<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Export Library to CSV File |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
The command 'Library Management > Export Library to CSV File...' exports the music library to a file which can be imported into Microsoft Excel or any application which supports CSV files. In Excel, you can manipulate the data and save it in other formats. You can also easily write scripts or simple programs to read and process the CSV file data.
'CSV file' means 'Comma-Separated Value' file. It is a simple column-based text file where each line represents a row, and a row is a single track in the music library. Each item (column) in the row is separated by a comma ','. The file uses the UTF-8 charcater set, which works for all languages (but the CSV header is always in English).
Here are the first few lines of a CSV file created by MuMan:
The very first line is called the 'CSV header'. It defines the name of each column, separated by commas:
Artist,Album,TrackNumber,TrackName,Rating,Genre,Mood,Bpm,Length,Year,Added,NumPlays,LastPlayed,Path
Below that, each line (each row) defines one track in the library database:
2 GuitarViols,2GV,1,The Straight of Gibralter,,Fusion,,,00:04:05,2006,2017.04.22 18:45:16,1,2020.10.07 16:30:28,D:\Music\2 GuitarViols\2GV\01_The Straight of Gibralter_2 GuitarViols.wav
The example above has three undefined (empty) columns: Rating, Mood and Bpm.
If the text itself contains the comma separator, it is enclosed in double quotes according to the CSV standard:
Acoustic Alchemy,Reference Point,4,"Same Road, Same Reason",4,Fusion,Light,136,00:04:52,1990,2009.04.01 21:56:24,,,"D:\Music\Acoustic Alchemy\Reference Point\04_Same Road, Same Reason_Acoustic Alchemy.wav"
To open the CSV file in Microsoft Excel, open the "Data" menu, choose "From Text/CSV", and select the CSV file which you exported from MuMan. This should display a window showing the expected imported data. Press the "Load" button and it creates the spreadsheet for you with the correct column titles and data types:
For those of you who want to engage in or discuss a technical field obsessively or with great attention to detail (ref. Oxford Dictionary) or are slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits (ref. Webster), the CSV file format is formally defined here: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4180
If you would like MuMan to export your music library in another format, just ask info@muman.ch. It's probably very easy to do...