MetaBrainz Summit 2024

MetaBrainz nerds at the Jantar Mantar observatory. Left to right: jasje, reosarevok, atj, zas, KasukabeDefenceForce, monkey, yvanzo, lucifer, mayhem, ansh, theflash_, kellnerd, bitmap, akshaaatt, ApeKattQuest, outsidecontext, aerozol

This year it was New Delhi, India, that was invaded by data nerds from across the globe!

The MetaBrainz team was treated to the glorious chaos, hospitality, sights, noise, sweets, monkeys, traffic, heat, and delicious food of India. We reflected on the last year in MetaBrainz, planned and collaborated for the future, and got a little work done – when we could fit it in between mouthfuls of Indian sweets.

Read on for a comprehensive summit recap, including the annual recap for each MetaBrainz project, as well as breakout session notes, photos, and links to the slides and video recordings.

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Withdrawn and Expunged releases in MusicBrainz

In a hurry? Here’s what you need to know: We have a new release status in MusicBrainz, “Expunged”.

Expunged is to be used for “previously official releases that were expunged from an artist or record company’s discography”. If the artist or label have not given a clear indication that they want to disown the release, use the “Withdrawn” status instead. See the style guidelines for examples and a longer description.

If you’re not in a hurry, stick around and let’s dig a little deeper.

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MusicBrainz Server update, 2024-10-21

As mentioned in the banner of MusicBrainz website for a week already, images for events and releases are currently unavailable due to the Internet Archive (IA) recovering from a DDoS attack. See the IA’s Mastodon page for follow-up. Both the Cover Art Archive and the Event Art Archive were available from the Internet Archive which is doing its best to restore services safely, that will take as many days as necessary. Meanwhile, today’s server update temporarily disables editing images, until our access to the Internet Archive is fully restored. It also brings some updates behind the scenes. Last but not least, it also features a few improvements and bugfixes, mainly contributed by volunteers without whom this would not have the same significance!

A new release of MusicBrainz Docker is also available that matches this update of MusicBrainz Server. See the release notes for update instructions.

Thanks to derat, Divyansh Gupta, and Serial-ATA for having contributed to the code. Thanks to Dan and HibiscusKazeneko for having reported bugs and suggested improvements. Thanks to Arainuki, Aris_8585, blit, Echelon666, salo.rock, Vaclovas Intas, and wileyfoxyx for updating the translations. And thanks to all others who tested the beta version!

The git tag is v-2024-10-21.0.

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GSoC 2024: MusicBrainz – Internet Archive integration: Saving external links in the Wayback Machine

Introduction

Greetings, Everyone!

I am Ashutosh Aswal (IRC nick yellowhatpro), a Computer Science grad from PEC University, India. This is my second time contributing to MetaBrainz as a GSoC contributor, and unlike the last time, when I contributed to the ListenBrainz Android app, this year, I took a challenge to learn a new language and framework (Rust and Postgres) to create this delightful project, Melba, which stands for MusicBrainz’s External Links wayBack machine Archiver.

As the name suggests, the project saves external webpages linked in the MusicBrainz database to the Internet Archive using Wayback Machine API. Let me walk you through the making of Melba.

Let’s begin!! ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

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