Import & Export

Updated

Overview

Music → Import & Export moves your music in and out of the site:

  • Copy everything to another Dirigible site: one JSON file holds every release with its cover art, links, credits and track list, and every song with its lyrics, credits and links.
  • Use a spreadsheet: download your releases or your songs as a CSV, edit them in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets, and import the sheet back. Or fill in a blank one to add a catalogue at once.

You can also get there from the Import and Export buttons at the top of the Releases and Songs lists. You need an Editor or Administrator account. Importing also needs permission to upload files, because cover art is downloaded into your Media Library.

This needs the latest Dirigible theme. On an older theme you see the previous version of this screen, which reads and writes JSON files only.

Export

  1. Go to Music → Import & Export and stay on the Export tab.
  2. Choose JSON to copy your music to another Dirigible site, or Spreadsheet (CSV) and then Releases or Songs.
  3. Turn on Include drafts and private ones if you want those too. Off, the file holds only what visitors can see.
  4. Select Download export file.

Releases and songs with a password come along only when drafts are included, and arrive on the other site as private: the password itself never goes in the file. Set a new one there if you need it.

Import

  1. Go to the Import tab and drop the file on the box, or select Choose a file. A JSON file from Music → Import & Export on any Dirigible site works, including files made by earlier versions of Dirigible Music.
  2. Nothing changes yet. You see every song and release in the file, songs first, with what will happen to it:
    • New: it isn't on this site, so it's added.
    • Update: it's already here and the file has changes. The list names them (Lyrics, Track list, Cover art…).
    • Skip (No changes): it's already here and identical.
    • Skip (Already on this site): you chose to leave existing ones alone.
  3. Untick anything you don't want brought in.
  4. Choose what happens to releases and songs already on this site: Update it from the file, or Leave it as it is (only add new ones).
  5. Select Import. Keep the page open until it finishes. If it's interrupted, open the page again and select Resume import: nothing is added twice.

Spreadsheets

A spreadsheet holds releases or songs, not both: the import reads it as whichever its columns fit, and says which. Download a blank spreadsheet on the Export tab gives you the right headers.

  • Track list: the release's songs in order, separated by |, by song title or the last part of its web address, like Intro | The Long Road | outro. Import the songs first: a song the site doesn't have is left off the track list, and the preview tells you. (A JSON file carries songs and releases together, so this doesn't come up there.)
  • Length: minutes and seconds, like 3:45.
  • Listen links: addresses separated by |.
  • Release date: 2026-03-14 or 3/14/2026.
  • Type: Album, EP, Single, Live Album or Compilation.
  • Show lyrics: Yes or No.

An empty cell never clears anything. A value that can't be used (an ISRC in the wrong shape, a date that doesn't exist) is noted in the preview and leaves that field as it is.

How releases and songs are matched

A release is the same release when it has the same web address (the last part of its URL, like summer-ep), or the same title. A song is matched by its web address, then by its ISRC, then by its title, so a song that's on several releases is only ever added once.

Status and addresses

New releases and songs keep their status from the file, so drafts stay drafts. A release that comes in published publishes its songs too, the same as publishing it in the editor. Releases and songs that are updated keep their current status and address on this site.

Cover art

Cover art is downloaded from the site the file came from, so that site needs to be online. A cover that's already in the Media Library is reused, never downloaded twice, including covers filled in earlier from Apple Music, Bandcamp, Spotify or Deezer. When a cover can't be downloaded, the import finishes without it and lists it: add it by hand afterwards. A release in the file with no cover art keeps the cover it already has.

Undo an import

When an import finishes, select Undo this import. It deletes the releases and songs that import added and the cover art it downloaded, and puts every release and song it updated back exactly as it was, track lists included. Anything edited after the import is left as it is and listed, and cover art that something else now uses is kept. Undo stays available for 7 days.

Import a whole discography

Music → Import Discography adds every album, EP and single a band has on Apple Music in one go, each filled in the way Fill in from a link fills one release: title, type, release date, cover art, track list with each song's length, and its Apple Music link. You can also get there from the Import Discography button at the top of the Releases list. It needs the same account as importing a file: Editor or Administrator, with permission to upload files.

  1. Paste the link to the band on Apple Music. In Apple Music, open the artist, then Share → Copy Link (it looks like music.apple.com/us/artist/your-band/123456789). A Spotify artist link works too: the band is found on Apple Music by name, so check the releases listed are really yours. With your links under Music → Settings → Artist profiles, the box starts filled in. When you import with no Apple Music profile set, the artist you imported becomes it.
  2. Select Find releases. Nothing changes yet. You see every release with its cover, type, date and number of tracks:
    • New: not on this site yet, and ticked.
    • Already here: a release on this site has its Apple Music link, or the same title and year. Unticked, so it isn't added twice. The line under it names the release it matched.
    • Clean version: the clean copy of an explicit release. Unticked.
    • Appears on: a compilation or someone else's album the band is on. These are hidden unless you turn on Show releases the artist only appears on, and never ticked to start with.
  3. Untick anything you don't want. Deluxe and remastered editions are listed as releases of their own, so untick the copies you don't need.
  4. Leave Publish them off to add everything as drafts and check them first, or turn it on to publish straight away.
  5. Select Import 3 releases (it counts the ticked ones). Keep the page open until it finishes. Apple Music answers about 20 requests a minute and each release takes one, so a big catalogue pauses now and then and shows a countdown. If it's interrupted, open Music → Import Discography again, pick it under Recent imports and select Resume import: nothing is added twice.

A song that's on several releases, like a single and the album it's also on, comes in once and both releases share it. A song that's already on this site (the same title) is used as it is: its lyrics, length and links aren't changed. Songs come in with their title and length; add lyrics and credits afterwards.

Apple Music doesn't share ISRCs, UPCs, labels or links to other services, so those stay empty. Open a release and use Fill in from a link with its Bandcamp or Spotify link to add them.

Undo a discography import

When it finishes, select Undo this import. It deletes the releases and songs that import added and the cover art it downloaded. Songs that were already on this site stay, and so does anything edited after the import (it's listed). Undo stays available for 7 days under Recent imports.

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