MetaBrainz Foundation Inc

The MetaBrainz Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 2004 by Robert Kaye, creates and maintains open data projects that provide reliable structured metadata for various forms of media.It seeks to build free and accessible knowledge repositories and foster collaboration within an open community. The foundation operates under an open data and open-source ethos, with its data and tools freely available for public use, distribution, and modification. We encourage developers, researchers, and organizations to contribute and create derivative projects, ultimately enriching the ecosystem around open media metadata.
MetaBrainz's flagship project, MusicBrainz, is an extensive, user-driven music database for artist, album, track, and release information. It supports applications like Picard for digital music libraries tagging and serves as a foundational resource with contributions from users and support from companies like Google and the BBC.
ListenBrainz focuses on recording and analyzing music listening habits, inspired by projects like Last.fm. Users can use these insights to explore trends and personalized recommendations.
BookBrainz is an open database for book metadata, similar to MusicBrainz but tailored for literature, cataloging authors, works, editions, and other entities in the literary world. This open data is invaluable for libraries, researchers, and readers seeking a community-driven book database.
The MetaBrainz Foundation’s commitment to open-source is integral to its mission. All software including the tools, APIs, and data structures, is released under open-source licenses. This transparency ensures the data remains free for everyone, regardless of commercial or non-commercial use, while encouraging contributions from a global user base.
MetaBrainz is funded by partnerships, sponsorships, and community donations, allowing it to remain independent and committed to providing high-quality, free data for users and the digital landscape.