# How does ListenBrainz match songs to the MusicBrainz database?
**URL:** https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-does-listenbrainz-match-songs-to-the-musicbrainz-database/813722
**Category:** ListenBrainz
**Created:** [November 12, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-does-listenbrainz-match-songs-to-the-musicbrainz-database/813722 "2025-11-12T19:17:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@FriesischScott](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/FriesischScott)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-does-listenbrainz-match-songs-to-the-musicbrainz-database/813722/1 "2025-11-12T19:17:20Z")
I’m scrobbling listens from my navidrome server to _ListenBrainz_ and they keep getting mismatched. One example is this:
```json
{
"playing_now": true,
"track_metadata": {
"additional_info": {
"artist_mbids": [],
"artist_names": [
"西木康智"
],
"duration_ms": 206150,
"submission_client": "navidrome",
"submission_client_version": "0.58.5 (131c0c56)",
"tracknumber": 51
},
"artist_name": "西木康智",
"release_name": "OCTOPATH TRAVELER Original Soundtrack",
"track_name": "ボスバトル2",
"mbid_mapping": {
"recording_mbid": "f0438d99-9ecd-4ef3-ae1b-253fc5d81869",
"release_mbid": "ea640f54-a168-414e-8875-7bfcbf2518cb",
"artist_mbids": [
"181c4177-f33a-441d-b15d-910acaf18b07"
],
"caa_id": 23758992519,
"caa_release_mbid": "ea640f54-a168-414e-8875-7bfcbf2518cb",
"artists": [
{
"artist_credit_name": "西木康智",
"join_phrase": "",
"artist_mbid": "181c4177-f33a-441d-b15d-910acaf18b07"
}
]
}
}
}
```
The payload submitted by navidrome contains the `release_name` and `tracknumber`. And I expected it to be perfectly matched to [9edf73af-727b-4041-81cc-595ba17a40c8](https://musicbrainz.org/release/9edf73af-727b-4041-81cc-595ba17a40c8) but _ListenBrainz_ instead matches it to [ea640f54-a168-414e-8875-7bfcbf2518cb](https://musicbrainz.org/release/ea640f54-a168-414e-8875-7bfcbf2518cb). This release doesn’t even have 51 tracks.
This only happens for some of the tracks. When I listen to the entire Album of 85 tracks most are matched correctly while a few are matched to one of two different releases. Most likely because only a subset of the tracks appears on other releases.
I know I could add the _MusicBrainz_ release id to the metadata but I don’t believe that should be necessary when artist, title, release and track number uniquely identify the correct track and release. I would understand if it ended up on one of the other releases in the group but not a totally different release.
What’s the issue here and how, other than adding a tag with the release id, do I fix it?
---
### Author:  [@miletos](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/miletos)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2025, 8:23am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-does-listenbrainz-match-songs-to-the-musicbrainz-database/813722/2 "2025-11-14T08:23:20Z")
When I scrobble a track (e.g., Pentagram - Powerstage) and manually set the album to the live version (e.g., ‘1987’), ListenBrainz still maps it to the studio recording from the ‘Pentagram’ album. This happens both with the Last.fm importer AND with direct scrobbling from Web Scrobbler. It shows the wrong album cover but the correct album text.
---
### Author:  [@outsidecontext](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/outsidecontext)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2025, 8:32am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-does-listenbrainz-match-songs-to-the-musicbrainz-database/813722/3 "2025-11-14T08:32:00Z")
Please see
> [@Mismatched picture representing recording and actual releases](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/mismatched-picture-representing-recording-and-actual-releases/804035/2):
>
> Hi! Yes, the current mapping system does not use the release name in the mapping process. The good new is that I am in the middle of writing a better, more scalable mapper. Hopefully that will be released in a few weeks.
---
### Author:  [@FriesischScott](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/FriesischScott)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-does-listenbrainz-match-songs-to-the-musicbrainz-database/813722/4 "2025-11-14T19:24:23Z")
That’s great to hear, thank you!.
---
### Author:  [@AlenaEK](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/AlenaEK)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-does-listenbrainz-match-songs-to-the-musicbrainz-database/813722/5 "2025-12-03T20:54:12Z")
I’m having this issue where it seems like several songs, including DESTINY from Yakuza 6 link to Rain from Virtua Fighter 4 instead, and I can’t change that in bulk and it seems very flawed. Even last.fm has full and easy editing even if it is paid.
---
### Author:  [@Libra](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/Libra)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2025, 12:54pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/how-does-listenbrainz-match-songs-to-the-musicbrainz-database/813722/6 "2025-12-21T12:54:46Z")
Just to link similar topics. Here there is an update about this theme: [MBID Mapper version 2.0 preview has finally arrived!](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/mbid-mapper-version-2-0-preview-has-finally-arrived/813908/)