Label

Warning! This is a working draft for the discussion going on the style mailing list: http://lists.musicbrainz.org/pipermail/musicbrainz-style/2006-November/004038.html

It's not official in any way!

Labels in MusicBrainz are used to describe the following entities:

• a holding company: a company controlling a number of other labels (EMI Group, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony BMG)
• a distribution company: a company distributing releases for other labels in specific countries (ZYX)
• a production label: a company producing releases (Sire Records)
• a collection name: some "production labels" use collection names as a label name (Fantasy vs Original Jazz Classics)

Information about labels stored in the database

These fields are stored directly in each label's record:

• LabelName: the name of the label
• LabelCode: see LabelCode
• LabelBeginDate: this is the date at which the company was created, or the collection name was first used on a release
• LabelEndDate: this is the date at which the company went bankrupt, was dismantled, or the collection name was used for the last time
• LabelComment: field to distinguish between identically named labels
• LabelAnnotation: general information about the label that may be of interest to other users
• LabelCountry: the country in which the company was founded
• LabelType: the "type" of the label, which may be:
  • distributor: used for distributors...
  • holding: used for holdings...
  • collection: used for collection name when the producing label uses it as a label name
  • production is splited into the following subtypes:
    • original production: used for labels producing entirely new releases
    • bootleg production: for bootlegs (as in "illegal") labels
    • reissue production: used for labels specializing in catalog reissues

Editing labels

Any MusicBrainz user can edit labels in several ways:

• The system provides the following EditTypes:
  • AddLabelsEdit (autoedit)
  • RemoveLabelEdit
  • EditLabelEdit
  • MergeLabelsEdit

Advanced Relationships

Labels can have ARs in the DiscographyRelationshipClass:

• OfficialHomepageRelationshipType: indicates the official website of the label
  • label has an official homepage at url
  • url is the official home page of label label

• HistoryRelationshipType: provides a link to pages where an history of the label is located
  • label has an history at url
  • url presents the history of label label

• DiscographyRelationshipType: provides a link to a list of recordings the label has released
  • label has a discography at url
  • url presents a discography by label label

• ImageRelationshipType: provides a link to an official logo of the label
  • label has a logo at url
  • url is a logo of label label

Labels can have ARs in the OtherDatabasesRelationshipClass:

• WikipediaRelationshipType:

• This provides a link between a label and its Wikipedia page. See also LinkWikipediaAndMusicBrainz.

• DiscogsRelationshipType:

• This links a label to its Discogs page.

Similarly to PersonalAssociationRelationshipClass as used for artists, labels can have relations to other labels:

• OwnsRelationShipType: describes the fact a label is/was a sub-label (or subdivision) of another label, during a period of time.
  • label A is/was the parent label of label B {during period YYYY-MM-DD - YYYY-MM-DD}
  • label B is/was a subsidiary of label label B {during period YYYY-MM-DD - YYYY-MM-DD}

• DistributesRelationShipType: describes the fact a label is/was distributing the releases of another label, in a country/region of the world, during a period of time.
  • label A is/was distributing label label B {during period YYYY-MM-DD - YYYY-MM-DD}
  • label B is/was distributed by label label A {during period YYYY-MM-DD - YYYY-MM-DD}

• ReissuesRelationShipType: describes the fact a label is/was reissuing the releases of another label, in a country/region of the world, during a period of time. This usually occurs in two cases: (a) if label A has leased (part of) label B's catalog or (b) if label A owns the right on defunct label B's catalog.
  • label A is/was reissuing the catalog of label label B {during period YYYY-MM-DD - YYYY-MM-DD}
  • label B have/has its catalog reissued by label label A {during period YYYY-MM-DD - YYYY-MM-DD}

Last, similarly to ProductionRelationshipClass, we can have relations between artists and labels, to describe the work done by these artists in a label. They are similar in purpose to ProducerRelationshipType, EngineerRelationshipType, MiscellaneousProductionRelationshipType:

• ProducerPositionRelationshipType: describes the fact a person did some production work for a label company.
  • artist A worked as a producer for label B {during period YYYY-MM-DD - YYYY-MM-DD}
  • label B contracted as a producer artist A {during period YYYY-MM-DD - YYYY-MM-DD}

• EngineerPositionRelationshipType: describes the fact a person did some engineer work for a label company.
  • artist A worked as an engineer for label B {during period YYYY-MM-DD - YYYY-MM-DD}
  • label B contracted as an engineer artist A {during period YYYY-MM-DD - YYYY-MM-DD}

• CreativePositionRelationshipType: describes the fact a person did some creative work for a label company. This AR should be used to describe all various kind of work in that field (illustration, art direction, photography, etc...)
  • artist A had a creative position at label B {during period YYYY-MM-DD - YYYY-MM-DD}
  • label B contracted as a creative person artist A {during period YYYY-MM-DD - YYYY-MM-DD}

Known problems and limitations

The system currently has known limitations, that may be solved later:

• Labels history may be quite complicated, and LabelBeginDate and LabelEndDate may not be enough to describe a label activity. -- dmppanda 19:16, 03 November 2006 (UTC)
• There is actually no way to handle labels rename (this is the same problem as with group renames). -- dmppanda 19:31, 03 November 2006 (UTC)
• Ideally, DistributesRelationShipType and ReissuesRelationShipType could use an additional "country" or "region" field, as some lease/rights are limited to a specific region of the world. -- dmppanda 21:22, 03 November 2006 (UTC)
• Ideally, we could be able to attach multiple release events (release date and country) to a unique catalog number / EAN. -- dmppanda 21:22, 03 November 2006 (UTC)

Discussion

• The use of the word "catalog" has been suggested instead of "discography", the argument being this is the exact word used in the record industry. On the other hand, using the word "discography" let us reuse the existing DiscographyRelationshipType instead of creating a new one. If catalog is to be used, the AR would be:
  • CatalogRelationshipType: provides a link to a list of recordings the label has released
    • label has a catalog at url
    • url presents a catalog of records released by label label

• -- dmppanda 21:22, 03 November 2006 (UTC)

• The same rewording could be used for the ImageRelationshipType which for labels is indeed LogoRelationshipType -- dmppanda 21:22, 03 November 2006 (UTC)
• The use of a label entity for collections names must be made with extra-care. Definitely, one must not use collection names printed on the front cover as a label name, but only if the collection name is printed in place of the label name, and is really used by the producing label as is. For example, any of the "Verve Jazz Masters" releases are from label Verve, dot, and "Jazz Masters" should be part of the release name. Compare this with the Original Jazz Classics releases, by label Fantasy. -- dmppanda 21:22, 03 November 2006 (UTC)