Tag a SONG to it's oldest version

[Wanderer189]

Is there a way to get Picard to tag a SONG to it’s oldest version?

For example, a song came out on an album in 1955, then on a compilation in 1970, then again in 2012. I would like the year of the song to be from the original date, in the example 1955

[outsidecontext]

That’s possible, if MB has the exact same recording for both the later releases and the original 1955 release. If that’s the case the variable %_recording_firstreleasedate% can be used for setting the date.

See the docs for details:

https://picard-docs.musicbrainz.org/en/extending/scripts.html#use-original-release-date

And the following threads also contain some discussion around this feature:

How do I set the recording date of a track?

I’m cleaning up metadata on some of my compilations, but don’t understand how to do set the original recording date Here’s an example from Heartbreak Hotel released on the ‘Elvis Presley Years’ Release “The Elvis Presley Years (disc 1)” by Various Artists - MusicBrainz It’s a CD, released in 1991, Picard (2.6.3) is showing Original Release Date and Year as 1991 Heartbreak Hotel is track 12, and is listed as 'recording of Heartbreak Hotel on 1956-01-10. Picard does not list the original recor…

Original release date: Community opinion on how to handle the originaldate tag, first release date of release group and / or recording

We have some debate over at the code review to add support for per track original release date to Picard. This is a feature that is come up a couple of times here in the forums. Current versions of Picard use the first release date provided by the release group (the earliest release date of all the releases inside the group) to fill the originaldate tag. For many use cases this is fine. But it not always reflects the actual first release of each track. E.g. a compilation might have been release…

[The_Incredible_Boom_Boom]

Ironic.

@outsidecontext

That’s possible, if MB has the exact same recording for both the later releases and the original 1955 release. If that’s the case the variable %_recording_firstreleasedate% can be used for setting the date.

Take note, @Wanderer189, due to the way MB defines a “recording,” the above method will only work if the track is considered the “same recording” throughout each release you possess. If you’re trying to tag the same song, but the 1970 compilation version is a shortened edit from the original 1955 track or whatever, Picard will not be able to grab the 1955 date, as the definition considers the two mostly unrelated. I have attempted to make some headway on efficiently resolving this inconsistency in this thread, considering this same topic appears at least once a week here or on other music collection forums, and you’re welcome to voice your support there.

[tigerman325]

Because it’s not the same recording.

[tigerman325]

If you know a recording is the same as the oldest, just put in a merge. If the oldest release with a recording isn’t on MB, than create it with that recording and then you’ll have the oldest date of that recording. I do this all the time. I’ll add the digital release of a 50s/60s release and then go to Discogs and add the vinyl of it, so that the date will show up on the recording as being asked.

[Wanderer189]

@tigerman325

create it with that recording and then you’ll have the oldest date of that recording. I do this all the time. I’ll add the digital release of a 50s/60s release and then go to Discogs and add the vinyl of it

Not sure where you are creating it? I been using Discogs ID’s on the files in question, but is taking forever when there are 100’s of songs that were mainly one hit singles.

UPDATE: I wound adding a userscript to browser that lets me find it on Discogs, it show me a button on browser to add it to MB pretty easily.