Label: Difference between revisions

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== Label attributes ==
== Label attributes ==
A label in MusicBrainz must have a [[Label/Name|name]] and [[Sort Name|sort name]]. Apart from that, there's other information that can be added:


Each label has a number of attributes:
* [[MBID|ID]]: the MusicBrainz Identifier of the label (not editable)
* [[Label/Name|Label Name]]: the name of the label
* [[Sort Name]]: the sort name of the label
* [[Aliases|Alias]]: alternate names or misspellings
* [[Aliases|Alias]]: alternate names or misspellings
* [[Label/Label Code|Label Code]]: the "LC" code of the label
* [[Label/Label Code|Label Code]]: the "LC" code of the label
* [[Begin and End Dates]]: these are the dates when the label was created (usually the date on which the imprint was first used, or the associated trademark was registered) and when it stopped existing
* [[Begin and End Dates]]: these are the dates when the label was created (usually the date on which the imprint was first used, or the associated trademark was registered) and when it stopped existing
* [[Label/Country|Country]]: the country of origin of the label
* [[Label/Country|Country]]: the country of origin of the label
* [[Label/Type|Type]]: describes the main activity of a label
* [[Label/Type|Type]]: describes the main activity of the label
* [[Disambiguation Comment]]: distinguishs between identically named labels, or labels with identical label codes
* [[Disambiguation Comment]]: distinguishs between identically named labels, or labels with identical label codes
* [[Annotation]]: general information about the label that may be of interest and doesn't fit in any other fields
* [[Annotation]]: general information about the label that may be of interest and doesn't fit in any other fields

Revision as of 17:48, 22 March 2012

Template:LabelHeader Labels are one of the most complicated and controversial part of the music industry. The main reason for that being that the term itself is not clearly defined and refers to at least two overlapping concepts: imprints, and the companies that control them. Fortunately, in many cases the imprint and the company controlling it have the same name.

What is a label?

Labels in MusicBrainz refer mainly to imprints.

  • An imprint is (strictly, and nothing more than) a brand (and trademark) associated with the marketing of sound recordings (an imprint is not a company). An imprint may be marketed as a project, unit or division of the company that manages it. Imprints are the information you certainly want to add in the database and is the information available on sleeves in the form of a label logo (a.k.a. imprint). Imprints are labels, as one usually understand it. Specifically, you should favor using names as they are represented on the imprint, rather than using a company name (usually found in "copyright"/"produced" mentions).

To a lesser extent, a label entity may be created in the database to represent a record company.

  • A record company typically manages imprints, and coordinates the production / manufacturing / promotion / relations with artist / PR / distribution of sound recordings. Record companies may directly handle one or more of these aspects, or may sign contractual agreements with other companies to do the job. In some specific cases, you may want to create a label in the database to represent such a company name rather than an imprint: usually, such a move is required when labels went through complex merge/split operations and you need Advanced Relationships to structure the imprints list and represent their history in a meaningful way. Please note, though, that there is no need to "de-duplicate" companies from imprints when their name are very close.

Lastly, we also store music groups.

  • A music group is a financial holding company, whose purpose is solely to control and manage other companies directly involved in the production of sound recordings. For record companies, the use of Music groups is reserved for specific cases that you will likely not encounter unless you're doing some research intensive background work on structuring the labels list.

Hence, MusicBrainz mostly keep track of imprints, and to a lesser extent, companies involved into either production or distribution, and music groups.

At this time, we don't keep track of companies involved in the other aspects of the music industry (PR, manufacturing, management, etc.), and we don't get into too much financial details, or try to represent exactly the socio-economic organization of companies. There are three reasons for that:

  • this information is usually not available from sleeves
  • this information is irrelevant to the MusicBrainz goal of being the ultimate source of music information
  • such a project would be extremely complicated and our current data model is not fit for it

There are several entities that are not correct labels for which we still keep an entry so we can stop people from adding releases to them. You can find a list of them here.

Label attributes

A label in MusicBrainz must have a name and sort name. Apart from that, there's other information that can be added:

  • Alias: alternate names or misspellings
  • Label Code: the "LC" code of the label
  • Begin and End Dates: these are the dates when the label was created (usually the date on which the imprint was first used, or the associated trademark was registered) and when it stopped existing
  • Country: the country of origin of the label
  • Type: describes the main activity of the label
  • Disambiguation Comment: distinguishs between identically named labels, or labels with identical label codes
  • Annotation: general information about the label that may be of interest and doesn't fit in any other fields

Template:LabelFooter