Non-Album Track

Non-Album Tracks

Musical tracks that are associated with an artist but have not been released on any album (or single, or compilation, etc.) are grouped together under the pseudo-album NonAlbumTracks.

While it's tempting for lazy users to use these as "a dumping ground for dodgy internet sourced mp3s," this tendency should be (and is) resisted; an AddTrackEdit for a non-album track without a good EditNote is very likely to be voted down. Although the StyleGuidelines don't spell this out explicitly (as they should) there are a few valid reasons for creating a NonAlbumTrack:

When to Use Non-Album Tracks

Internet-only release

Often, before an album is released, songs from the album may be available on an internet site for download, and may be entered as non-album tracks; however, once the album (or single) with such a track is entered into the database, the non-album track should be removed with RemoveTrackEdit. Less frequently, some such tracks are available for download, but are never included in any album or compilation.

Captured from broadcast performance

A song may be performed as part of a TV or radio show or other non-concert performance; tracks captured from these events may be entered as non-album tracks if they are not part of any live album or bootleg compilation.

Pregap (track 0) tracks

It is possible to have HiddenTracks that precede the beginning of track 1; since the MusicBrainz database has no way to store a PregapTrack (see ticket 811) these should be entered as non-album tracks, as recommended in one mailing list thread or another later one.

When not to Use Non-Album Tracks

Conversely, there are some cases that should not use non-album tracks, even though it might seem applicable:

MP3 CD-ROM collections

Sometimes an artist or label will release a number of songs as MP3 files on a CD-ROM rather than as an audio disc; these should be entered as normal albums (or compilations, etc. if that is more appropriate). If there is no explicit track order in the filenames, they should be listed in alphabetical order as that is how most MP3 CD-ROM capable players will play them.

Tracks hidden in other tracks

HiddenTracks are tracks where a single (very long) track has music, then a long silence (or noise), followed by one or more (different) pieces of music. Those are to be entered in the form "Song Title / [untitled]" according to UntitledTrackStyle and MultipleTitleStyle (or "Song Title / Other Song Title" if the song is known by a name otherwhere). Those tracks are not allowed as non-album tracks.

Track "99"

Another type of HiddenTracks are those that are separate tracks, but are preceded by dozens of short tracks of [silence]; since these can and should be listed as tracks of the album, they are not non-album tracks.

Some Guidelines

Finally, there are some other guidelines for use of non-album tracks:

Use informative titles

Since non-album tracks don't have album release dates or other information associated with them, adding information like "(live, 2002-05-13: Radio One)" is very helpful. Using titles like "[untitled]" or "[unknown]" is sure to get the track voted down or removed.

Submit the PUIDs

Non-album tracks with no associated PUIDs are fairly useless, since they cannot be matched by track number or disc id, and matching by track name is unlikely to tell you anything you didn't already know. If you add a non-album track, it's presumably because you have an MP3 or other sound file for it. Tagging your file with MusicBrainzIdentifiers is only half the work; you need to submit the PUID to the MusicBrainz database so that the entry is useful to others. If you don't, the entry is likely to be "garbage collected" for lack of PUIDs later on.

Link to a download source

Direct download links if available (like from artist websites) should be linked to the non-album track with an AdvancedRelationship. They are not only the best proof for the track's existence when adding it, but also the best documentation as to where it's from.