MusicSearch

All Features

Feature Matrix

This represents whether a feature is available (✅) on a platform, planned (⬜), or not supported (❌). Some ✅ features are still work-in-progress, and their progress are tracked under their respective sections. Inspired by Spotless’ feature matrix.

Feature	Android	Desktop	iOS
Browse	✅	✅	✅
Collections	✅	✅	✅
Export	✅	✅	⬜
Images	✅	✅	✅
Graph	✅	✅	✅
Local Database	✅	✅	✅
MusicBrainz Login	✅	✅	✅
Pixel Now Playing History	✅	❌	❌
Search MusicBrainz	✅	✅	✅
Spotify Playing History	✅	⬜️	⬜️
Swipe to Refresh	✅	✅	✅
Themes	✅	✅	✅
Up navigation from subtitle	✅	✅	✅
Wikipedia Extract	✅	✅	✅

Browse

The following table shows all resources you can browse for in an entity’s details screen. It was derived from https://wiki.musicbrainz.org/MusicBrainz_API#Browse.

Given an entity, when you click on them from anywhere in the app, you will land on their details page. In separate tabs, you can see all related entities listed under browsing supported. e.g. On an artist’s page, you can see their events, recordings, releases, release groups, and works.

Entity	Browsing supported	Browsing not yet supported	Unsupported
area	artists, events, labels, places, releases	collections	recordings, works
artist	events, recordings, releases, release groups, works	collections
collection	areas, artists, events, instruments, labels, places, recordings, releases, release groups, series, works
event		collections
instrument		collections
label	releases	collections
place	events	collections
recording	releases	collections	artists
release	artists	collections	labels, recordings, release groups
release group	releases	collections	artists
series		collections
work	artists, recordings	collections

There are no url details screen, clicking a url will just go to that url, either opening it in the browser, or deep linking to an app that supports it
labels by release have been excluded, as we fetch all labels in the initial lookup with inc=labels, displaying it in the Details tab
releases by track (which releases a given track is found in) is not supported as we don’t have a track details screen. Clicking a track goes to its associated recording
releases by track_artist may eventually be supported, but is not planned. This would be found in an artist’s details screen
artists by recording have been excluded as it is already fetched with initial recording lookup and is displayed as artist credits in the top bar
artists by release group have been excluded as it is already fetched with initial release group lookup and is displayed as artist credits in the top bar
recordings by release have been excluded as it is the same as tracks by release which we already fetch with release lookup
release groups by release have been excluded as it is already fetched with initial release lookup and is displayed in the top bar dropdown menu. There is only one such release group a release may belong to

Collections

Your personal list of entities.

From an entity’s details screen, tap More (vertical ellipsis) show a bottom sheet of collections that you can add it to. You also have the option to create a new collection from this bottom sheet. If it is already in a collection, a checkmark will appear next to that collection.

The Collections screen shows all of your collections. Local collections only exists on your device and will not be synced to MusicBrainz’s server. Remote collections are synced to MusicBrainz’s server as long as you are logged in.

New local collections can be created but will only exist locally because there isn’t an API to create new collections yet.

Tapping a list item’s icon or long-pressing the item will select it. From the More menu item, you can delete all selected items. Be careful with remote collections, as it will delete the item from your collection in MusicBrainz. You are given a brief period of time to undo your deletion. Once up, or if you leave the screen, the items will be deleted from your collection for good.

A collection can only store one type of entity. See below for the supported types of collections.

Entity	Supported
area	✅
artist	✅
collection	❌
event	✅
instrument	✅
label	✅
place	✅
recording	✅
release	✅
release group	✅
series	✅
work	✅

Export

Exporting the app’s database as a sqlite database is supported.

You will need to use a tool such as SQLite’s CLI to interact with it.

Images

Entity	Supported	Source
area	⬜️	wikidata?
artist	✅	Spotify
collection	⬜️
event	✅️	Event Art Archive
instrument	❌
label	⬜️	wikidata?
place	❌
recording	❌
release	✅	Cover Art Archive
release group	✅	Cover Art Archive
series	❌
work	❌

Graph

Artist/recording graph showing which artists and recordings a given artist collaborated with and on. This is currently limited to artists credited on the recording, which are primarily performers.

Inspired by Obsidian’s graph view.

Local Database

Browse all entities that have been cached locally in the app’s database while you were searching.

Browse local database images

All images that you’ve come across are stored in the app’s local database. This feature allows you to browse them in a grid. You can filter and sort based on a few metadata such as its type (e.g. Front, Spine, Back), comment, and the linked entity’s name.

From the app’s settings, you can login to your MusicBrianz account. This allows the app to fetch and display all of your collections.

Search MusicBrainz

Entity	Supported
area	✅
artist	✅
collection	❌
event	✅
instrument	✅
label	✅
place	✅
recording	✅
release	✅
release group	✅
series	✅
work	✅

Spotify Playing History

You must enable “Device Broadcast Status” from Spotify’s settings to allow this app to receive broadcasts from Spotify. Afterwards, with both Spotify and MusicSearch open, your listening history will be recorded, allowing you to search for recently played tracks’ artists, albums (release groups), and tracks (recordings) in MusicBrianz.

Swipe to Refresh

TODO: screenshot of details screen TODO: screenshot of list screen

Entity	Details	List Screen
area	✅	✅
artist	✅	✅
collection	❌	✅
event	✅️	✅
instrument	✅	✅
label	✅️	✅
place	✅	✅
recording	✅	✅
release	✅	✅
release group	✅️	✅
series	✅	✅
work	✅	✅

A collection does not have a details screen. It only has one tab which lists all of its contents. e.g. An artist collection lists all of its artists
List screens are analogous to those listed under “Browsing supported” in the browse feature section.

Themes

All platforms have support for light, dark, and system theme.

Android 12+ has support for dynamic color based off of your wallpaper (Material You).

When not using Material You, you can pick a color with a picker that creates a theme based off of it.

TODO: Insert an image/gif of a release with multiple artist credits

From the subtitle of the following screens, you can navigate “up” without having visited them first.

Recording -> Artist
Release -> Artist, Release Group
Release Group -> Artist

Wikipedia extract

Displays a Wikipedia excerpt of the entity along with a link to deep link into Wikipedia to read more. This depends on the existence of a Wikidata link. If an entity is missing one, consider adding it to MusicBrainz, and/or to Wikidata.

At the moment, we always get the English Wikipedia article’s extract.

Entity	Details
area	✅️
artist	✅
event	✅️
instrument	✅
label	✅️
place	✅
recording	✅
release	✅
release group	✅
series	✅
work	✅

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