beets-clapback

Look up, embed, and — if you say so — contribute CLAP embeddings for your beets library to the clapback commons. absubmit reborn, with a payload that can actually be reconciled across contributors.

pip install beets-clapback

plugins: chroma clapback

clapback:
  contribute: no      # opt-in. Turn it on when you have read "what leaves the machine".

beet clapback                        # every track: look up, else embed; contribute if enabled
beet clapback artist:Autechre        # any beets query
beet clapback -p                     # say what would happen, touch nothing
beet clapback-search "dreamy ambient with piano"

What it does

For each track: hash the AcoustID fingerprint the chroma plugin already stored (or compute one), ask the commons whether it holds an embedding for that recording from the reference pipeline, and if so take it — the model does not run. If not, embed locally with clapback-embed, keep the vector, and contribute it back only when contribute: yes.

Two flexible attributes land on each item, so you can query them like anything else:

beet ls clapback_status:local        # embedded here, not yet in the commons
beet ls -a clapback_status:found     # albums the commons already had

The vectors live in clapback/ under your beets config directory, so clapback-search works offline over everything embedded or fetched. Delete that directory and nothing is lost but time.

What it needs

• chroma enabled, or chromaprint installed so this plugin can fingerprint itself. chroma is the better answer — it stores the fingerprint once and every plugin benefits.
• The ONNX encoders for clapback-embed, 614 MB, not bundled:

  pip install 'clapback-embed[export]'
  python -m clapback_embed.scripts.export_models --out ~/.cache/clapback/models
  

  Without them, lookups still work; embedding does not, and the plugin says so.

What leaves the machine

Nothing until contribute: yes. Then, per track the commons did not already hold: a 512-float vector and a one-way hash. Never audio, never paths, never tags. The hash cannot be reversed into the fingerprint, and the fingerprint is not the audio.

The first contribution mints a random client_id — a UUID, derived from nothing about you or your machine — and stores it at clapback/client_id under your config directory. It lets the commons tell two contributions apart from one client retrying. Delete it and you are a new contributor; nothing else changes.

Options

clapback:
  url: https://clapback.seethroughlab.com
  contribute: no     # send vectors the commons lacks
  auto: no           # run on every import (embedding is minutes per album; off by default)
  pace: 0.15         # seconds between contributions

Why this exists

beets shipped acousticbrainz and absubmit for years. Both were deprecated when AcousticBrainz shut down, and the suggested replacement was to compute locally and keep the results. This is the other half back — with a difference that matters: AcousticBrainz pooled estimates (bpm, key, mood) that could never be reconciled between contributors. An embedding from a pinned pipeline can be. When two people contribute the same recording, the commons can say whether they agree. The reasoning is in ADR-0011.