I often find that my music files are short, or sometimes longer, than the official version. Length or duration populates from the file, but I would like to know how this compares to the official track length. I am primarily interested in knowing what the official duration of the track’s original release is. I don’t seem to be able to find this tag in your database (or Picard) so please add it! Thanks!
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It would not always be good to take the oldest track duration.
Sometimes, the first released track was followed by bonus tracks and therefore is longer than usual because it is appended with 10 seconds of silence.
I’ve never heard of an “official duration” of a track.
There are AIUI three sources that MB uses for track length.
A. The time ascribed to a track on the coverart of the Release. This is frequently inaccurate.
B. The track length as timed by a MusicBrainz Editor. This is would probably be accurate to with 2 seconds though if different Editors use different start and end points and include or exclude silence then this could easily be 15 seconds out.
C. The index data from digital media. This could be accurate to within one thousandth of a second. But can include a lot of silence.
But none of these are recognised as “official” by MB or stated to be official by Artists or recording companies AIUI. C. is more accurate. Is that the one you want to tag “official duration”?
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Yes, and if your track duration is much different than the official duration, it means it’s not the same recording, except if the difference is silence.