diff --git a/src/base_media_base.h b/src/base_media_base.h
--- a/src/base_media_base.h
+++ b/src/base_media_base.h
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ struct ContentInfo;
 struct MD5File {
 	/** The result of a checksum check */
 	enum ChecksumResult {
+		CR_UNKNOWN,  ///< The file has not been checked yet
 		CR_MATCH,    ///< The file did exist and the md5 checksum did match
 		CR_MISMATCH, ///< The file did exist, just the md5 checksum did not match
 		CR_NO_FILE,  ///< The file did not exist
@@ -34,6 +35,7 @@ struct MD5File {
 	const char *filename;        ///< filename
 	uint8 hash[16];              ///< md5 sum of the file
 	const char *missing_warning; ///< warning when this file is missing
+	ChecksumResult check_result; ///< cached result of md5 check
 
 	ChecksumResult CheckMD5(Subdirectory subdir, size_t max_size) const;
 };
diff --git a/src/base_media_func.h b/src/base_media_func.h
--- a/src/base_media_func.h
+++ b/src/base_media_func.h
@@ -129,7 +129,8 @@ bool BaseSet<T, Tnum_files, Tsearch_in_t
 			file->missing_warning = stredup(item->value);
 		}
 
-		switch (T::CheckMD5(file, BASESET_DIR)) {
+		file->check_result = T::CheckMD5(file, BASESET_DIR);
+		switch (file->check_result) {
 			case MD5File::CR_MATCH:
 				this->valid_files++;
 				this->found_files++;
diff --git a/src/music.cpp b/src/music.cpp
--- a/src/music.cpp
+++ b/src/music.cpp
@@ -128,7 +128,7 @@ bool MusicSet::FillSetDetails(IniFile *i
 		IniGroup *timingtrim = ini->GetGroup("timingtrim");
 		for (uint i = 0, j = 1; i < lengthof(this->songinfo); i++) {
 			const char *filename = this->files[i].filename;
-			if (names == NULL || StrEmpty(filename)) {
+			if (names == NULL || StrEmpty(filename) || this->files[i].check_result == MD5File::CR_NO_FILE) {
 				this->songinfo[i].songname[0] = '\0';
 				continue;
 			}
@@ -143,7 +143,8 @@ bool MusicSet::FillSetDetails(IniFile *i
 				char *songname = GetMusicCatEntryName(filename, this->songinfo[i].cat_index);
 				if (songname == NULL) {
 					DEBUG(grf, 0, "Base music set song missing from CAT file: %s/%d", filename, this->songinfo[i].cat_index);
-					return false;
+					this->songinfo[i].songname[0] = '\0';
+					continue;
 				}
 				strecpy(this->songinfo[i].songname, songname, lastof(this->songinfo[i].songname));
 				free(songname);