# Music tutorial

So! We accept all sorts of audio uploads. I'd recommend gathering them from the following providers:

- https://bandcamp.com/
- https://www.qobuz.com/

You should always upload the highest quality available (FLAC files are preferred)

Uploads should also have their metadata fully mapped up to Music Brainz entries. For this I've written a small guide later on you can reference on how to do this.

**\* If you don't want to do this, or it's too much of a barrier just pm me, I'm more than happy to do this part for you. We can arrange a magic wormhole transfer and get it all sorted out**

## Music Brainz metadata

### Recommended settings

So first off I'd recommend installing Music Brainz's Picard, it's a great bit of software and it'll make mapping these up rather painless

There's a few settings I'd highly recommend turning on, these are the following:

- Options > General > Automatically cluster new files
- Options > File Naming > Move files when saving
  - Options > Rename files: On
  - Options > Move files: On
- Options > Fingerprinting: You should set all this up so you can fingerprint from Acoustid (this also needs you to install `fpcalc`)

You should also add a new rename script with the content:

```
$if($in(%_extension%,mp4), %albumartist% - %album%,
$if($album_mode(_sample_rate),$set(_sample_rate,$album_mode(_sample_rate)))

$if($in(%releasetype%,soundtrack),%album%,%albumartist%/%albumartist% - %album%) $if(%originalyear%,\(%originalyear%\) )
	$if(%catalognumber%,{%catalognumber%} )
[
	$if(%media%,%media% - )
	$if(%releasestatus%,%releasestatus% - )
	%_extension%
	$if($album_mode(_bits_per_sample), - $album_mode(_bits_per_sample)bit - 
		$div(%_sample_rate%,1000)$if($ne($mod(%_sample_rate%,1000),0),.$left($mod(%_sample_rate%,1000),1))kHz
	)
]
/
$if($gt(%totaldiscs%,1),%discnumber%-,)
$if($and(%albumartist%,%tracknumber%),$num(%tracknumber%,2). ,)
$if(%_multiartist%,%artist% - ,)%title%)
```

**\* You'll need the "Release tag aggregation functions" plugin for this**

**\* This is the only acceptable directory structure. Do not deviate**

### Matching up metadata

Now for the meat of it. If you add an album I'd recommend just trying to do a basic lookup with the files clustered. This will mean Picard will check against the number of tracks as well as various other details of the album in the metadata. More often than not, this will lead to it matching the correct release instead of a different incorrect one

For individual songs, I'd recommend first doing a scan using AcoustID, if we're lucky it'll match the song for you, otherwise you'll have to preform a lookup for it

If any of the lookup's provide an incorrect match, right click the track and press "Search for similar tracks" here you can select the release manually. If you still can't find it, it means Music Brainz doesn't have any details for and it'll have to be added. If you're feeling like you wanna dip your toes in, take a look at some of Music Brainz guides, you should start here[1] (It's not as scary as it looks, I promise)

If an album fails to match or matches to the wrong one, you follow a similar process but instead of doing it track by track, drag the entire album back over to the left panel, cluster it again and then search for similar tracks. This just lets you match with the full number of tracks again

**Once you're completely happy with all your data being matched up** I'd recommend and ask that you generate AcoustIDs for any tracks that lack them, and then submit them. It helps everyone a great deal, and it takes moments of your time. Be a good citizen, this is an effortless task but a good one

[1]: https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Beginners_Guide