As many know I an generally opposed to scripts for things. Trying to keep an open mind, I have some digital releases I want to try adding via scripts, so I can see how it works. Specifically, I have the Katy B iTunes Festival London 2011 and 2013 EPs I want to add.
My starting point is thee digital release on my hard drive. If someone is willing, could you kindly walk me through how you might automate the process?
I want to be clear I wish not to debate digital releases. I am only looking for a possible fast way to enter an iTunes release to MB. Ideally, I would submit the release name, artist, track list with durations, iTunes reference, ISRC for each recording, coverart and (p) holder… and AcoustID!
EDIT: I forgot to mention… the submission items listed above are all contained in metadata, which is why I selected them.
paste the iTunes album/EP url into the top field, click ‘get ID’, then click ‘search’ at the bottom
click ‘submit album to MB’ at the bottom of the next page
now, complete and double check all the release fields as you usually would
after submitting the release, a-tisket will pop up another page that lets you submit cover art and isrcs*
if you left the annotation added by a-tisket with the release, you can now go to the relationships tab and enter (p) and/or (c) very quickly with this script.
*the tool only adds isrc’s if there is a Spotify link that’s been found as well. So an iTunes only release is an unfortunate example, maybe someone else has a good way to enter it into the workflow
I will for sure look at the processes you have outlined. However, you state:
This ISRC datails in the metadata of the files I have. There is no need to query anything API related, just my files.
I have looked a-tisket over a few times now… there is a LOT going on there. However, it is all web pulling. In this case, I have all the needed data “in hand”. No reliance on anything but the release. I hope you can see (and appreciate) the difference I propose.
In brief, the"Vendor" tag has the vendor delimited by a colon (:), followed by the ISRC. This can be parsed. This is my vision on how to do this. I do not believe in recreating wheels, so maybe someone has done this already.
If I were to develop something, I would see it this way. The script starts with a statement that the files need to be original and real iTunes supplied files. Then, it will read the files (the metadata), parse it, and provide an evaluation. In simple form, ok or now, this is not real. Then it would provide a grid of data to import for me to approve.
For sure. I appreciate the step by step you provided. I owe you at least one release done by that process, so I can do it and experience it.
@thwaller, if you look at a lot of the a-tisket imports many are done by people who don’t actually have those albums. They are syncing data between databases. It is not adding in the classic way that you add data from files in your possession.
Look at a-tisket more as a data import tool from multiple online sources, then it may be easier to see why people use it. It is nothing to do with their music files, all to do with the available online data being pulled to a central source.
Remember, many people who use streaming sites never physically possess the music. MB is just the central depository for knowledge.
For your needs, just work like you did with a CD. And then find an alternate script to read and submit IRCS. The (p) and (c) is manually added on the Edit Relationship page.
Yes, I am seeing this, and I understand. For me, just spending a few days going through things, new and old, you can see in my edits I have a lot of content that is not in MB. It takes a lot of time to manually add all of that detail, especially my method of adding manual to each, the ISRC for each release I touch, well, those I can at least, as seen in my edits.
I am ok with being a “small” editor, not making hundreds of edits per day. What makes me happy is quality edits. With that, I own my mistakes and learn from them. I like being able to say … yeah, that data is wrong because I messed up. That makes sense. If my response is … well, a script did it so I do not know, well… remember imports from FreeDB.
On point, iTunes file parsing is my focus. The data is there, how can we capture it, import it and use it.
I didn’t mean to imply it was inferior. Sorry for that error. I was trying to point out it grabs a different selection of data. And if I understand it correctly this also includes more accurate file lengths.
It is also useful if you are trying to fill up the back catalogue of an artist.
Don’t let yourself get put off by the apparent complexity of a-tisket, you really can just follow the 2 steps I provided for it.
You will see everything in the MB editor before submission so you can’t break anything
If you want to make sure a-tisket doesn’t add multiple countries there’s one more button you want to click before clicking ‘submit album to MB’ - ‘Set the release event to only [some country’. Then you can change that single entry to [worldwide] in the MB editor.
