[WS] MusicBrainz Roon Recording Tags

[LyricsLover]

Please scroll down for the download- and installation instructions.

Script Info - Functionality

Like any other Web Sources Script (WSS) this will add tags and metadata to all your selected files.
Metadata in already existing tags with the same name will be replaced without any further information or reconfirmation!

In addition to the track number and track title (which are necessary to identify the correct sort order)
only this 10 tags - especially useful for Roon users - will be added to your files:

RECORDINGSTARTDATE
RECORDINGENDDATE
RECORDINGLOCATION    
ENSEMBLE
CONDUCTOR
SOLOIST
PERSONNEL
COMPOSER
COMPOSERSORT
SETSUBTITLE

Script Info - Limitations

This WSS has three main limitations you need to know:

1.) The API from MusicBrainz doesn't return the recording location and the two dates for huge releases in one result answer.
If you try to tag your 96-CD Box Set, you will probably not get this metadata. The first 3 mentioned tags above will not be written in your tags then. Maybe you are lucky and someone has added a so called "pseudo release" and split the huge release into parts.
You can see how this would look like here.
Edit: Unfortunately, someone at MusicBrainz decided in August/September 2024 to remove/merge this previously available example "pseudo release". However, the problem of missing metadata for releases with more then 500 recordings remains.
The solution proposed in MB Ticket MBS-12166 to "paging up to 100 recordings at a time" is not applicable for Mp3tag and Websources Scripts, as it is not (yet) possible to execute multiple search queries for the same album to get the metadata for the first 500 recordings, then for 501-600, then for 601-700 and so on.

2.) The API from MusicBrainz doesn't return the complete recording location in one result answer.
That means, you get the recording address, but not all the subdivisions, districts, the municipality, city, county and country for your tracks.
In such a case, up to 6 additional queries to the MusicBrainz API would be necessary for every single file. Beside the fact that MusicBrainz is rate limiting such requests, Mp3tag currently can only execute 1 query (and get 1 result) per Web Sources Script. Currently, repeated/nested queries are not possible in Mp3tag Web sources framework.

3.) This WSS does not collect any cover art.

Not every recording includes all these tags. The availability depends on the metadata at MusicBrainz.

Examples to illustrate what you get

Example 1:

You will not get the district, county or country.

If some tags are the same for the entire release (like the ALBUM and RECORDINGLOCATION in this example), the "Adjust tag information" preview window looks like this
(for Example 1 - track #11):

The metadata added from this WSS looks like this in the extended tags view (ALT + T) for the «Suzy-Hang-Around» song in Mp3tag:

Can I reduce the number of tags?
How can I strip the tags down to the one I need?

If you don't need all tags *** offered by this Web Sources Script, you can easily deselect them.
Since Mp3tag v3.13 you can select or deselect the checkboxes in the "Adjust tag information" result window in front of any tag in the sections "Metadata Title" or "Metadata Album".

*** The number of tags highly depends on the existing data at MusicBrainz.
Not every release has a complete set of all tags. All these metadata has been provided by users like you and me.

Download

Newest Mp3tag, at least v3.25c
Important: This WSS will NOT work with older Mp3tag versions!

Current version: MusicBrainz Roon Recording Tags v1.40.zip (6,5 KB)
Previous version: MusicBrainz Roon Recording Tags v1.30.zip (6,4 KB)

How to Install

1. Download the above .zip and extract it to the %appdata%\mp3tag\data\sources directory
   (Just hit Win+R and copy & paste %appdata%\mp3tag\data\sources )
   Or you can click on menu File -> Open configuration folder and then open the folder \data and open the subfolder \sources
2. You can access all WS scripts either by using the menu Tag sources or by right-clicking on the selected tracks and Tag sources->....

Version History

2024-05-15: v1.4 - One new feature, details see here
2022-03-25: v1.3 - Added this 7 additional Tags
March v1.1+ v1.2 - Internal changes only
2022-01-28: v1.0 - First Public Release
(special thanks to @Enno for the tests of the preview-releases in a Roon environment)

Last but not least

Please let me know if you have found any error or inconsistency using this script.
Attach a screenshot with your current result and your expected values.
Don't forget to note the MusicBrainz release ID, where the source data is available.
If you prefer, write such info in a PM.

[LyricsLover]

2022-03-25 - Update v1.3

Added this 7 tags:

• ENSEMBLE
• CONDUCTOR
• SOLOIST
• PERSONNEL
• COMPOSER
• COMPOSERSORT
• SETSUBTITLE

[LyricsLover]

2024-05-15 - Update v1.40

• NEW: Showing cover art thumbnail in the search query result overview
  -> This feature was introduced with Mp3tag 3.25c
  You need at least Mp3tag 3.25c to see this cover art thumbnails

This update does not include the option to embed cover art in releases.
It shows a Cover thumbnail in the search result list to easier choose the matching release.
Just hover over the thumbnail and see the different covers for the different releases.

[macaumetal]

I know it's been a while since the last post, but I just wanted to thank you so very much @LyricsLover .

I've been looking for something like this for a long time. There's not much stuff focused on how Roon treats metadata that this is a pure salvation.

Thank you very much for your work!

[macaumetal]

Hi, me again.

I just added a release to Musicbrainz here and then used the script to add information to my ripped files.

The thing is that it was recorded in three different studios, and only one is showing:

Is there a way to add them all? Maybe it's a Roon limitation to show them, but I had to ask.

Thanks!!

[LyricsLover]

@macaumetal

Maybe it's a Roon limitation to show them, but I had to ask

I can look at it.
But please first make sure that ROON really supports it.

Do you know any other release in ROON that shows more than one RECORDINGLOCATION?
Or perhaps a link to some "official" documentation that says it is supported?

Should this be stored in the same way as the SOLOIST in your screenshot, as a multi-value field?

[macaumetal]

HI @LyricsLover thanks for the response, I don't think it's possible, I tried Jaikoz and Songkong and they all return just one location.
Sorry to bother you, I should've checked this first maybe.

[LyricsLover]

Thank you for your question in the Roon forum @macaumetal

The latest answer from 06.05.2025 from joel (Roon Labs: Senior Developer):

I’m fairly sure that Roon only displays a single recording location string per track. i.e. there is no delimiter-based parsing.

Your question has been changed to a Roon "Feature Suggestion".

Please let me know when Roon implements this feature.

[macaumetal]

Hi @LyricsLover I found something that I don't know if it's a bug.
When using the script with this release https://musicbrainz.org/release/6f2f357d-a256-4cd5-9079-3166f4755585 it didn't return the "vocals" personnel.
Just letting you know if it helps

[LyricsLover]

I will take a closer look at this in the next few days.

Do you know any other MB releases where the vocals are missing?
Or is this an issue specific to this release?

Update 21.7.2025, 12:30 CET
My script currently has no built-in detection for "vocals".
So it is not a bug, it's a missing feature

If I would add available vocalists to the PERSONNEL tag field, do you think the same vocalists should also be added to SOLOIST?

For Classical music, I found this official Roon recommendation:

For Classical music we strongly recommend using the ENSEMBLE and SOLOIST, or PERSONNEL, tags instead of the ARTIST tag if at all possible. The reason for this is that ENSEMBLE and SOLOIST map to different under-the-hood performer types...

But what about Metal music?

According to the ROON Credit Roles
"Lead Guitar" and "Lead Vocals" should both be PERFORMER.

As I don't own a ROON system myself, I would like to hear from current ROON users what they think about vocalists and an entry in PERSONNEL, SOLOIST or PERFORMER?

[macaumetal]

It's missing from this one, this one, and this one.
Also in the first case it's duplicating "drums", I guess because of the "drums arranger" relationship.

I also noticed that in this case it's adding the guitar credit twice because of the "lead" and "rhythm" in brackets on MB.

since I'm bothering you with this, is there a chance to add the "Recording Engineer" field to differenciate it from engineer?

Hope this helps, let me know if you need anything else

Thanks for everything!

[LyricsLover]

@macaumetal

Hope this helps, let me know if you need anything else

I'm still looking for an answer to my question about where to store the information:
PERSONNEL, SOLOIST, PERFORMER?

Just add the information manually in one ore more of the above fields and import a test file into ROON to see how it will be read and displayed. What field(s) are best for ROON?

[Enno]

Hi, heavy Roon and Mp3tag user here.

Hi,

Roon allows multiple entries for artists.

SOLOIST is one or more soloists in an orchestra or ensemble.

PERSONNEL can include all people involved in a release, for example, "Bosporus Grill - catering."

PERFORMER, on the other hand, can be all people involved in the music itself, whether instrumental or vocal.

I use the script successfully, primarily for box sets of classical music.

Nevertheless, it's necessary to do some manual work because Roon offers so many field options. This is primarily a matter of personal taste, so the script can't cover all the possibilities.

[Enno]

@LyricsLover

Please have a look at this screenshot. It displays more than one relation for each musician. Some of this entries are from the tag and some are entries from Roon itself. I think Roon uses the database from Allmusic.

[macaumetal]

Well this post from @Enno made me (finally) understand some of the hierarchy in Roon credits.

On the top, Roon will populate with the PERFORMER tag. The script uses PERSONNEL for the musicians/members of the bands, and that's why they never show up where they "should" and I had to add them via Roon one by one.

So I created a PERFORMER field in MP3tag, copied the credits and they showed in that section, BUT i had to delete the instruments mannually otherwise they become part of the name:

If I delete the instruments it's just as I dreamt it would be ( )

There are two vocalists who are guests in one track each, so I thought they should be in the PERSONNEL tag to appear in "Also Performs" but Ruben Patagonia still appears in the Credited section and that's some of the Roon "under-the-hood" magic that I still can't understand. I have it set to use only the information from the files, but somehow it's being overwritten.

Anyway, I don't know how hard is it or if it's possible, but in case it can be done, I think it'd be great that the roles that are now shown as PERSONNEL could be changed to PERFORMER, since Roon would "read" them better according to their configuration.

I think the PERFORMER field should be for people who are involved in the record, but are not part of the "core" band (in my case with Metal): guests who play in a couple of tracks, orchestras, choirs, narrators, etc

If this is too complicated, we can still edit this things ourselves, but knowing where Roon puts what, made it clearer for me to organize the metadata.

I hope this is not too confusing, and as always, thanks for your work!! And thanks @Enno for helping me understand!

PS: I'll check all this with the Roon community