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 bakrupt, 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 splitted 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:
  • label has an official homepage at url

• This indicates the official website of the label.

• HistoryRelationshipType:
  • label has an history at url

• This provides a link to specific pages where an history of the label is located.

• DiscographyRelationshipType:
  • label has a discography at url

• This provides a link to a list of recordings the label has released.

• ImageRelationshipType:
  • label has a logo at url

• This is used for the official logo(s) of a 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-YYYY}

• 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 B {during period YYYY-YYYY}

• 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 B {during period YYYY-YYYY}

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-YYYY}

• 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-YYYY}

• 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-YYYY}

Discussion

• Labels history may be quite complicated, and LabelBeginDate and LabelEndDate may not be enough to describe a label activity. This is a current known limitation of the system -- dmppanda 19:16, 03 November 2006 (UTC)
• We have actually no way to handle labels rename (this is the same problem as with group renames). This may be solved later. -- dmppanda 19:31, 03 November 2006 (UTC)