Make Picard able to write its metadata to a local file, and able to read metadata from a local file instead of from MusicBrainz. I would use this for unpublished albums which I want to tag and play in my music collection, but don’t want to add to MusicBrainz.

For example, when my chorus makes an archival recording of a performance which, for business reasons, we are not allowed to distribute. Or, when I rip the audio from an opera DVD, and I break the audio into more helpful “tracks” than the original DVD used.

A possible format for the local data might be the XML data file which MusicBrainz can deliver via a Release’s “Details” tab.

The local data should be able to refer to existing MusicBrainz entities, or to local entities, as the user prefers. For instance, in my use cases, I will almost always want to refer to Work and Artist entities that exist on MusicBrainz, but have local Recording entities. The Release entity might be local for the archival recording case, but a MusicBrainz Release ID for the structured DVD audio case.

Picard's existing metadata editing UI, in the lower pane of its window, is an adequate interface for such editing. It would be helpful of the plugin API were adequate to allow implementation of a UI like the MusicBrainz web app as a Picard plugin. Such a plugin is, I think, out of scope for this ticket.

Originally posted to Metabrainz Community thread,
GSoC 2024: Configuration wizard for Picard .