VA - get year!

Support
1

Hi!

I have this large collection of mp3s which actually is a mix of songs I collected along the years.

The files are tagged with ARTIST and TITLE only.

Is it possible for mp3tag to find those songs' YEAR on discogs/amazon/last fm?

Please note the files are a MIX (various artists), not an album. I just would like them to have the songs' year.

Thank you!

2

If you do not know the album, it is fairly hard to determine the exact year as there are remixes, re-releases and other folly around.
If you are content with a rough guess, then you might get a lot of files with a year if you copy the contents of TITLE to ALBUM and so treat the track as though it would be a single. Then let the websource script have a look.
You would have to treat each track individually.

3

I was wary about that. Indeed, as you said it may have remixes, re-releases, remasters, ...
In this particular case it would refer only to the original release. But I think there's no such way. :frowning:
This collection goes beyond 1000 tracks. It would take way too much time...

Thanks for you reply though!

4

The closer I got is this:

google 1st result:
+"" +"released: " site:discogs.com

https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=+%2B%22%22+%2B%22released%3A+%22+site%3Adiscogs.com&btnG=Search

It will work for me. Even though it may have some error margin (remixes, re-releases, remasters).
It's better to correct 50 than mannually lookup for 1600.

I'll write a vbscript to do the job.

5

Well, I found something even better than google.
Discogs have it's own advanced search, which puts aside the odds of getting a 'wrong' release.

The script works 100%:
Uses this small utility to write the year to the tag: http://freecode.com/projects/id3
(it is so bad that mp3tag doesn't provide such a simple funcionality from command line!)

' *****************************************************************************
' *  Description..: Get mp3 release year
' *  Parameters...: mp3 file: artist - title.mp3
' *  Author.......: Leandro Azevedo <leandro.azevedo@gmail.com>
' *  Release......: 2014/08/11
' *****************************************************************************

    Option explicit
        
    Dim url : url = "http://www.discogs.com/search/?type=master&artist=$1&track=$2&format=Album"
    Dim oIE, tagger, yr
    Dim fso : Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")


    if WScript.Arguments.Count=0 then
        msgbox "Input file is missing.", 48, ""
        wscript.quit
    else
        dim filepath : filepath = WScript.Arguments(0)
        dim filename : filename = fso.getBaseName(filepath)
        dim info : info = split(filename, " - ") ' artist - title.mp3
    end if

    Dim shell : Set shell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

    Set oIE = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")

    url = replace(url, "$1", info(0))
    url = replace(url, "$2", info(1))

    With oIE
        .Visible = false
        Do While .Busy
            WScript.Sleep 100
        Loop

    End With

    on error resume next
    yr = oIe.document.getElementsByClassName("card_release_year")(0).innerhtml '1st ocurrence
    if err.number <> 0 then
        msgbox "Information not found for " & filename , 48
        wscript.quit
    end if
    on error goto 0

    oIE.quit
    set oIE = Nothing

    tagger = "c:\id3\id3.exe -2 -y $1 /$2/"
    tagger = replace(tagger, "$1", yr)
    tagger = replace(tagger, "$2", filepath)
    tagger = replace(tagger, "/", chr(34))

    shell.run tagger, 0

This script get the year of the original release (album version) based on the file name (%ARTIST% - %TITLE%.mp3). It can be tweaked to adapt the search though.

6

That sounds very interesting!
How do you use it? What kind of script is it?
Do you use it as a stand alone script or can you trigger it from the mp3tag right-click tools menu?

sorry for my ignorance, but i would be very usefull to me, if I could figure how to use it.
Thank You!

7

The VBS script wants to be invoked with parameter like ....
artist - title.mp3
The VBS script relies on the correctness of the link ...
url = "http://www.discogs.com/search/?type=master&artist=$1&track=$2&format=Album"

For example you can try ...
http://www.discogs.com/search/?type=master...mp;format=Album

The result is not very useful.
Maybe discogs has changed their html pages ...
and the VBS script needs to be updated.

DD.20150311.1400.CET

8

Thank You Detlev!
And excuse me please, for responding so late!

9

Another more simple but slower would be to use the find song on Google and just edit the tag one by one, I have mine listed by years so it's easier to spot missing ones.

Kev

10

If I read the posts correctly with the suggestion

which was commented by the OP as

I doubt that

would be any better.

11

I don't think there is an easy way, I play some of them as I go through the process of 3622 tunes, so it is quite enjoyable too.