MusicBrainz

MusicBrainz is a collaborative, open music encyclopedia that collects and provides music metadata. It is maintained by the MetaBrainz Foundation, a non-profit organization. The database is designed to be comprehensive and open to contributions from users.

Data model: Core entities include artists, releases, recordings, works, labels, and places, each identified by a stable MusicBrainz ID (MBID). Relationships link artists to works and releases; disambiguation notes help resolve duplicates and homonyms. Contributors add and edit records through a wiki-style workflow.

Access and usage: MusicBrainz can be browsed at musicbrainz.org and accessed programmatically through a public API that supports JSON and XML. The data are released under open licenses to enable reuse, and the project provides data exports and mirrors. The site also hosts the Cover Art Archive in partnership with the Internet Archive to supply album artwork.

Tools and ecosystem: The project supports tools such as MusicBrainz Picard, a cross-platform tagger that embeds MBIDs into audio files, and numerous third-party clients, streaming services, and labeling workflows. The unified metadata model improves search, tagging accuracy, and music discovery.

History and governance: MusicBrainz began in 2000 as a community-driven effort and is governed by the MetaBrainz Foundation. It relies on volunteer editors and continuous data refinement and expansion, with translations and international coverage.