Edit Track Time Edit

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Edit Track Time

Status: This is a proposal of a new edit type that's not been implemented yet. It NeedsEditing.

Note: This page can be replaced by the EditType documentation after this feature is implemented.

Current Situation

At the moment, there are a lot of album entries in the database that don't have real track times but instead show ?:?? to the user. The reason is that there are only two ways that track times, as described in CalculateTrackTimes, can enter the database. Both need an existing CD-A from which a so-called TOC can be created that includes accurate timings for all tracks.

If a user has an audio CD at hand, he can easily add the TOC to the database by using the CD lookup function of the different client applications. If there is an album entry in FreeDB the track times can be imported from there during the process of adding an album to MusicBrainz. Such an import for existing entries is not possible.

Problems

This situation is unsatisfying in a lot of ways, e.g.:

  1. While the world around MusicBrainz evolves and new medium types that are used for music releases are invented like SA-CDs (super audio CD) and DVD-A (DVD audio), there is likely to be more and more albums for which no CD-A versions exist. Without a CD-A there is no way of adding track times to MusicBrainz.
  2. On the other hand, there are a bunch of "old" releases from times preceding the invention of the compact disc. Those were often pressed on vinyl records. Even in cases where re-releases on CD were produced later, those often have a slightly different track listing or the tracks for the CD were enhanced in quality. Either way, track times can't be added for the original vinyl release entries.
  3. An album might have been released on a CD-A with well known track times, but no MusicBrainz user owns a copy of the CD because it was a promotional release only, a rare limited edition etc. There are various trustworthy sources where one could get track times from, but again they can't be added without the CD.
  4. There are problems with the current TOC submissions and FreeDB imports as well, because there is no way to verify that a TOC was generated by an existing album or is really just a broken one which was submitted either by hand or by the burning of a broken CD-R(W). Therefore the argument that TOCs are to be trusted doesn't work. There are some examples in the DB, but because they are likely to be removed it's not worth the effort of listing them here.

Solution

To get around these and any other upcoming problems related to missing track times, there is only one possible solution. MusicBrainz needs new EditTypes that allow adding and editing track times. While we have a complex voting system, the danger of letting incorrect track times enter the database is hopefully not more problematic than for any other data.

Additional Thoughts

In addition to this hand-editing, an advanced FreeDB import function for albums that already exist in MusicBrainz might make the lives for moderators much easier. On the other hand, voters might blindly trust imported data, so the danger of erroneous track times entering the database might increase.

Discussion

There has been some discussion on the mailing list about this topic. Please add any arguments that I forgot to add directly to the page above, and discuss only existing arguments.


Authors: Fuchs