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.

Physical Media

• CD
• DVD
  • DVD-A, SACD, (maybe music videos)

• vinyl
  • 7" 12" LP etc

• cassette
• digital media (webalbums / stand alone mp3/ogg etc)
• minidisc

Release Status

Official | Commercial | Bootleg

Main Types

• Album
• Single
• EP
• Remix
• Remaster
• Compilation
• Live
• Soundtrack
• Classical
• Data-disc (that contains audiofile(s))
• Other
• Interview
• Audiobook
• Spokenword
• 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. so I'm not going there. yet ôô)

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 SACD releases already (especially for classical music), the same is true for DVD-A.

Vinyl, 7 12 LP

I don't know how to structure these. they may be sub-tickyboxes of 'Vinyl' and 'CD'

Cassette

just your average tape

transferable data

(webalbums / stand alone mp3/ogg etc)::this needs perhaps a different name. do we want to separate webalbums from standalone downloadable tracks? (in the first case I see [name for this type goes here] [album] as it's setting. the latter would just be [NftTGH] [?])

MiniDisc

we probably need this. There are not many new releases but a lot of older ones.

Release Status

the status of this release. these are *not* tickyboxed, 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

a new type, this is for releases that are pretty much sanctioned by the record-company (or resold to other companies) but *not* the artist, exactly. 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 fall into this category. some SingleArtitst compilations also come under this type. they are usually not (if at all) listed on Artistssites or Fansites. (but usually on recordcompany-sites or buy sites like amazon) (in essential, *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.

That Types

these are mostly tickyboxed. the exemptions are album, single and EP, as they are pretty much exclusive of each other (go ahead and find me examples that defy this!)

Album

same as today, first time releases.

Single

same as today, single releases (make 'maxi single' a subtype?)

EP

same as today, for releases clearly marked 'EP'

Compilation

I wondered if I was going to put this in the other list instead. AFAIK are there compilation singles or EP's?

special case! Split

releases that are rereleases of 2 an artists albums one one disc (f.ex No Heavy Petting / Lights Out) or releases where two arists share a disc (f.ex Light the Fuse and Run/Hot Cross Split ). both are typically called a 'split CD'.

(the following are all tickyboxed)

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 comp) 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)

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 and 'highlights' of musicals

Classical

for classical albums or albums that utilise ClassicalStyleGuidelines chose [album] [classical] for "full works" and [compilation] [classical] for "highlights" or for several works by the same or more composers on one release. (or do we want a separate subtype on [compilation] called 'highlights'?)

Data-disc

(that contains audiofile(s)) use this together with [soundtrack] (and or [compilation]) for releases that are game CDs with music in them. for CD-lens cleaners etc. but only for discs that have a *preceding* datatrack. *NEVER* trailing!

Promotional

same as today, for releases that are given away (usually free) by sweepstakes. magazines, competitions etc.

Demo

a new type. a demo album is different than a promotional... because uh.. (I forgot, please add description here)

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
• other narrative other spokenword type releases not already covered.
  • do we want/need Drama-Disc? anything else?

that's it. my release type proposal mrk1. please review and add to this page! I have undoubtfully forgotten a type or two. discuss the questions I have added in the text.

Discussion

• complete rewrite of the releasetype+releasedate feasible? necessary?
• DVD or not to DVD?

Fuchs has added info on SACD and DVD-A (this was not origninaly part of my proposion, but it fits in nicely. thank you Fuchs ^_^

• should 7 12 LP etc be sub-tickyboxes of 'Vinyl' and 'CD' ?
• what about 'Maxi-CD' ?
• transferable data: I am in no way married to this name. do we need separate webalbum type or will one setting be fine for everything?
• minidisc do we really need this?
• how do we describe *serious* vs. *unserious* classical albums (I am sure the classical mods understand what I mean. but others are probably confused as heck XD)
• what are pros/cons with the new main restructuring. what needs to be rehashed IYO?
• are there compilation singles or EP's?
• should 'highlights' be a separate subtype?
• I'm not married to the name 'Data-disc' either. go a head and propose a better one

are there any other types you would like? can you see your type fit in anywhere in this three? a restructuring of types or adding/moving removing of subtypes? please add your insight here.

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For DVDs, I'd suggest to separate audio-only DVDs from concert/music video DVDs, discs with audio-only and video parts, and whatever other disc type should be added (IMHO, it wouldn't make sense to add movie DVDs because someone ripped the score).

• this your proposal sounds good, and I agree, it fits well with the " though we are not cdbrainz, we are not moviebrainz either. we are *music*brainz " mentality ~mo

I'm not sure if it's a good idea to add vinyl as a media type. Clicks, pops and hissing will surely affect the TRMs, resulting in a large amount of bogus TRMs. Tapes may also be of poor quality. And in the end, every non-digital source bears the problem of conversion into a digital format; and each conversion will have a different result. I don't know how much difference between two sources that still produce the same TRM is possible, but knowing that even the track length affects the TRM, I think we should have digital media only. --derGraph

uh, there are releases that are only released on Vinyl, TRM's are completely not in the equation, neither are mp3's. there are releases that where released on Vinyl/cassette but never will be released on CD or SACD And often if releases *are* rereleased they are released with a *different* tracklisting than the original Vinyl and perhaps cassette with a bonus track. perhaps the LP Vinyl is split onto two cassettes, and the CD release has 4 extra bonus tracks. currently there is no way of saying that 'this release is vinyl' we need this.

• But does it make any sense to add media that need to be digitized before a TRM can be caluclated? As far as I understand MusicBrainz, it's not a discographies library, but (in the first place) a system to help identify and tag ditital music tracks. Now with advanced relationships, it also helps to explore relationships between artists, persons, tracks, etc. (in contrast pure user preference comparison as Audioscrobbler does). I think that it makes sense to include such ARs into MB, especially because the "framework" is alredy there. But then, if someone wants to read an artists discography, she could just follow the discography link. --derGraph

I already have a plan how to handle releases that where released as a vinyl and as a cassette and as a CD etc. with the same tracklisting. I will write up that after this proposal is finetuned and eventually put into work. ~mo

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Category... Something | Original author: mo