Pre-launch preview — opens for intake on launch. For inquiries: use the contact form.
Metadata

Metadata for classical and jazz

FAQ

What happens to my existing tags?

The pipeline only replaces the catalogue metadata it actively rewrites. Everything else stays untouched.

Replaced (the service writes these from scratch):

Preserved (everything not in the replace list):

The replace list is configurable per job — if you have a custom field or a strict policy you want me to override, mention it during the dry run and I'll add it to the list (or take it out).

Will my MusicBrainz IDs be preserved?

Yes. If your files already have MBIDs (release, release-group, track, release-track), they're carried through unchanged. The pipeline runs in two passes:

  1. First pass uses your existing MBIDs as-is — no re-identification, no overwrites. Whatever release you're already linked to in MusicBrainz stays linked.
  2. Second pass fills in MBIDs only on tracks that don't have any yet (rips from tools that don't write MBIDs, or pre-MB-era files).

This keeps existing ripping-tool reports, AccurateRip verifications, and any external tool or service that links to your MBIDs working exactly as before — only the surrounding tags are normalised.

What about EAC logs, booklets, and other artefacts?

Anything non-audio that came with your rip passes through untouched. The pipeline only retags audio files (FLAC / M4A / OGG); everything else in the album folder gets mirrored to the delivered tree exactly as you sent it.

So if your album folder contains:

You'll get the same folder back with only the audio re-tagged. The EAC log, AccurateRip status, scans, cue sheet, playlist — all preserved. The audio's MusicBrainz IDs survive too, so existing ripping-tool reports still match.

What about cover art?

If your files have embedded artwork already, it's preserved through the scrub.

If they don't — and you'd like them to — I can add it as part of the job. Source can be anything you supply, or fetched from the MusicBrainz Cover Art Archive via beets when the release has it.

Two delivery options:

For M4A tracks I do both — folder file and embedded copy — since Apple needs the embed.

How are the files organised when I get them back?

Tagged files come back in a folder tree built from the tags. Defaults:

See the home page for a real sample tree.

…or stop caring about folder structure entirely

You can use the open-source helper at codeberg.org/nadl40/links and the on-disk layout becomes mostly irrelevant. It builds a parallel symlink tree giving you any number of browse views (by composer, by artist, by genre, by catalogue ref) all pointing at the same underlying audio. None of the actual files move, and you can rebuild the tree any time with a different config.

For most players — Roon, Lyrion, Plex — browsing happens through tags anyway, not through file paths. Once your tags are clean, the on-disk folder structure is just where the audio lives. There's no need to browse it unless you prefer to.

The helper is MIT-licensed. I'll hand you a starter config mapped to your library; you run it on your machine.

How do I download my tagged library?

Delivery is via Google Drive — I share a folder, you copy the files to your own machine. Three paths, depending on library size:

Small library (under ~100 CDs / 50 GB FLAC) — click the "Download" button in Google Drive's web UI. Drive packages the folder as a zip server-side and streams it. Quick and zero setup.

Larger libraries — Drive splits big folders into multi-part zips that fail intermittently on slow / interrupted connections. Use one of these instead:

The dashboard automatically suggests the right path based on your library size. Above ~100 CDs, the customer-facing instructions lead with Drive Desktop / rclone; below that, the browser zip path is fine and gets the prominent button.

A few practical notes:

What if I'm not happy with the result?

You get two checkpoints to bail out:

1. Free 10-CD dry run — before any payment. You pick 10 CDs, I tag them, you see the actual tag output in your player. If the result doesn't fit how you want your library to read, you walk away with nothing owed.

2. 15-second-per-track preview — after the deposit, before the balance. Once tagging is complete I deliver the whole library as short clips with full tags intact. You scan through every track in your player to verify the metadata's right and the audio matches. Reply with anything that looks off and I'll fix it before sending the final files. The balance is only due once you've reviewed.

Fixes at this stage are for factual errors — wrong composer, wrong performer credits, wrong work title, missing tags on a release MusicBrainz already carries. Stylistic preferences that conflict with how the service is documented (e.g. a different genre scheme, alternative composer name spellings), or albums that weren't in the original intake, are out of scope at this point — the dry run earlier is the right checkpoint for those.

Once you've paid the balance and the full library is delivered, that's the end of the loop — re-runs aren't part of the service. The two checkpoints above are where corrections happen.

Where do my files live during the job?

On a single Linux machine I control. No cloud upload from my side during the job. The cloud share you opened (Google Drive / Dropbox / etc.) is the only point where the files exist outside your infrastructure or mine.

After delivery, the source copy on my machine is destroyed. The Google Drive folder I returned the tagged library in expires shortly after you've confirmed receipt — I revoke access and delete the folder.

The MusicBrainz contributions stay public, of course. That's the open-data part. But your files are gone.

Will my custom genre scheme survive?

No. Genre gets rewritten to the multi-level scheme described on the home page — Classical, Mozart, Symphonies style for classical, flat Jazz for jazz. Custom genre conventions don't survive the job.

If preserving your existing genres matters more than getting the curated tree, this isn't the service for you — and the dry run will surface that before you've committed anything.

What about big box sets — Bach Edition, complete-works boxes, label retrospectives?

Tagged when MusicBrainz already has the box well-structured: release relationships in place, work / movement breakdowns and per-disc performer credits. The strength of the service is curating MB's existing data into clean tags. On a 100-disc box that's missing those relationships, building them by hand is days of MB editor work per release — that's outside scope.

Worked example: a release like Bach 333 — J.S. Bach The New Complete Edition sits squarely in the "well-documented" category and tags cleanly. A label retrospective newly added to MB with track titles only would not.

If you have a box you're unsure about, send the MB release URL during intake and I'll tell you up front whether it's in scope. If the release isn't on MB at all, that's an automatic out-of-scope for the box — the rest of your library is unaffected.

I haven't ripped my CDs yet — can you do that?

Tagging is the focus, so ripping isn't part of the standard service — physical handling, disc cleaning, AccurateRip verification and return shipping are a different workflow, and bundling them with tagging would dilute both. The default path is to use a third-party ripper as the first step, then send me the resulting files.

Suggested rippers (US-based, mail-in):

Canadian customers — special arrangement. No Canadian mail-in ripping service exists that I've found, and shipping discs across the US border means customs forms both ways plus round-trip postage in the CAD 30–60 range on top of per-CD pricing. So for Canadians I can take the ripping in-house as a separate arrangement — get in touch and we'll work out a per-CD rate. I rip with whipper, the Linux equivalent of EAC: AccurateRip-aware, bit-perfect, and it produces an EAC-style verification log alongside the audio files (FLAC, M4A or OGG).

Or rip yourself. dbpoweramp (Windows / Mac, paid) and EAC (Windows, free) are the standard tools.

A few things worth knowing whichever path you pick: