# MusicBrainz id for tracks from Discogs tagged albums

**URL:** <https://discourse.beets.io/t/musicbrainz-id-for-tracks-from-discogs-tagged-albums/2306>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [March 28, 2023, 10:34am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/musicbrainz-id-for-tracks-from-discogs-tagged-albums/2306 "2023-03-28T10:34:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kinu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ec8ea/32.png) [@kinu](https://discourse.beets.io/u/kinu)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2023, 10:34am UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/musicbrainz-id-for-tracks-from-discogs-tagged-albums/2306/1 "2023-03-28T10:34:25Z")

</div>

I have some albums tagged using the Discogs plugin (and other imported as-is, etc.)

I would like to have set the Musicbrainz id for every individual track in my library, no matter how I tagged the album.

I think I can get this done by making a second fake import (without copy or move) for all my library as singletons, but then I think I will have all my tracks twice in my beets database, one as part of the album and one as singleton .

How can I accomplish this?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![adrian](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/adrian/32/4_2.png) [@adrian](https://discourse.beets.io/u/adrian)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2023, 11:44pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/musicbrainz-id-for-tracks-from-discogs-tagged-albums/2306/2 "2023-04-01T23:44:40Z")

</div>

Actually, re-importing your entire library (`beet import -L`) will not create duplicates, fortunately! It will “re-import” stuff in place, updating metadata for your existing files:  
[https://beets.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reference/cli.html#reimporting](https://beets.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reference/cli.html#reimporting)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kinu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ec8ea/32.png) [@kinu](https://discourse.beets.io/u/kinu)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2023, 2:57pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/musicbrainz-id-for-tracks-from-discogs-tagged-albums/2306/3 "2023-04-02T14:57:36Z")

</div>

Hello.

So, to get the musicbrainz ids for tracks, I shoul do beet import -L -s? Because a reimport, like beet import -L won’t make a difference, say the DiscoGS tagged albums (tagged by DiscoGS because Musicbrainz doesn’t recognize them) will stay the same. Am I wrong?  
Maybe  
beet import -L -s -M -C -w will do the trick?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![adrian](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.beets.io/adrian/32/4_2.png) [@adrian](https://discourse.beets.io/u/adrian)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 7:06pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/musicbrainz-id-for-tracks-from-discogs-tagged-albums/2306/4 "2023-04-07T19:06:42Z")

</div>

Ah, that’s interesting! I would be careful with using `-s` because beets will probably want to make your songs into “singletons,” i.e., to disassociate them from their album structures. So I’m not sure I have a perfect idea for how to do this on a per-track basis in a non-disruptive way…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kinu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ec8ea/32.png) [@kinu](https://discourse.beets.io/u/kinu)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2023, 5:29pm UTC](https://discourse.beets.io/t/musicbrainz-id-for-tracks-from-discogs-tagged-albums/2306/5 "2023-04-10T17:29:36Z")

</div>

Hi!  
Yes, I was thinking the same, so…

Use another config file, set another database, set

```auto
write to yes
copy to no
move to no

```

and then process the directory using this new config file and `-s`.

This is supposed to write the id for every track (that is in musicbrainz, of course), and modify nothing in my “good” db.

And then `beet update`.

What do you think?  
NOTE: apparently, it works without messing things