Linking a Discogs release to a MusicBrainz Release

Linking a Discogs release to a MusicBrainz Release

In the past there have been two significant problems with trying to link Discogs releases to MusicBrainz release.

Finding a release

Firstly, it was difficult to Discogs release that can be linked to MusicBrainz but aren't already. You could browse an artist releases on Discogs but there is no indication on the Discogs site as to which ones are already linked to a MusicBrainz release. You can check whether an individual release on MusicBrainz is linked to the Discogs but you cannot filter a list of releases by whether or not they are already linked. 

And when popular artists can have hundreds of Discogs releases linked to a single master, and even moderately popular artists can often have more than thirty it is difficult to find the correct release to link to if any. Working out the best match is difficult when having to consider and compare differences and matches in metadata such as track lists, catalogue nos, barcodes, country of release and record labels.

Linking the Release

Secondly you have to actually add the link. 

Linking the release is not so difficult but when the Discogs release contains extra information that the MusicBrainz release does not have, wouldn't it be good to get that data in as well, but adding that extra data for more than a few releases at a time is time-consuming.

Linking a Discogs release to a MusicBrainz Release with Albunack

Today I am going to show you how to easily link Discogs releases to MusicBrainz releases with Albunacks artist-centric approach solves both of these problem

Finding a Release

Albunack combines data from both databases to provide comprehensive combined Artist discographies.:

• Information from MusicBrainz and Discogs is combined on a single page.
• Release group, Release and Track listings are all available on a single page.
• Existing links between MusicBrainz and Discogs are shown
• Potential matches identified by Albunack are shown. 

Linking a Release

When you click on the link button Albunack not only links the two releases but adds additional data such as barcodes and catalogue nos, you simply have to check the data and then click submit.

We have created a video to show exactly how this is done