I am profoundly confused. The more I read the docs, the more confused I get.
I have a bash script that assigns the tags I need including replay gain. All I want picard to do is to add the five MusicBrainz tags without overwriting anything else. Can I do this? If so, kindly tell me how.
Thanks in advance!
Yes, you can.
One way is to $SET all tags you don’t want to change/update to nothing.
https://picard-docs.musicbrainz.org/v2.8/en/functions/func_set.html
Or you can use $DELETE like this:
$delete(genre) will actually remove the “genre” tag from a file when saving.
https://picard-docs.musicbrainz.org/v2.8/en/functions/func_delete.html
Another way would be to install and use the plugin called KEEP TAGS:
This plugin let you choose what tags you want to keep (= delete all not wanted tags).
For example, if you want to keep only the title, artist, album and tracknumbers in your files, then the command would be:
$keep(title,artist,album,tracknumber)
BTW: There are much more then 5 MusicBrainz tags:
https://picard-docs.musicbrainz.org/v2.8/en/appendices/tag_mapping.html#id17