History:Official Style Guideline: Difference between revisions

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(removed Tarragon's old list since all of it is now dealt with somehow (Imported from MoinMoin))
 
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'''Status:''' ''Beware! This is work in progress! Most guidelines that have a page of their own are correct, but not all are done yet.''
'''Status:''' ''Beware! This is work in progress! Most guidelines that have a page of their own are correct, but not all are done yet.''


It's important to know that these are '''guidelines''', not strict rules. The [[Style Principle|StylePrinciple]]s explain when guidelines should be applied and when they should not. Further, there are officially sanctioned [[Style Guideline Exception|StyleGuidelineException]]s.
It's important to know that these are '''guidelines''', not strict rules. The [[Style Principle|StylePrinciple]]s explain when guidelines should be applied and when they should not. Further, there are officially sanctioned style guideline exceptions (explained in [[Style Principle|StylePrinciple]]).


This page only contains an ultra-short description of each rule. You will find much more information on the page of the respective rule.
This page only contains an ultra-short description of each rule. You will find much more information on the page of the respective rule.

Revision as of 23:35, 30 August 2005

These are the official style guidelines for data entry into the MusicBrainz database. You can find the original and uneditable official style guidelines on the homepage. This here is a Wiki version of these guidelines to which you can add questions, discussion and links, links, links.

Do not change the guidelines themselves, unless you are a member of the StyleCouncil. If you have ideas for new style guidelines or changes, please send them to the StyleMailingList (if you are new to MusicBrainz, ask on the UsersMailingList first). They might then be added to ProposedStyleGuidelines and eventually be made an OfficialStyleGuideline by the StyleCouncil.

Official Style Guidelines

Status: Beware! This is work in progress! Most guidelines that have a page of their own are correct, but not all are done yet.

It's important to know that these are guidelines, not strict rules. The StylePrinciples explain when guidelines should be applied and when they should not. Further, there are officially sanctioned style guideline exceptions (explained in StylePrinciple).

This page only contains an ultra-short description of each rule. You will find much more information on the page of the respective rule.

Album Titles

  • Indicate disc numbers like this: "AlbumTitle (disc 2)".
  • Individual singles released with a disc number appended to the title should be standardised as "AlbumTitle (disc 2)".
  • For bonus discs add " (bonus disc)" to the end.
  • Box sets are done like this: "(box 5, disc 2)".
  • untitled bootlegs should be labelled like this: "2000-10-22: Las Vegas, NV, USA".
  • Multiple albums on one disc and multiple songs on one track are separated by " / ". Yes, that's space, forward slash, space.
  • If the word "EP" is part of a title, it should be retained.
  • A soundtrack should be given the same title as the film, and should not include extra detail such as "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" or similar descriptive information. Set the AlbumAttribute to "Soundtrack".

Track Titles

  • About the uses of "versus" and how we deal with them.
  • How we deal with remixes and other versions of tracks (such as demo versions, etc).
  • Untitled tracks are named "[untitled]".
  • Enter mix names and other track attributes in parenthesis after the title.

Artists

  • When two artists collaborate, file the track under the primary artist, and append the name of the secondary artist to the TrackName like this "(feat. Everlast)".
  • If the artist is unknown, file the album/track under the [unknown] artist.
  • Recordings that have no artist should be filed under [no artist]. This would be appropriate for silence, bird song etc.

General Guidelines

  • Discusses how titles should be capitalized in various languages.
  • Discusses how details relating to classical music should be stored (also can be applied to musicals).
  • Covers the little guidelines that aren't worthy of a whole wiki page all to themselves.
  • Discusses our policy on abbreviations.

Advanced Relationships

Album Attributes

AlbumAttributes define the type and status of an audio release and provide information about the contents of the release. Album attributes should apply to most of the tracks on the album. It's OK to have a couple of tracks that do not fit the album attribute, as long as the attribute applies to the album overall. This is just a brief summary of album attributes. Further detail can be found on the AlbumAttributes page.

Release type

  • Album - An album, perhaps better defined as a "Long Play" (LP) release, generally consists of previously unreleased material. This includes album re-issues, with or without bonus tracks.
  • Single - A single typically has one main song and possibly a handful of additional tracks or remixes of the main track. A single is usually named after its main song. A single has different definitions in different markets, so if you are unsure please check the AlbumAttributes page.
  • EP - An EP is a so-called "Extended Play" release and often contains the letters EP in the title.
  • Compilation - A compilation is a collection of previously released tracks by one or more artists. Please note that this is a simplified description of a compilation. If you are unsure, please refer to the full description on the AlbumAttributes page.
  • Soundtrack - A soundtrack is the musical score to a movie, TV series, stage show, computer game etc.
  • Spokenword - Non-music spoken word releases.
  • Interview - An interview release contains an interview, generally with an Artist.
  • Audiobook - An audiobook is a book read by a narrator without music.
  • Live - A release that was recorded live.
  • Remix - A release that primarily contains remixed material.
  • Other - Any release that does not fit or can't decisively be placed in any of the categories above.

Release Status

  • Official - Any release officially sanctioned by the artist and/or their record company. (Most releases will fit into this category.)
  • Promotion - A giveaway release or a release intended to promote an upcoming official release. (e.g. prerelease albums or releases included with a magazine, versions supplied to radio DJs for air-play, etc).
  • Bootleg - An unofficial/underground release that was not sanctioned by the artist and/or the record company.




Warning: Alert.png The following discussion does difinetely not belong here. I will delete this in a week or so (around 2005-08-16). If you care about some of this, then please include it in an appropriate page, maybe MiscellaneousGuideline. --DonRedman


What about band names in the form of "Somebody and The Somethings"? Is "&" preferable to "and" or vice versa? Or are both permissible? --novasoy 

This follows the general rule: if the band themselves favour one form, then use that, and preferably providing some evidence to support your claim. (There has been some discussion about giving special meaning to '&', so that it is only used for temporary collaborations by generally independent artist, but this is only a proposal, and I personally think it's a bad one.) -- bawjaws

Tarragon, it would be useful if there was somewhere in the Styleguidelines a link to where it explicitly said "do not add 'single' in the album name, instead add it in the album attributes" when voting on alot of newbie mods, I find myself using Style and its infinite 'link to the relevant portion of the styleguide' -ness quite often. it would be really useful if somehow I could have a similar link that stated the above about attributes not being in the name. mo