Editing FAQ

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Frequently Asked Questions: General FAQ · Account FAQ · Editing FAQ · Introduction to Voting

This pages answers Frequently Asked Questions about editing the database. See How Editing Works for some more detailed documentation.

If that still doesn't help, please find us in one of the MusicBrainz Forums or via the contact page. If you would like to update the content of this page on the wiki, feel free to do so but please do not add questions without answers.

General Questions

What is "editing"?

You can make changes to the database to correct errors or add new data to the database. Almost everything in the database is open to editing: releases, artists, recordings; anything you can think of. When you make these changes, you enter "edits" into the system.

Can I do whatever I want to the information in the database?

Anything within reason. We want the MusicBrainz database to reflect as accurately as possible the information contained on the release. Since we will be receiving data from many sources, we want the changes to be reviewed by other users of MusicBrainz.

How can I contribute to MusicBrainz?

If you’re not feeling very ambitious, just download the MusicBrainz Picard Tagger. This program lets you look up and submit metadata for the Audio CDs and music files in your collection to the database.

If you’re feeling a little more ambitious, you can become an editor and try to find some data to fix:

  • Look up your favorite artists and see their information is correct and complete.
  • Look up your favorite releases and see if the tracks are all listed, spelled correctly, in the right order, etc.
  • Browse though the releases to see if you find obvious mistakes: releases listed twice, releases with tracks listed twice, releases with missing tracks, or releases with too many tracks are just a few of the common errors possible.
  • View and vote on other editors proposed changes to the database. We need everyone to lend their music knowledge to help out the effort.
  • Add some releases to your collection.
  • Subscribe to your favorite artists and your collection so you are notified of any edits to them.

How do I undo an edit I entered?

From the MusicBrainz main page, on the upper right mouse over “my data”, and choose “My Open Edits”. You can also find the edit via "View artist edits" from the related artist's page, or "View release edits" from the related release's page. Then you can cancel the edit using the Cancel button (if the edit is still open).

How long will my edit(s) take to be approved/applied?

It depends.

Some edits (punctuation, capitalization) are considered Auto-Edits for all users and are applied immediately.

If no-one votes against your edit, it will be applied after 7 days.

If your edit receives three unanimous yes votes, it will be applied within an hour.

If your edit receives more yes votes than no votes, it will be applied after 7 days.

For many edit types (anything that wouldn’t result in lost data), an Auto-Editor may approve your edit to apply it immediately. This is quite common for typo fixes, adding URL relationships and fixes to obvious mistakes but it is at the Auto-Editor's discretion and they are not required to do so.

If your edit is to a popular artist that has many subscribers, you are likely to gather votes more quickly. If you provide evidence to back up your edits (as suggested in the Code Of Conduct and How To Write Edit Notes) and your edits are of good quality, you will also collect yes votes more quickly.

Release Questions

What’s a “release group”? What’s a “release”?

A release group is what is usually referred to as an album. That is, a group of songs recorded by an artist and released to the public. A release is a specific issuance or edition of that album (e.g. to a specific country or with a bonus track)

I found an error in the database. What should I do?

The fastest, easiest way is to roll up your sleeves, dig in and fix the problem yourself. To jump in and help you should create yourself an account, go back to the release in question and use the edit links that are shown once you log in to fix the problems. Go here: http://musicbrainz.org/newlogin.html to create an account and start editing the database.

Should I fix a misspelled word on a CD title?

Maybe. It depends on whether the misspelling was intentional. See the guidelines for Error correction and artist intent for more details.

I looked up a release I have in my collection, and the track listing is completely wrong. What should I do?

First, make sure you’re looking at the right release. Do the barcode and catalog number match? Check the cover art (if any) and make sure they match.

If it’s actually a different release, go ahead and add yours to the database.

If you’re sure you have the right release, you can go ahead and correct the track listing: after you’re logged in, go to the release page and hit the 'edit' tab. Go to the tracklist section and change it to match your release. Hit Next, and if the system asks you for recordings, pick the correct ones; if in doubt choose 'add new recording'. Then hit Next, review the changes, and enter an edit note explaining what is wrong, and how you know your changes are right. Hit “Enter Edit” and you’re done.

There are releases with no cover art or even wrong covers! Can I change them?

Yes. This is now possible with the Cover Art Archive. This is a joint project between MusicBrainz and The Internet Archive to make cover art available to everyone on the Internet.

You can see more detailed info on How to Add Cover Art, but basically, if you have artwork for the release (front, back, disc, whatever!) you can upload it using the Cover Art tab on the release page.

Please make sure that you have selected the correct release, of course. Check the barcode and catalog number; if they don’t match your release, you probably are looking in the wrong place.

How should I enter a box set?

Right now, the correct way is to just enter it as any other multi-disc release. This generally works fine, except for very large box sets with a lot of relationships (for example, box sets of all works by a major classical composer) - in these cases, it can make sense to divide the box set in a few separate releases in the same release group (blocks of 20 or 25 discs, for example).

There are two or more releases with the same titles, should I merge them?

Releases should only be merged when the following requirements are met:

  • The number of tracks are the same
  • The track titles are the same
  • The track lengths are the same (or extremely close if the release has no discID).
  • The country, label, barcode, format, and packaging, are the same
  • The cover art is the same.

The release dates, publishers, and distributors should probably also be the same to warrant a merge.

How do I indicate a worldwide release of an album? Should I add the release date for every country in the world? The band's home country? Not at all?

You should choose [Worldwide] as a release country. But please note "digital download" doesn't automatically involve "[Worldwide]": some digital shops are region-locked.

How do I mark a release as a remaster? Should I include the word 'remastered' in an album title?

No. See Extra Title Information Style. To indicate a remaster, use a “mastered” relationship between the mastering engineer and the release.

How do I know if a release is the one I have?

The most obvious way is to have the release in front of you when you submit the release. Check the label, catalog number, barcode, and compare the cover art to yours.

I found a release that matches mine, but it only has one disc.

There are several possibilities:

  • The label released each disc separately and again in a box set. They should each be separate releases in MusicBrainz. Make sure you can’t find your exact release. If you can’t, add yours.
  • Someone forgot to enter the second disc. Edit the release, and on the tracklist tab choose 'add disc'.
  • Prior to NGS each disc was entered into MusicBrainz as a separate release (usually with “(disc n)” appended to the title. See if there’s still a separate “(disc 2)” release, and merge them (with the append merge strategy). Beware of editions which were available with and without bonus discs!

What if I don't have the release but I find one when browsing that looks wrong, how should I correct it?

Find a good source of information, preferably with cover art. Discogs is one good source. Ebay and Amazon can be helpful but are very inconsistent. We want the database to reflect the real release. FreeDB can even be helpful on certain (mostly classical) CDs.

If you have a rip log file from EAC or XLD, you can try looking op the discID.

If the release doesn’t have enough information to positively identify it, and you can’t find any evidence that it exists at all, you can merge or delete it. Try to be cautious though, it’s better to keep a questionable release than to lose information. You can also set the Data Quality to low, to indicate that you think it’s wrong.

I found the same release twice. Which one should I remove?

Probably neither. If they are really identical (exactly the same tracks in the same order, same label, catalog number, and release country), you should merge the albums. This helps other users update their tags, and also allows voters to check that it really is a duplicate.

Note that you can also merge across artists. This is sometimes useful where a duplicate gets added under a different name, e.g. the existing release is under "Elvis Costello" and a duplicate gets added under "Elvis Costello & The Attractions".

To merge releases, go to each release’s page and choose 'Merge release' from the right sidebar.

Artist Questions

What is an artist alias? How should it be used?

Artist aliases are used to keep track of other names for an artists and for common misspellings. For instance, Slim Shady would be good alias to enter for Eminem, as would Guns and Roses for Guns N' Roses. Aliases are primarily used for when users come to the site and search for an alias or a misspelled name. The MusicBrainz text searching functions can then show the right artist to the user based on the artist alias. There is no harm in having too many aliases for an artist.

Where a band name is just, say, number-letter (e.g. E 17, D-12), what's the policy with regards to spacing/punctuation? Should the aliases list the other forms (D12, D 12) ?

The name in the database should reflect the way the band spells their own name. Check the band's official web page or look at a release cover to get the right spelling. The artist aliases should contain alternate spellings, so entering common other forms for aliases is a good idea.

If an artist has a name with accented letters (e.g. "Olga Tañón"), is it OK if the sort name also has those accented letters? Is it necessary to enter an alias with the "un-accented version"?

Yes, the sort name should include the accented letters, and its not necessary to enter a non-accented version of the name as an alias.

Track Questions

I added one of my unsorted MP3s as a standalone recording and it got voted down without comment. Why?

Standalone recordings are meant to be used for tracks that have never been released on any kind of release (where releases include compilations or singles). Examples of this are tracks that are released only via an artists website or live radio recordings that aren't otherwise available. If you have a track without an accompanying release, you should try to find out what release it came from and add that instead, for example by importing from FreeDB.

If you're sure that it is a true standalone recording, add a note explaining why it is standalone.

I'm trying to enter a release that has a bunch of silent tracks on it. What should I enter for those tracks?

Enter [silence] as the track title. See special-purpose track title for details.

Does MusicBrainz store information about data tracks? How should they be entered, if at all?

Data Tracks should only be on tracklistings if they appear when you try to submit a discID.

If the data track contains music files, you can add them to the release as a separate medium.

Editor Questions

What are "Auto-Editors"? What is an "Auto-Edit"?

An Auto-Edit is an edit which does not go to a vote: that is, the change is immediately applied, and the edit is immediately marked as successfully completed.

An Auto-Editor is an editor who has been trusted to make edits that are automatically approved (Auto-Edits) (see "How does a editor become an autoeditor?" below). This enables them to have a greater range of edits immediately applied without going to a vote.

Which edits are auto-edits (i.e. immediately applied, without a vote)?

See Edit Type.

How can I become an auto-editor?

See Auto-Editor Election or How Editing Works

Voting

Someone added a release but got some details wrong. Should I vote no?

No. if the release is mostly correct, just fix it yourself. Vote "yes" and then open the release page up and start editing.

You might want to add a comment on the edit telling them what was wrong, and linking to your corrective edits. Remember to be polite!

Someone added a release with garbage characters (or all ????). Should I vote no on that?

Maybe. First, make sure it’s not just a foreign language that you don’t have a font for. In this case it’s probably OK to vote no, but make sure to leave a comment explaining why.

Someone added some cover art but it’s the size of a postage stamp. Should I vote no on that?

Only if you are willing to put in the effort to find and upload better-quality artwork yourself. After you do, leave a comment explaining that you found some better artwork and linking to your own 'add artwork' edit.