Media Item Metadata 
Section titled “Media Item Metadata ”This page lists what metadata is gathered for each kind of media item (artists, albums, tracks, playlists, audiobooks and podcasts) and where each field comes from. As elsewhere, source metadata always takes priority and the online providers only fill in the gaps.
Artists
Section titled “Artists”| Metadata Type | Source(s) |
|---|---|
| Name, sort name | File tags, artist.nfo, music providers |
| Genres | artist.nfo, music providers, The Audio DB, derived from track tags when the filesystem provider’s Propagate track genres option is enabled |
| MusicBrainz ID (MBID) | File tags, artist.nfo, music providers, derived via MusicBrainz lookup if missing |
| Biography | artist.nfo (<biography>), music providers, The Audio DB, Wikipedia |
| Style, mood, label | The Audio DB |
| Images (thumb, logo, banner, fanart, cutout, landscape, clearart) | Embedded tags, folder images, music providers, Fanart.tv, The Audio DB |
| Links (website, Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm) | The Audio DB |
The MusicBrainz Artist ID is the key that unlocks all online artist enrichment. When no MBID can be determined for an artist (typically because none of the artist’s tracks or albums matched), no online bio or imagery is fetched. Adding the MBID to file tags or to an artist.nfo is the most reliable fix.
Note that the embedded genre tag in audio files is applied to the track only, not to the album or the artist. See Album and artist genres for how album and artist genres are derived, propagated and merged.
Albums
Section titled “Albums”| Metadata Type | Source(s) |
|---|---|
| Name, sort name, year, album type | File tags, album.nfo, music providers |
| Genres | album.nfo, music providers, The Audio DB, derived from track tags when the filesystem provider’s Propagate track genres option is enabled |
| MusicBrainz Release Group / Album ID | File tags, album.nfo, music providers |
| Description / review | album.nfo (<review>), music providers, The Audio DB |
| Style, mood, label | The Audio DB |
| Links (Wikipedia, AllMusic, Last.fm, social) | The Audio DB |
| Front cover, disc art | See Artwork |
Tracks
Section titled “Tracks”| Metadata Type | Source(s) |
|---|---|
| Title, version, artists, album, disc / track number, duration, year | File tags, music providers |
| MusicBrainz Recording ID, ISRC, barcode | File tags, music providers |
| Genres, mood, style, description | File tags, music providers, The Audio DB |
| Explicit flag, copyright, grouping, comment | File tags, music providers |
| Lyrics | See Lyrics |
| Volume normalization value | File tags (R128_* and REPLAYGAIN_*, track and album), music providers (Plex, Subsonic), otherwise measured by Loudness Analysis |
Playlists
Section titled “Playlists”Playlists don’t have rich metadata of their own; instead Music Assistant derives:
- Thumbnail See Artwork
- The top genres present across the playlist’s tracks (the eight most common, requiring at least five occurrences each).
Audiobooks
Section titled “Audiobooks”Audiobook items collect publisher, authors, narrators, duration, description and chapter list, sourced from embedded tags or the audiobook provider (Audiobookshelf, Audible, etc.). Cover artwork follows the same precedence as albums.
Podcasts
Section titled “Podcasts”Podcast shows track publisher and total episode count from the podcast provider (Audiobookshelf, Podcast Index, RSS feed, etc.). Per-episode metadata (title, description, artwork) comes directly from the show’s feed.
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