Metadata & Album Art

Automatically enrich your downloaded music with MusicBrainz metadata and album art.

SeeleSeek can look up track metadata and album art from MusicBrainz and the Cover Art Archive immediately after a download completes, then write that information directly into your audio files.

How it works

When a download finishes, SeeleSeek parses the filename to detect the artist and title (for example, Artist - Title.mp3), then queries MusicBrainz for a matching recording. If a high-confidence match is found (score ≥ 90), the result is selected automatically and the metadata editor opens pre-filled with the album, year, track number, and cover art ready to apply.

You can also open the metadata editor manually on any file via the Downloads view.

Settings

All metadata options are found in Settings → Metadata.

Setting	Default	Description
Fetch metadata automatically	On	Query MusicBrainz automatically after each download
Fetch album art	On	Download cover art from Cover Art Archive when a release match is found. Requires Fetch metadata automatically to be on.
Embed album art in files	On	Write the cover art image into the audio file. Requires Fetch album art to be on.
Set album art as folder icon	On	Apply the album art as a Finder folder icon for the download folder
Organize downloads automatically	Off	Move completed downloads into a folder structure based on the organization pattern
Organization pattern	{artist}/{album}/{track} - {title}	Template used when organize downloads automatically is enabled

Organization pattern variables

When Organize downloads is enabled, SeeleSeek moves each completed file into a path derived from the organization pattern. The following variables are available:

Variable	Value
{artist}	Track artist
{album}	Album name
{track}	Track number
{title}	Track title
{year}	Release year

The default pattern {artist}/{album}/{track} - {title} produces a folder layout like:

Radiohead/
  OK Computer/
    01 - Airbag.mp3
    02 - Paranoid Android.mp3

If any variable cannot be resolved from the metadata (for example, a file with no album tag), SeeleSeek leaves that segment of the path blank and collapses the extra separator.

Album art embedding

Cover art is embedded directly in the audio file — no sidecar files are created. SeeleSeek implements the embedding itself without relying on external tools.

Supported formats and their embedding methods:

Format	Method
MP3	ID3v2.4 APIC frame
FLAC	Vorbis Comment + PICTURE metadata block
AIF / AIFF	IFF container with an embedded ID3v2.4 ID3 chunk

Other audio formats (AAC, OGG, WAV, etc.) are not supported for metadata writing. SeeleSeek will display an “Unsupported file format” error if you attempt to apply metadata to one of these files.

Using the metadata editor

1. Open the editor

   The editor opens automatically after a download if Auto-fetch metadata is on. To open it manually, right-click a completed download and choose Edit Metadata.

2. Review search results

   SeeleSeek displays the top MusicBrainz matches ranked by confidence score. Select the correct recording to populate the title, artist, album, year, and cover art fields.

3. Adjust fields if needed

   All fields are editable. You can type a correction or run a new search with different terms.

4. Replace cover art (optional)

   Click the cover art thumbnail to replace it with an image from your Mac, or drag and drop an image file onto it. Click Clear to remove it.

5. Apply

   Click Apply to write the metadata to the file. The operation is atomic — the original file is only replaced once writing succeeds.

MusicBrainz enforces a rate limit of one request per second. SeeleSeek respects this limit automatically, so searches may take a moment when multiple downloads complete in quick succession.