History:Release Type Restructuring Proposal
Proposal
I have been thinking over this album release thing quite alot, the previous redrafts, ideas and talks in the mailinglist where contributional factors to this, I have tried to include what those people have said, and asked for, plus my own usage of release types. Here is my proposal and restructuring (the option 'I don't know' is implied) after this list follows a list of groups & settings and explanations of their meanings
my new idea is a base of 3. it also involve tickyboxes on some, but not all options. All the new options are italic, already exsisting ones are not.
Physical Media
- CD
- 3"
- 5"
- DVD
- DVD-A
- SACD
- MiniDisc
- Vinyl
- 7"
- 10"
- 12"
- other
- Cassette
- 8-track
- Digital Media (webalbums / stand alone mp3/ogg etc)
- Other
Release Status
Official | Commercial | Bootleg | Promotional
Main Types
- Album (LP)
- EP
- Single
- Maxi-CD
- Other
...
- Split
- Compilation
- Highlights
- Remix
- Remaster
- Live
- Soundtrack
- Classical
- Data (when clicked, either option under is possible, but not both)
- audiofile disc
- multimedia 2 session disc
- Other
- Demo
- Bonus
- Spokenword
- Interview
- Audiobook
- Radio play
- other narrative
Description
Physical Media
pretty much says itself, what is the thing you have in your hand? These types are not tickyboxed, only radio buttons. a CD is not a cassette. later in restructuring we may want to add the possibility to add *several* physical media types, ideally connected with release dates. (this requires complete rewrite of the releasetype+releasedate tables, I know. but it has become apparent that it is necessary.)
- CD
- just a regular audio CD, also known as CD-A.
- DVD
- we are going to get pure musical DVD's eventually. There are a few thousand according to wikipedia, the same is true for DVD-A.
- SACD
- separated from DVD because it is a different coding process entirely, hybrid SACD discs that have the capability of being played on regular CD-player should go under this option as well.
- MiniDisc
- There are not many new releases but a lot of older ones.
- Vinyl
- finally we have Vinyls! subgroups of 7", 10" & 12" and 'other' for that one nth" type laying in PRAEst76's attic ;)
- Cassette
- just your average tape
- 8-track
- for really old wonky releases on 8-track tape
- Digital Media
- (webalbums / stand alone mp3/ogg etc)
- Other
- random obscure types!
Release Status
the status of this release. these do *not* have ticky-boxes, as a release can only be *one* of the options.
- Official
- exactly like it is today, sanctioned by *both* the artist and the record-company (if applicable). These releases are most likely listed on the artists' own website and most fansites.
- Commercial
- this a new, confusing type, this is for releases that are pretty much sanctioned by the record-company (or resold to other companies) but *not* the artist, explicitly, These albums will usually *not* be listed on the artists website or fansites. Examples of this kind of records are the various greatest hits / best of xx's, time-life / the best XXXXX in the world, POP! # NOW! [name] [number], etc. type VA compilations. Some SingleArtist compilations could potentially also come under this type, but that would be *rare*. They are usually not (if at all) listed on Artistssites or Fansites. (but usually on recordcompany-sites or buy sites like amazon) (in effect, *all* classical music will be this option. but perhaps 'official' should be retained for classical albums where the performer(s) are *serious* (an example of *serious* albums would be http://musicbrainz.org/showalbum.html?albumid=275610 & http://musicbrainz.org/showalbum.html?albumid=160240 and examples of *unserious* albums would be http://musicbrainz.org/showalbum.html?albumid=208493 & http://musicbrainz.org/showalbum.html?albumid=80661 basically you can tell with the CD and jewelcase. *serious* ones make a big hoopla and have richly including liner booklets and are usually released by one of the big 'classical' record companies (EMI, Decca, deutche gramphone, Naxos, Philips etc) while *unserious* ones tend to have small linernotes (or none at all) and will be from small "bootlegesque" record companies)
- Bootleg
- same as today. albums not sanctioned by *neither* record company nor artist. these albums *can* be listed on the artists website (rare), but most good fansites have a bootleg section.
- Promotional
- same as today, for releases that are given away (usually free) by sweepstakes. magazines, competitions etc.
Main Types
these mostly have ticky-boxes. The exceptions are album, single and EP, as they are pretty much exclusive of each other
- Album
- same as today, first time releases.
- EP
- same as today, for releases clearly marked 'EP'
- Single
- same as today, single releases
- Maxi-Single
- a suboption for single, basically what EP was to vinyl this is to CD's today? the rules are not as strict though, any Maxi-Single is as explicitly a single, if a release is rather more classified as EP, use that instead.
- Other
- for releases that do not fit in any other categories, Album, EP or Single.
(all the following have ticky-boxes)
- Compilation
- for compilations, same as today: releases that are selections of tracks from one ore more artists that has been released before.
- Split
- releases that are re-releases of 2 or more releases on one disc (f.ex No Heavy Petting / Lights Out) or releases where two or more artists share a disc (f.ex Light the Fuse and Run/Hot Cross Split ). both are typically called a 'split CD'.
- Remix
- same as today, remixes. although they will be stored with albums on the 'albums' page in APR
- Remaster
- while there is an AR for this, sometimes an album isn't a remaster of another, unmastered older album (vinyl, cassette, old CD's) but rather remasters of tracks find on several albums (making them compilations) track by track adding of remaster AR's is exhausting, to say the least, plus we already have AR's for 'remix' (which is also a releasetype) further when they are re-releases they most oftenly come with bonustracks attached, these will be listed together with albums and have type [album] [remaster] or [EP] [remaster] [live], etc
- Live
- same as today, a live release. however one can chose [compilation] [live] for releases that aren't of a single live 'session'
- Soundtrack
- same as today, with the addition that one can chose [compilation] [soundtrack] for comps of soundtracks.
- Classical
-
for that utilise the ClassicalStyleGuidelines (artist is composer, not performer) chose [album] [classical] for "full works" and [compilation] [classical] for several works by the same or more composers on one release.
- Highlights
- after discussion with Clutcher I agree. this should be (at least) a subtype in its own right. please use with Classical or Soundtrack
- Data
- this is for releases that are either
- a) audiofile discs, cd's full of audio files such as mp3's or ogg
- b) multimedia 2 session disc (bad name please change) cd's that typically have 2 sessions, one which is data and the other which is comprised regular of audiotracks, such discs are typically computer-Game CD's or CD-lens cleaners.
- Demo
- a new type. a demo is released by an unknown band to promote themselves, usually released in a crude format such as a home burnt CDR or homemade cassette (f.ex blink-182's Buddha demo). Alternately a demo can be an early version of a song, recorded before the final layout of the song has been... layed out. The demo release type *is not for* releases that were, either commercially, officially or unofficially, compiled and released after the final cut/album was released.
- Bonus
- after discussion with Shepard this makes sense. mod #3576131 excellent example of why 'bonus' needs to be added.
- Other
- ideally this type should now be obsolete, it should however be retained because a) we still lave loads of releases with this type and b) no matter how you try to cater for releases there is going to be the odd one out that breaks the mold
- Spokenword
- this is now a heading type. it is still used the same as before. however it is implied that if something is 'audiobook' or 'interview' it is also at the same time 'spokenword'
- Interview
- same as today, for interview discs
- Audiobook
- same as today, for audiobooks
- Radio play
- a new subtype, as requested by Shepard: "At the moment many actual radio plays are stored as Audiobooks in the db - this is wrong. And audiobook is just a book read by one person. A radio play is an audio play with many different characters and background sounds and stuff"
- other narrative
- other spokenword type releases not already covered.
See also
- ReleaseRegionStyle - proposal for restructuring release countries to wider release regions
- ReleaseDataSet - a proposal on how to restructure other release data
- AlbumRework - a comprehensive proposal which makes use of the types defined here
- misc link: bla
Discussion
the Discussion part of this was getting to huge and cumbersome, so i moved it to ReleaseTypeRestructuringDiscussion *please* go discuss there instead of here. thanks.
|| Original author: mo