Managing a plurality of states of metadata. Each of the states stores one or more items of metadata that have been automatically matched and obtained for media content (e.g., for rendering by a media player). The invention resolves the matched metadata by selectively applying some or all of the matched metadata items without user intervention (e.g., based on a user-specified threshold). In one embodiment, the invention selectively applies some or all of the matched metadata items based on a trustworthiness rating associated with the metadata match. The invention displays the remaining metadata items to the user for review and acceptance or rejection.