Hi there, I started using MusicBrainz Picard to sort my music and it’s the best tool I have found. I read that it could also work on audiobooks so used the same general work flow to attack my pile of imperfectly organized audiobooks. Unfortunately it does not. Virtually every book gets wrongly labelled as a rando musical release. I think because the database is not well populated.
For example, Frantz Fanon, has zero works listed. I don’t mind making some contributions to the project and the other day I added a couple of albums that were missing. But it seems like using it for audiobooks would mean I’ll have to manually add almost every book.
I found Other Databases Relationship Type / Whitelist - MusicBrainz that lists several sources of existing audiobook metadata, for example Goodreads, which has 61 works by Fanon (not all of which are available as audio). Is there an efficient way to import metadata as a starting point or do I have to do everything by hand?
Tidying up is one thing by all the copy/paste is a lot of effort.The data already exists elsewhere.
Some of my audiobooks are already correctly identified, is there a way to easily contribute those, their metadata and fingerprints to the database?
Or is this not really the right tool for the job? While the Picard software is superior to others, recreating the back end seems duplicative given the vastness of literature.
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Welcome to MB. As many of us find when we join there is always a small corner of our collections that are fairly unique to us and not yet in the database. This can especially happen with some audiobooks. Some areas are really well covers (i.e. Dr Who) other areas is a baron waste ground.
Sometimes people write import scripts. Normally created with a bit of black magic and AI. But looking at the site you have listed is looks more like Books for BookBrainz.
Maybe you take your MP3\FLAC files and import them via Picard. That is the way I added many audio books as my tags were already half decent.
Most of it is just plain manual work. But can be satisfying getting it done.
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Woohoo! Welcome! MusicBrainz is a really underappreciated and underutilised resource for audiobooks.
I wouldn’t worry about works for now (until/unless you catch the editing bug), just releases. The easiest way, if you already have the files, is to:
- Drag the audiobook folder into MusicBrainz Picard
- HIt ‘cluster’
- Right-click the cluster and click ‘Submit cluster as release’
- → data gets seeded as a new MusicBrainz release
- Add missing information and fix track titles etc, referencing the MB audiobook style guidelines
Submit, and ready for tagging!
You can get as deep as you want with works, relationships, etc, but basic additions are also OK. Here is an example with minimal info, based on digital, and here is a physical media example (where someone has put in more effort than me, with works and the whole bejangle)
Your first few additions will be a headache - feel free to ask any questions here or in the chat - but once you get the hang of it it really shouldn’t take any longer than manually tagging your own files, if not faster.
I forgot to mention, if there is existing data in other databases, e.g. Discogs, that is a better source than your file tags, you can check if there is an import userscript for that database: Guides/Userscripts - MusicBrainz Wiki
For releases from Spotify/Apple Music etc, Harmony is the go-to importer: https://harmony.pulsewidth.org.uk/
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