Style/Titles/Series numbers

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Status: This is an official style guideline.

Applies to release group titles and recording titles that are part of a series.

When an item is one of a series which are labeled as parts, volumes, etc., separate the number from the title by a comma and a space like so:

"Release group title, Volume 2"
"Recording title, Part 2"

Note that the Abbreviations guideline says that you must not use abbreviations in titles with the only exception that Artist intent overrules the StyleGuidelines. In this case you need to provide information about why it is an exceptional case in your Edit Note!

Example

"UK Space Techno, Volume 5"

"Café del Mar, Volumen Cinco"

Rationale and Details

The rationale behind the Series numbers guideline was so that we can create some consistency through groups of series.

In most cases this guideline is the only applicable rule, since it is rare and hard to prove that there is any real artist intent with series numbers. Also many series have a title scheme that is consistent (there are exceptions!), but still things like ", Vol. X" or "(Volume X)" are changed to ", Volume X".

However, if a particular way of labelling is consistently (at least in the majority of cases) used in a series, then that can be retained when these names are entered into MusicBrainz. For example, these things are usually not changed by SeriesNumberStyle:

  • Number schemes other than "1, 2, 3, ..."; e.g. "I, II, III, ...", "One, Two, Three, ...", "1st, 2nd, 3rd" or the use of foreign language numbers.
  • Volume labeling schemes other than "Volume"; e.g. "Series", "Edition", etc.
  • If the ReleaseTitle ends with a different punctuation mark; e.g. an exclamation mark The Best Sixties Album in the World... Ever! Volume 4 (disc 2) . In that case just use the punctuation mark that is specified by the title.
  • Combinations of the above; e.g. "Fetenhits: The Real Classics, the 2nd", or The Emo Diaries which use Chapter as volume delimiter, and English words as volume numbers.
  • and similar cases (still to be added after discussion).