beets.io 

Music organizer.

Ports

Files

Docker Creation

The UID/GID should be set to a user/group that have access to your media.
Map your media directly to where it was before on the docker container to prevent needing to modify any libraries.

Example config.yaml

Docker Compose

beets:
  image: linuxserver/beets:latest
  restart: unless-stopped
  environment:
    - PGID=1001
    - PUID=1001
    - TZ=America/Los_Angeles
  volumes:
    - /data/downloads/complete/music:/data/downloads/complete/music
    - /data/media/music:/data/media/music
    - /data/services/beets:/config
    - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro

Proxy will forward traffic to the container, so no ports need to be opened.

Reverse Proxy Setup

Allows you to isolate your containers as well as wrap connections in SSL. See NGINX for more details. See Setup Base Proxy Control for basic proxy configuration.

0644 user user beets/config.yaml

web:
  host: 0.0.0.0
  port: 8337
  reverse_proxy: yes

Using Subdomains

0644 root root nginx/conf.d/reverse-proxy.conf

server {
  listen                           443 ssl http2;
  server_name                      beets.{DOMAIN} beets;

  location / {
    proxy_pass                     http://beets:8337;
    include                        /etc/nginx/conf.d/proxy-control.conf;
    proxy_set_header Host          $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Scheme      $scheme;
    proxy_set_header X-Script-Name /beets;
  }
}

Using Subpaths

0644 root root nginx/conf.d/reverse-proxy.conf

server {
  location /beets {
    proxy_pass                     http://beets:8337;
    include                        /etc/nginx/conf.d/proxy-control.conf;
    proxy_set_header Host          $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Scheme      $scheme;
    proxy_set_header X-Script-Name /beets;
  }
}

Managing Library

Beets CLI interface

sudo docker exec -it -u abc beets bash

Importing Music 

Import using default options from config.

beet import /path/to/music

Warning

Pay attention to unmatched tracks, these will not be imported if the current selection is choosen.

Note

It may freeze importing. Generally this is fingerprinting music and updating metadata with correct info/art. Let this run. Will be longer for larger number of imported items.

Chroma (fingerprinting), musicbrainz, and other background tasks will be executed simultaneously in the background for the given directory. This should be kept small, such as a single album or artist. This is slow.

All albums need to be decided on before import starts. Keep import small.
Generally, go through potential matches. Any non-exact matches are usually fairly in accurate.
Use i for musicbrainz ID if the top guesses are not accurate. This is helpful to force a specific ID.
Duplicate albums that need to be disambiguated should be imported as normal. When prompted This album is already in the library, select the K eep option. This will use aunique to disambiguate the albums.

Re-importing Music

Music may be re-imported if already existing. just use the library path.

Reimport an existing album.

beet import -L /data/media/music/existing/artist/album

Note

If you have incremental enabled, you may have to remove the metadata from the library before importing.

Adding to an Existing Album

Adding a track to an existing album is a bit confusing, especially if it is a compilation/various artist album.

Make sure to select the metadata tracks that match the album.

Determine the existing album metadata.
beet info {QUERY}

Select the correct album on the import prompt.
Beets will ask to merge, list a summary of existing and new tracks; open an additional shell, find the track locally and ensure there’s no collisions with the merge.
Select the correct album on the merged import prompt.

Fixing ‘featuring’ Tracks

The plugin ftintitle generally takes care of this, but there are certain cases where this is not the case. This addresses these cases.

ftintitle works by using the albumartist as the real artist and artist field for featured artists (‘feat.’ artists).

Set the albumartist to the appropriate artist.

beet modify albumartist='single artist' {QUERY}

Note

You should use list to find appropriate data to match.

Set artist to appropriate ‘feat.’ text (if needed).

beet modify artist='single artist feat. other artist' {QUERY}

Note

Generally this is setup correctly in musicbrainz.

Re-run ftintitle.

beet -v ftintitle {QUERY}

Note

This should pickup your artist changes and act appropriately.

Manually Moving Files

Sometimes if an import half-way through, some files will be imported, others will not.

Execute moves based on existing music metadata.

beet move

Note

Use -p to test before applying.

Update the Library

This will update the database with any new file metadata, as well as organize existing files according to metadata:

beet update

Note

Use -p to test before applying.

Changing Music Metadata

Useful for fixing bad imports, or for getting music to re-import correctly.

beet modify [attribute]=[value] {QUERY}

Note

Ensure to use list to make sure you are only modifying the tracks that you want.

Removing Tracks

This is useful for re-importing tracks, as well as permenant deletion.

beet remove {QUERY}

Note

This will remove file metadata from library (does not delete files).

Use -d to actually delete files.

Querying Music

By default queries all fields for matches. Can use path specifier to specify an exact file, as well as attribute matching. See additional querying options.

Query Matching Fields

beet list {FIELD}:{VALUE}

Match Exact String

beet list 'some exact title'

Find Empty Fields

Finding empty fields (uses regex matching).

beet list [field]::^$

Match All Fields

beet list ":^$"

Path Matching

Path matching (useful for files with exact same metadata).

beet list path:/my/music/directory/or/file

Note

Path is implied with /.

beet list /my/music/directory/or/file

Works as well.

Importing Gotchas

Sometimes beets just doesn’t import correctly.

Modify Pre-import Data

Use avprobe and mid3v2 modify pre-import metadata. For cases where pre-manipulation of track data will help for a better match, or fixing a bad match detection.

List current metadata.

mid3v2 -l {FILE}

Update metadata.

mid3v2 -t 'new title' {FILE}
mid3v2 -T '1/5' {FILE}
mid3v2 -A 'new album' {FILE}
mid3v2 -a 'new artist' {FILE}

Note

In practice, usually just the track and title need to be changed. See man page for all options.

Get File Info/Track Length/Bitrate

Useful for matching duplicates in beets, or track lengths to albums.

avprobe {FILE}

Force Import a Track as a Single Specific Track

This will resolve tracks that are consistently mis-identified even after munging the metadata.

Find the recording ID for musicbrains (the individual track ID on musicbrainz).

Import singleton track.

bash beet import -s /import/album/track.mp3

Note

S option to import singleton.
I to select a recording ID.

Re-import the now correct track into the existing album. Find the album ID from musicbrains or existing album in beets.

Re-import now correct track.

beets beet import /data/media/music/Non-Albums/imported-track-from-above.mp3

Note

I to select a release ID.
M merge tracks into album.

References

beets.io reverse proxy

beets.io

Ports

Files

Docker Creation

Reverse Proxy Setup

Using Subdomains

Using Subpaths

Managing Library

Importing Music

Re-importing Music

Adding to an Existing Album

Fixing ‘featuring’ Tracks

Manually Moving Files

Update the Library

Changing Music Metadata

Removing Tracks

Querying Music

Query Matching Fields

Match Exact String

Find Empty Fields

Match All Fields

Path Matching

Importing Gotchas

Modify Pre-import Data

Get File Info/Track Length/Bitrate

Force Import a Track as a Single Specific Track

beets.io 

Importing Music 