MusicBrainz Picard is a cross-platform (Linux/Mac OS X/Windows) application written in Python and is the official MusicBrainz tagger. Picard supports the majority of audio file formats, is capable of using audio fingerprints (PUIDs, AcoustIDs), performing CD lookups and disc ID submissions, and it has excellent Unicode support. When tagging files, Picard uses an album-oriented approach. This approach allows it to utilize the MusicBrainz data as effectively as possible and correctly tag your music.
Song files broke. Disorganized. Computer is now dead.
tiredtigerrun
Pros
Did an alright job until...
Cons
Changed my browser homepage, and installed extensions for chrome (which is to be expected with free software) but it was encrypting my google tabs page to search to Yahoo! but it still looked like Google search.. Sketchy program and their lack of customer support or respect should have been enough to drive me away...The file names and tags were poorly constructed. Tracks were all over the place in my library BUT they had the correct song titles, so that's great, basically I went from one extreme to another.. All of that was fine yes it was annoying but fine UNTIL I noticed the replaced audio files were completely BROKEN after I renamed the files, after about 6 albums I noticed they no longer played.. haha. Was not 48 hours until my computer crashed, it's been 2 weeks now and it still won't turn on, i'd say indefinitely.. (that escalated quickly, i know..) I should have listened to that reviewer up there..
Summary
You get what you pay for and sometimes you're the one who pays the ultimate price with sketchy programs like these. Take heed people, please and if not at least make sure your computer is completely backed up on another device.
Ruined ability to play songs- DO NOT USE !
markfiona
Pros
None at all.
Cons
I used a few times- then half of the sings that were tagged would not play again. It turned them into pure distortion. I do not know how a tag edit could cause this, so for me this program is useless- use SongKong instead or anything for that matter.
Summary
Tagging Bliss
RoelandDeWindt
Pros
Re-tagged and ordered my 35K music collection (mp3, mp4, flac, mixed) with minimal manual interaction.
Cons
Will not tag all music know to human kind.
Summary
It's free. It works on Mac. It doesn't scan your hard disk. It fixes bad tags and is easy to use.
Works as claimed
Drew-Drew
Pros
Can't argue. The app does what it claims.
Cons
The interface is a little bland.
Summary
Considering it's free, it rocks!
Some of the other reviewers are making claims that don't appear to be justified. I don't see any evidence to support what they are saying. Maybe they work for another (pay to play) company?
TROJAN. Coded by the MB Dev Team
resolutionfusion
Pros
A free way to quickly infect your computer giving remote access and scan of everything on your hard drives, all while the Devs discuss their progress on IRC.
Cons
Well it will basically decimate your computer under the guise of poorly tagging your music files, so there's that. Then it also scans everything single thing on your hard drive, so there's that extra level of personal violation and theft.
Plus it's purpose is to remove and rewrite the tags of audio files, but they also added code to duplicate them. So now you have a zombie Apocalypse of your beloved music catalog, all your restore points lost, and Data Recovery has turned into Pet Semetary.
You're likely going to feel pretty physically ill.
Summary
The MusicBrainz Dev has, for some reason, worked long and hard on this codem, while publically discussing it on recorded IRC chat. For someone reason this doesn't seem to be a vastly well known fact even though scans have been reporting it for ages--to the dev team, who took a few minutes here and there to call them "false positives" and carried on.
Every support email goes to this dev team, this is how I was infected. I sent an email to the support team and they returned with the infected link, already tested by them, and then enthusiastically asked me to let them know how it worked. Upon reporting that the link worked they replied with "Awesome, have a nice editing, Nicolas. PS since I guess you've been out of MB for a while, feel free to mail with any questions about the new ways of doing things and all that."
https://chatlogs.musicbrainz.org/musicbrainz-devel/2013/2013-05/2013-05-25.html (it goes back months and months)
I spent a year trying to recover the 14 years I'd accumulated on a destroyed hard drive. Not only did I lose it all again, to truly never be recoverable, but I did so in exchange for generously handing it all over, with passwords and banking information and every damn thing in the world.
Does that about sum it up?
Does not work!!!
scallison
Pros
Does recognize songs.
Cons
Will not covert info into iTunes.
Summary
All Function No Form - Roll Up Sleeves To Learn
MattBianco
Pros
? access to a large music database
? ability to find album data from database as well as cross ref. from amazon
? free
? very versatile, allowing modification to any tag and data attribute to your music files
Cons
? Huge learning curve. Not intuitive at all.
? Has a tendency to place music files in the second most relatively correct album
? Occasionally gets stuck
? Lacks "intelligence" -does not scan large file groups and do a best match against albums.
Summary
If you want to spend hours learning how to use this powerful tool, this is the app you need. If you want something quick and easy to tag your music files, this is a waste of time. The help text on line is very weak. The information on help is poorly organized.
If you do put the time through trial and error to learn this application, it is quite useful.
I had trouble getting the add-ins for album art to work at first, but somehow it ended up working later.
I wish the app would have a an intelligence feature to do a best match when trying to organize music files not associated with albums. Say, I import 30 songs. It is likely to show me 20 albums in which they might fit, everything from compilations to several greatest hits albums, to original release. It should scan and place as many as in the most appropriate. It does for where the quality of existing tags are good, otherwise it it is just a data dump and unless you are prepared to spend 30 minutes to ID an album, you are not going to benefit in any shape or form from using MusicBrainz.
I use it from time to time to get all the tags for my music (such as year of release, etc.) It is very powerful because of its good access to a large music database. It is not for everyone.<br /><br /><span class='notifyMsg'> Updated </span>on Apr 10, 2011<p/>One more con:
* it places greatest hits of the same artist in your compilation folder as it tags greatest hits as compilations.
At the start, you can see the winner! Simply INGENIOUS!
logonaut--2008
Pros
Perfect functionality: 100% customizable w/ scripts/plugins, while all you need is already implemented via dag-n-drop or context menu, or available as a ready-made plugin. Actually, this is not a "v 0.1 release" but almost a final release!
Cons
OK, it's not quite easy to understand for beginners. You should be a bit familiar with the MusicBrainz.org data base and the features of their website. But finally, it's a client software for MB, w/o having a MB-account, it doesn't make much sense.
Summary
See my reply to the review below! - It's definitely worth learning a little bit how to use the application best. For a v0.1 release, it's simply ingenious! There are NO limitations in functionality. It's an open system with already everything you need, including a perfect online support! And best of all: both, the application and the website continuously will be enhanced and fine-tuned by a dynamically increasing number of contributions of a world wide community.
Needs a serious re-working.
cdbob
Pros
Makes the musicbrainz db available
Cons
...if you find this app intuitive to use. I don't.
Summary
Sourceforge creates great apps to use if you are as skilled as its developers. Most of us aren't. Can't you talk down to us, please...in a useful manner as with an explanatory tutorial written in English? Help searches? Anything besides a users forum? Users forums are the blind leading the blind. Wish developers wouldn't take that easy way out of providing how-to info up front. It doesn't matter how fast an app works if it takes days to get a question answered.
Great complement to MM for tagging a large collection
michanne5
Pros
Simple - not a lot of overhead or baggage. I find this important for working with a lot of files. I love that it has the option to move and rename your files as you go.
Cons
I would add the ability to select multiple files and be able to edit some of the fields at once. Since this is GPL I wouldn't dis the product. It looks like it might be in the works anyway. Some of the directions are a little confusing at first.
Summary
I use Media Monkey and love it for many reasons - this app is a complement.
I recommend installing the LastFMPlus and Coverart plugins along with it. Images slow it down quite a bit as to be expected. LastFMPlus has the option to separate multiple values by ";" which MM will read as separate values.
Final Note: I compared this to Jaikoz. Jaikoz has a nicer interface which you would expect since it is a paid app. You do not need plugins for cover art and you get a choice of databases out of the box. You can play a song from the app. Those features are great but I just want to tag a large library (which I don't need to do often) so because Picard was so much faster and does what I want; it wins out free or not.