beets

beets is an open-source media library management system designed for organizing music collections. It catalogs audio files and automatically improves metadata through a tagging system that corrects track and album information. The software focuses on ensuring that a music collection is accurately tagged and structured once and for all, removing the need for manual corrections across large numbers of files.

The software operates as a command line interface tool. It allows users to import music folders, verify metadata against external databases, and manipulate files to maintain a consistent library structure. By analyzing existing files, the system identifies discrepancies in track names or album titles and suggests corrections based on high similarity percentages from trusted sources.

Key features

• Automatic metadata improvement via MusicBrainz, Discogs, and Beatport
• Detection of duplicate tracks and missing album tracks
• Audio transcoding to various formats
• Retrieval of album art, lyrics, genres, and tempos
• Calculation of ReplayGain levels and acoustic fingerprints
• Embedding and extraction of album art from file metadata
• Web browser interface for library browsing and HTML5 audio playback
• Integration with music players using the MPD protocol

Written in Python, beets is designed as a library that supports extensibility through a plugin system. Users with Python knowledge can write custom plugins to add specific functionality to their workflow, making the tool adaptable to various organizational needs. The system can guess metadata using filenames or acoustic fingerprints when database matches are unavailable, and it provides tools to clean up tags left behind by other software. It integrates with the Music Player Daemon protocol, allowing the library to be accessed by a wide variety of compatible music player interfaces.

This tool is intended for users who require precise control over their music metadata and file organization.