MusicBrainz Picard

MusicBrainz Picard is a free, powerful music tagger software for Windows PC written in Python. Picard supports all popular music formats, including MP3, FLAC, OGG, M4A, WMA, WAV, and more.

Picard uses AcoustID audio fingerprints, allowing files to be identified by the actual music, even if they have no metadata.

Picard can look up entire music CDs with a click. If you need a particular feature, you can choose from a selection of available plugins or write your own. Picard is licensed under GPL 2.0 or later, and is hosted on GitHub, where it’s actively developed by some awesome developers.

Start by opening individual music files or directories by dragging them into the left-hand pane. Picard will read the metadata from each of the files, and unless they have been tagged before, the files will be deposited into the "Unmatched files" folder.

Key Features

• Automatic music tagging using the MusicBrainz database.
• Acoustic fingerprinting (AcoustID) to identify tracks by audio content.
• Batch processing for organizing large music collections.
• Advanced metadata editing with customizable tagging scripts.
• Support for a wide range of audio formats.
• Cluster and lookup features for grouping and matching files.
• Plugin system for extended functionality.
• Cross-platform support for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

What’s New

• Internal Library Search & Filtering: Built-in search across main panes for faster navigation of large collections.
• Advanced Cover Art Processing: Full control over resizing, format conversion, filtering by size, separate embedded/external artwork handling, and web URL import.
• Redesigned Plugin System: New plugin API with improved management, execution order control, CLI installation, and extended integration hooks.
• Session Save & Restore: Ability to save and reload the current working session.
• Copy & Paste Tags: Support for copying and pasting one or multiple metadata tags between files.
• New Metadata Variables: Added powerful scripting variables like _genres, _folksonomy_tags, _broadcast_date, _filesize, and artist country.
• Enhanced Internal Player: Keyboard shortcuts, playback speed, pitch adjustment, and MPRIS2 / system integration support.
• Custom Columns & Detailed Views: User-defined columns, file type display, bitrate/size info, and cover dimension column.
• Expanded Disc & SCSI Support: Improved disc ID lookup and raw SCSI TOC parsing support.
• Major Stability & Platform Improvements: Extensive crash fixes, better image handling, PyQt 6 migration, Apple Silicon support, and improved cross-platform reliability.

Files that have been tagged before and contain MusicBrainz track identifiers will open up in the right-hand pane as part of their release.

Instead of using release-oriented and metadata-dependent lookups, Picard can try to tag your files as single files (rather than a cluster) based on their audio fingerprint. If you select a set of files in the left-hand pane and click "Scan", Picard will find AcoustIDs for your files and query MusicBrainz to find a track that matches them.

If you want granular control over how your files are being tagged, or the above methods provided inaccurate results (or no results), the alternative is to manually look up and choose the correct release(s) for your files.

Picard is very flexible and can be customized using scripts and plugins to do things such as:

• Rename and reorganize your collection using the functions provided in the scripting language
• Customize how Picard applies the MusicBrainz metadata to your files
• Encapsulate scripting, download cover art, and add other functionality to Picard

A lot of Picard's power is in its extensive drag-and-drop features. Try some of these operations:

• Drag a file from the file browser to an album track.
• Drag a file from the file browser to an album -- this attempts to match the file to the album automatically.
• Drag a directory from the file browser to an album -- this attempts to match all the files from the directory to the album.
• Drag an album cluster onto an album to match the cluster to the album.
• Drag one album onto another to match all the files from one to the other.
• Drag an album cluster into unmatched files to move the cluster back to unmatched.
• Drag unmatched files from an album onto another album or back to unmatched files.

Picard supports the following file formats:

• MPEG-1 Audio (.mp3, .mp2, .m2a)
• MPEG-4 Audio (.m4a, .m4b, .m4p, .m4v, .mp4)
• Windows Media Audio (.wma, .wmv, .asf)
• Microsoft WAVE (.wav)
• The True Audio (.tta)
• FLAC (.flac)
• Audio Interchange File Format (.aiff, .aif, .aifc)
• Musepack (.mpc, .mp+)
• WavPack (.wv)
• OptimFROG (.ofr, .ofs)
• Monkey's Audio (.ape)
• Tom's lossless Audio Kompressor (.tak)
• Speex (.spx)
• Ogg FLAC (.oggflac)
• Ogg Theora (.ogg)
• Ogg Opus (.opus)
• Ogg Audio (.oga)
• Ogg Video (.ogv)
• Ogg Video (.ogv)
• ADTS stream / AAC (.aac)
• AC-3 (.ac3, .eac3)

Alternatives

If you are looking for MusicBrainz Picard as an alternative, we recommend downloading Tag&Rename.

How to Use

• Open Picard and drag your music files into the left panel
• Click "Lookup" to find metadata for your music files
• Use "Scan" to analyze and match audio fingerprints
• Review matched metadata and manually edit if needed
• Save tags to embed metadata into music files
• Rename and organize files based on metadata settings
• Use plugins to enhance functionality and features
• Configure options in settings for custom preferences
• Save changes and verify tags in your music player

FAQs

What is MusicBrainz Picard used for?
MusicBrainz Picard is an open-source music tagging application that automatically identifies and organizes digital audio files. It uses acoustic fingerprinting and the MusicBrainz database to accurately tag songs with correct metadata such as artist, album, track number, and cover art.

Is MusicBrainz Picard free and safe to use?
Yes. Picard is free, open-source software developed by the MusicBrainz community. When downloaded from the official website, it is safe and widely trusted for managing music libraries.

Is MusicBrainz Picard still relevant in 2026?
Yes. In 2026, Picard remains actively maintained and widely used by music collectors and audiophiles who want precise and consistent tagging for large music libraries.

System Requirements

• Windows 11 or Windows 10
• 2 GHz dual-core processor or better
• 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended)
• 200 MB of free disk space
• Internet connection for metadata retrieval

PROS

• Accurate music metadata tagging
• Supports multiple audio formats
• Free and open-source software
• Batch processing for large libraries
• Plugin support for added features

CONS

• Occasional incorrect metadata matches
• Limited UI customization options
• Can be slow with large libraries
• Requires internet for best results

Also Available: Download MusicBrainz Picard for Mac