History:Official Style Guideline

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The following style guidelines outline how the data in MusicBrainz should be formatted and organized. If you would like to participate in the editing process, please take a moment to review these guidelines. If you require further assistance take a look at the users mailing list.

Please do not change the guidelines on your own. If you have an idea for new a style guideline, or would like to suggest changes to an existing style guideline, please send a proposal to the Style Council.

About the style guidelines

The following style guidelines are those that have been officially sanctioned by the Style Council.

There are currently two places to find these guidelines (for more information on the transclusion mechanism see WikiDocs):

• On the MusicBrainz website at http://musicbrainz.org/doc/Official_Style_Guideline

  This version of the official style guidelines is to be used when editing the database.

• On the MusicBrainz wiki at http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/Official_Style_Guideline

  This version of the official style guidelines may differ from the above and include modifications or revisions that have not been made official yet.

The Guidelines

It's important to know that these are guidelines, not strict rules. The style principles explain when guidelines should be applied and when they should not. There are also officially sanctioned exceptions to the style guidelines.

Release titles

The following guidelines apply to the ReleaseTitle field:

Subtitle style

Use a colon (:) to separate parts of a title: "Main title: Subtitle".

Disc number style

Indicate disc numbers like this: "Main title (disc 2)".

If each disc has an extra title do it like this: "Main title (disc 2: Disc title)".

For bonus discs add " (bonus disc)" to the end.

Individual singles released with a disc number appended to the title should be standardised as "Main title (disc 2)".

Series number style

Volume numbers are special: append them with a comma like this: "Main title, Volume number". See volume number style for specific details.

Box set name style

Box sets are done like this: "(box 5, disc 2)".

Live bootleg style

Bootlegs should be labelled like this: "2000-10-22: Las Vegas, NV, USA".

Multiple title style

Multiple releases on one disc and multiple songs on one track are separated by " / ". Yes, that's space, forward slash, space.

EP style

If the word "EP" or "E.P." is part of a title, it should be retained.

Track titles

Versus style

About the uses of "versus" and how we deal with them.

Remix style

How we deal with remixes and other versions of tracks (such as demo versions, etc).

Data track style

DataTracks are named "[data track]".

Untitled track style

Untitled tracks are named "[untitled]".

Silence tracks are named "[silence]".

Unknown tracks are named "[unknown]".

Series number style

Part numbers are special, append them with a comma like this: "Title, part number". See part number style for specific details.

Extra title information style

This is a list of information that should be omitted or included in release titles and track titles.

Artists

Featuring artist style

When two artists collaborate, file the track under the primary artist, and append the name of the secondary artist to the track title like this "(feat. Everlast)".

Release artist style

This covers when to use one primary artist and when to use various artists as release artist for a release. Note that the classical release artist style spells out different rules for classical music.

Special purpose artists

Several special artist listings ([anonymous], [data], [dialogue], [no artist], [unknown], and Various Artists) are approved for use when the artist is unknown, dialogue, nature sounds, data, etc. See this guideline for details on these artists.

Sortname style

Discusses how artist sort names should be used.

General guidelines

Capitalization standard

Discusses how titles should be capitalized in various languages.

Classical style guide

Discusses how details relating to classical music should be stored (also can be applied to musicals). More specific details on classical release artist style.

Miscellaneous guidelines

Covers the little guidelines that aren't worthy of a whole wiki page all to themselves.

Abbreviation style

Discusses our policy on abbreviations.

Release attributes

Release attributes define the type and status of an audio release and provide information about the contents of the release. Release attributes should apply to most of the tracks on the release. It's OK to have a couple of tracks that do not fit the release attribute, as long as the attribute applies to the release overall.

Release type

A release can be set to one of the following release types: Album, Single, EP, Compilation, Soundtrack, Spokenword, Interview, Audiobook, Live, Remix, or Other. See release attribute for a short summary and release type for details.

Release language

The language used in the release title and track titles.

Release status

A release can have one of the following statuses: Official, Promotion, or Bootleg. See release attribute for a short summary and release status for details.