Basic Tags
The following tags are supported and are written in the standard format that can be read by other software. The information is populated from MusicBrainz data for most releases, without any special Picard settings. Note that some of the information such as ‘lyrics’ is not contained within the MusicBrainz database, and will not be provided automatically.
All of these are also available as variables for use in Picard Scripts (for tagging, for file renaming and in several other more minor settings) by wrapping them between percent ‘%’ symbols (e.g. %title%
).
Most tags beginning with musicbrainz_
provide the MusicBrainz Identifier (MBID) of the entity. The MBID is a 32-character identifier assigned to an entity (e.g.: artist, album, track or work) to uniquely identify the entity. For more information about MBIDs, please see the MusicBrainz Identifier page in the MusicBrainz documentation.
Note
Tags will not be created and will not be available as variables if there was no value retrieved for the tag from the MusicBrainz database.
Note
Some of these tags are only supported for certain file types or tag formats. Please see the Picard Tag Mapping section for details.
acoustid_fingerprint
AcoustID Fingerprint for the track. The fingerprint is based on the audio information found in a file, and is calculated using the Chromaprint software.
acoustid_id
AcoustID associated with the track. The AcoustID is the identifier assigned to an audio file based on its ‘acoustid_fingerprint’. Multiple fingerprints may be assigned the same AcoustID if the fingerprints are similar enough.
album
Title of the release.
albumartist
Artist(s) primarily credited on the release.
albumartistsort
Release Artist’s Sort Name (e.g.: “Beatles, The”).
albumsort
Release Title’s Sort Name.
artist
Track Artist Name(s). (string)
artists
Track Artist Name(s). (multi-value) (since Picard 1.3)
artistsort
Track Artist Sort Name.
asin
Amazon Standard Identification Number - the number identifying the item on Amazon.
barcode
Release Barcode - the barcode assigned to the release.
bpm
Beats per minute of the track. Only available to the file naming script.
catalognumber
The number(s) assigned to the release by the label(s), which can often be found on the spine or near the barcode. There may be more than one, especially when multiple labels are involved.
comment
Disambiguation Comment - the comment entered to help distinguish one release from another (e.g.: Deluxe version with 2 bonus tracks).
compilation
(since Picard 1.3, compatible with iTunes) 1 for Various Artist albums, otherwise 0.(Picard 1.2 or previous) 1 if multiple track artists (including featured artists), otherwise 0.
copyright
Contains the copyright message for the copyright holder of the original sound, beginning with a year and a space character.
date
Release Date (YYYY-MM-DD) - the date that the release (album) was issued.
discnumber
Number of the disc in this release that contains this track.
discsubtitle
The Media Title given to a specific disc.
encodedby
Encoded by (person or organization). Only available to the file naming script.
encodersettings
Encoder Settings used. Only available to the file naming script.
isrc
International Standard Recording Code - an international standard code for uniquely identifying sound recordings and music video recordings. See Wikipedia for more information. (since Picard 0.12)
key
Key of the music.
label
Release Label Name(s).
language
Work lyric language as per ISO 639-3 if track relationships are enabled in Options and a related work exists. (since Picard 0.10)
lyrics
Lyrics for the track. Not provided by MusicBrainz.
media
Release Format (e.g.: CD). See the Release Format page on the MusicBrainz website for more information.
musicbrainz_albumartistid
Release Artist’s MusicBrainz Identifier (MBID).
musicbrainz_albumid
Release MusicBrainz Identifier (MBID).
musicbrainz_artistid
Track Artist’s MusicBrainz Identifier (MBID).
musicbrainz_discid
Disc ID is the code number which MusicBrainz uses to link a physical CD to a release listing. This is based on the table of contents (TOC) information read from the disc. This tag contains the Disc ID if the album information was retrieved using
. (since Picard 0.12)
musicbrainz_originalalbumid
Original Release’s MusicBrainz Identifier (MBID).
musicbrainz_originalartistid
Original Track Artist’s MusicBrainz Identifier (MBID).
musicbrainz_recordingid
Recording’s MusicBrainz Identifier (MBID).
musicbrainz_releasegroupid
Release Group’s MusicBrainz Identifier (MBID).
musicbrainz_trackid
Release Track MusicBrainz Identifier (MBID).
musicbrainz_workid
MusicBrainz Identifier for the work (MBID).
originalalbum
Release Title of the earliest release in the Release Group intended for the title of the original recording.
originalartist
Track Artist of the earliest release in the Release Group intended for the performer(s) of the original recording.
originaldate
The original release date in the format YYYY-MM-DD. By default this is set to the earliest release in the Release Group. This can provide, for example, the release date of the vinyl version of what you have on CD. (Included as standard from Picard 0.15, and using the Original Release Date plugin if you are still using a non-NGS version earlier than Picard 0.15)
Note
This is the same information provided in the
_releasegroup_firstreleasedate
variable, and is consistent across all tracks in the release. If you prefer to have this tag populated with the date of the earliest recording of the track in the database, which will likely be different for each track in the release, this can be achieved by enabling a one-line tagging script as$set(originaldate,%_recording_firstreleasedate%)
. Be aware that setting this can cause a release to be scattered across multiple directories if you use%originaldate%
as part of the path portion of your file naming script.Note
If you are storing tags in MP3 files as ID3v2.3 then the original date can only be stored as a year.
originalyear
The year of the original release date in the format YYYY. By default this is set to the earliest release in the Release Group. This can provide, for example, the release year of the vinyl version of what you have on CD.
releasecountry
Country in which the release was issued.
releasestatus
Release Status indicating the “official” status of the release. Possible values include official, promotional, bootleg, and pseudo-release.
releasetype
Release Group Type (see also _primaryreleasetype and _secondaryreleasetype)
script
The script used to write the release’s track list. The possible values are taken from the ISO 15924 standard. (since Picard 0.10)
subtitle
Used for information directly related to the contents title.
title
Track Title.
titlesort
Track Title’s Sort Name.
totaldiscs
Total number of discs in this release
totaltracks
Total tracks on this disc.
tracknumber
Track number on the disc.
website
Used for official artist website.