MusicBrainz Identifier: Difference between revisions

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One of MusicBrainz' aims is to be the universal lingua franca for music by providing a reliable and unambiguous form of music identification; this music identification is performed through the use of MusicBrainz Identifiers (MBIDs).
=MusicBrainz IDs=


In a nutshell, an MBID is a 36 character [[wikipedia:Universally Unique Identifier|Universally Unique Identifier]] that is permanently assigned to each entity in the database, i.e. [[Artist|artists]], [[Release Group|release groups]], [[Release|releases]], [[Recording|recordings]], [[Work|works]], [[Label|labels]], [[Area|areas]], [[Place|places]] and [[URL|URLs]]. MBIDs are also assigned to [[Track]]s, though tracks do not share many other properties of entities. For example, the artist [[Artist:0383dadf-2a4e-4d10-a46a-e9e041da8eb3|Queen]] has an artist MBID of <code>0383dadf-2a4e-4d10-a46a-e9e041da8eb3</code>, and their song [[recording:ebf79ba5-085e-48d2-9eb8-2d992fbf0f6d|Bohemian Rhapsody]] has a recording MBID of <code>ebf79ba5-085e-48d2-9eb8-2d992fbf0f6d</code>.
[[MusicBrainz]] aims to be a comprehensive music database that will allow people and computers to have meaningful conversations about music. In order to facilitate these meaningful conversations, Music­Brainz needs to identify each Artist, Album, and Track with a unique identifier.


An entity can have more than one MBID. When an entity is merged into another, its MBIDs redirect to the other entity.
Furthermore, Music­Brainz works with the Relatable TRM technology, which generates an acoustic fingerprint for a digital music file. This acoustic fingerprint is called the [[TRM|TRM ID]]. A user can run an MP3 (or other digital audio file) through a TRM ID generator like the MB Tagger, and then request the artist, album, and track information from [[MusicBrainz]]. With this retrieved information you can then rename the file and write clean ID3 tags.


== Using MBIDs for disambiguation ==
All IDs in Music­Brainz look like standard unique identifiers. For example: <pre> '''95807106-af9f-417d-b1d0-d287c5504ec1'''
</pre>
* Artist IDs:
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">are unique IDs used to identify an artist.
</ul>
* Album IDs:
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">are unique IDs used to identify a collection of tracks in a sequence on a single medium.
</ul>
* Track IDs:
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">are arbitrary IDs that are assigned by the [[MusicBrainz]] server when it accepts a track into the database. This ID is unique and will not change over time, so that people can use this identifier to refer to this track and only this track.
</ul>
* [[TRM|TRM IDs]]:
<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">are assigned by the [[Relatable]] TRM signature generator, and look exactly like other ids in Music­Brainz. However, TRM ids are not guaranteed to be unique -- due to the quality of an encoding or the quality of a decoder, tracks that sound the same to a human may yield different TRM ids.
</ul>


MBIDs are used to disambiguate between entities that share the same name in the [[MusicBrainz Database]].
----[http://www.musicbrainz.org/id-intro.html OriginalVersion]


For example, there are two popular artists with the name "John Williams":
[[Category:To Be Reviewed]] [[Category:Documentation]]
* [[Artist:53b106e7-0cc6-42cc-ac95-ed8d30a3a98e|John Williams]], the soundtrack composer and conductor, has an artist MBID of <code>53b106e7-0cc6-42cc-ac95-ed8d30a3a98e</code>
* [[Artist:8b8a38a9-a290-4560-84f6-3d4466e8d791|John Williams]], the classical guitar player, has an artist MBID of <code>8b8a38a9-a290-4560-84f6-3d4466e8d791</code>

And there are two different singles titled "99 Red Balloons":
* [[Release:189002e7-3285-4e2e-92a3-7f6c30d407a2|99 Red Balloons]], the original by [[Artist:c954d136-c7fd-4fd9-8bb0-fb0491fc6a02|Nena]], has a release MBID of <code>189002e7-3285-4e2e-92a3-7f6c30d407a2</code>
* [[Release:c9f91cdc-984e-4303-9a51-4ac0dfa2348f|99 Red Balloons]], the cover by [[Artist:87fc1871-b74e-4bf5-a00d-8a89c288008b|Goldfinger]], has a release MBID of <code>c9f91cdc-984e-4303-9a51-4ac0dfa2348f</code>

== Using MBIDs in applications ==

MBIDs play an important role when managing a digital music collection and there are several applications that are [[MusicBrainz Enabled Applications|MusicBrainz enabled]].

=== Taggers ===

Multiple MBIDs may be written to a file by a MusicBrainz enabled [[MusicBrainz Tagger|tagger application]]. They are commonly used to identify:
* the recording itself
* the release
* the label
* the track artist
* the release artist

For more information, see the [https://picard.musicbrainz.org/docs/tags/ tag documentation] and the [https://picard.musicbrainz.org/docs/mappings/ tag mappings] of the MusicBrainz Picard tagger.

=== Music players ===

Music player applications can take advantage of a file that has been tagged with MBIDs to do things such as:
* query the [[MusicBrainz Database]] for further information about the file or related entities
* reliably search for related files based on a unique string, instead of by potentially ambiguous strings such as [[Artist Name|artist name]] or [[Release Title|release title]]

=== Flickr ===

See [[Flickr Machine Tag]] for information about adding MBIDs to photos on Flickr.

== Uniform Resource Identifier ==

URIs can be constructed by prefixing the MBID with the address of the MusicBrainz server and the entity type, for example [[Artist:0383dadf-2a4e-4d10-a46a-e9e041da8eb3|Queen's]] URI becomes http://musicbrainz.org/artist/0383dadf-2a4e-4d10-a46a-e9e041da8eb3, and [[recording:ebf79ba5-085e-48d2-9eb8-2d992fbf0f6d|Bohemian Rhapsody's]] URI becomes http://musicbrainz.org/recording/ebf79ba5-085e-48d2-9eb8-2d992fbf0f6d.

== See also ==

There are several other identifiers that MusicBrainz uses:
* [[Disc ID]]: An ID calculated from the TOC of a CD.
* [[AcoustID]]: the open-source [[wikipedia:acoustic fingerprint|acoustic fingerprint]] system used by MusicBrainz since 2013.
* [[Barcode]]: Machine-readable numbers used as stock control mechanisms by retailers.
* [[ISRC]]: The International Standard Recording Code, an identification system for audio and music video recordings.
* [[ISWC]]: The International Standard Musical Work Code, an identification system for musical works.
* [[IPI]], a number identifying persons connected to ISWC registered works (authors, composers, etc.).
* [[PUID]]: The IDs used in the proprietary [[MusicDNS]] [[Audio Fingerprint|audio fingerprinting]] system operated by [[MusicIP]] (used by MusicBrainz 2006–2013)
[[Category:Documentation]] [[Category:Identifier]] [[Category:Terminology]] [[Category:WikiDocs Page]] [[Category:To Be Reviewed]]

Revision as of 21:38, 3 May 2016

One of MusicBrainz' aims is to be the universal lingua franca for music by providing a reliable and unambiguous form of music identification; this music identification is performed through the use of MusicBrainz Identifiers (MBIDs).

In a nutshell, an MBID is a 36 character Universally Unique Identifier that is permanently assigned to each entity in the database, i.e. artists, release groups, releases, recordings, works, labels, areas, places and URLs. MBIDs are also assigned to Tracks, though tracks do not share many other properties of entities. For example, the artist Queen has an artist MBID of 0383dadf-2a4e-4d10-a46a-e9e041da8eb3, and their song Bohemian Rhapsody has a recording MBID of ebf79ba5-085e-48d2-9eb8-2d992fbf0f6d.

An entity can have more than one MBID. When an entity is merged into another, its MBIDs redirect to the other entity.

Using MBIDs for disambiguation

MBIDs are used to disambiguate between entities that share the same name in the MusicBrainz Database.

For example, there are two popular artists with the name "John Williams":

  • John Williams, the soundtrack composer and conductor, has an artist MBID of 53b106e7-0cc6-42cc-ac95-ed8d30a3a98e
  • John Williams, the classical guitar player, has an artist MBID of 8b8a38a9-a290-4560-84f6-3d4466e8d791

And there are two different singles titled "99 Red Balloons":

Using MBIDs in applications

MBIDs play an important role when managing a digital music collection and there are several applications that are MusicBrainz enabled.

Taggers

Multiple MBIDs may be written to a file by a MusicBrainz enabled tagger application. They are commonly used to identify:

  • the recording itself
  • the release
  • the label
  • the track artist
  • the release artist

For more information, see the tag documentation and the tag mappings of the MusicBrainz Picard tagger.

Music players

Music player applications can take advantage of a file that has been tagged with MBIDs to do things such as:

  • query the MusicBrainz Database for further information about the file or related entities
  • reliably search for related files based on a unique string, instead of by potentially ambiguous strings such as artist name or release title

Flickr

See Flickr Machine Tag for information about adding MBIDs to photos on Flickr.

Uniform Resource Identifier

URIs can be constructed by prefixing the MBID with the address of the MusicBrainz server and the entity type, for example Queen's URI becomes http://musicbrainz.org/artist/0383dadf-2a4e-4d10-a46a-e9e041da8eb3, and Bohemian Rhapsody's URI becomes http://musicbrainz.org/recording/ebf79ba5-085e-48d2-9eb8-2d992fbf0f6d.

See also

There are several other identifiers that MusicBrainz uses:

  • Disc ID: An ID calculated from the TOC of a CD.
  • AcoustID: the open-source acoustic fingerprint system used by MusicBrainz since 2013.
  • Barcode: Machine-readable numbers used as stock control mechanisms by retailers.
  • ISRC: The International Standard Recording Code, an identification system for audio and music video recordings.
  • ISWC: The International Standard Musical Work Code, an identification system for musical works.
  • IPI, a number identifying persons connected to ISWC registered works (authors, composers, etc.).
  • PUID: The IDs used in the proprietary MusicDNS audio fingerprinting system operated by MusicIP (used by MusicBrainz 2006–2013)