Amazon

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Revision as of 19:25, 17 October 2005 by Shepard (talk | contribs) (general description of amazon and hints for using it (Imported from MoinMoin))
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Amazon is an online store for books, CDs, DVDs and many other things. It can be a good source for CDs to add to MusicBrainz if you know what you are doing.

MusicBrainz uses AmazonMatching to find releases in Amazon stores and display cover artwork together with links to Amazon.

Hints for using Amazon as a source

You have to be carefull when using Amazon as a source for releases. In general you can say:

  • Providing front cover scans you can use it for album titles in most cases (but sometimes the titles as written on the side of the CD are better so also check cover sites).
  • The track listings can contain mistakes. Normally you should use other sites to double check but mostly they can give a good hint at what is correct if you have multiple differing sources.
  • The label info is mostly trustworthy and can be copied to AlbumAnnotations (as described in ReleaseAnnotationStyle for example). The format used in Amazon normally is "Label: <label> (<distributor>)".
  • Below that you find the ASIN code which is the release number in Amazon's catalogue system (across the different country stores!). Those are the values that AmazonMatching stores in the database. You can also copy that to AlbumAnnotations as it identifies a release so later this does not have to be done again. If you want to find releases with ASINs simply copy them into the search field in Amazon.
  • Release dates on Amazon are somewhat tricky. They can sometimes can be dates of repressings or when Amazon started putting the release in its catalogue but mostly this is the actual release date. Though it is better to double check with other sites. And be carefull: releases marked as IMPORT contain import dates which are much later than the real release dates! Try to find out where the release is from and go to the local amazon site if it exists. Check this list of all existing local Amazon sites. Also note: Amazon.de for example writes the name of the release country in the "Label" field if the releas is marked as IMPORT.