thanks to derat! It’s accompanied with a mesclun of changes (additions, fixes, improvements and updates) related to external links, especially some other databases and new relationship types for art gallery and ticketing. It’s spiced with a pinch of new icons (for collections, genres, and tags) and condiments.

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

Thanks also to HibiscusKazeneko, Lotheric, Trevor, wonder_al, Xythium, yindesu, and yyoung for having reported bugs and suggested improvements. Thanks to chaban, outsidecontext, RandomMushroom128, and salo.rock for updating the translations. And thanks to all others who tested the beta version!

The git tag is v-2023-08-28.

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MusicBrainz Server update, 2023-08-07

This is another summer release with no new features, but it contains a fair amount of small bug fixes and improvements, many related to URL handling. The last user account related pages are also converted to React with this update.

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 atj, chaban, Cyberskull, darkshyne, derat, Freso, scoobert, Van de Bugger and yindesu for having reported bugs and suggested improvements. Thanks to atj and derat for submitting code patches. And thanks to all others who tested the beta version!

The git tag is v-2023-08-07.

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Happy 23rd Birthday, MusicBrainz!

23 years is a quite a long time and I had never thought that this little project I was starting in 2000, would grow into what it is today — it has been an amazing journey with many ups and downs. Despite many early hardships, I’m extremely happy that I stuck with it and nurtured the project into an important resource for the internet today.

With that in mind, I feel compelled to tell a story of where the name MusicBrainz came from and how July 17, 2000 was the first day that the name has ever been uttered and the domain was registered seconds later.

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MusicBrainz Server update, 2023-07-10

This release makes a few small changes, including an updated set of basic edit icons that hopefully will be the start of a consistent icon set for MusicBrainz. Additionally, and sadly, opening voting for new editors has caused the creation of way too many sock-puppet accounts, so we have been forced to restrict voting for beginner editors again. Hopefully the two week wait is not too long; we’ll look into ways to improve beginners’ experience without helping bad actors in the future.

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 all others who tested the beta version!

The git tag is v-2023-07-10.

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How to build your own music tagger, with MusicBrainz Canonical Metadata

In the blog post where we introduced the new Canonical Metadata dataset, we suggested that a user could now build their own custom music tagging application, without a lot of effort! In this blog post we will walk you through the process of doing just that, using Python.

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New dataset: MusicBrainz Canonical Metadata

The MusicBrainz project is proud to announce the release of our latest dataset: MusicBrainz Canonical Metadata. This geeky sounding dataset packs an  intense punch! It solves a number of problems involving how to match a piece of music metadata to the correct entry in the massive MusicBrainz database.

The MusicBrainz database aims to collect metadata for all releases (albums) that have ever been published. For popular albums, there can be many different releases, which begs the question “which one is the main (canonical) release?”. If you want to identify a piece of metadata, and you only have an artist and recording (track) name, how do you choose the correct database release?

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