Release Group

Status: This is proposed style for an unreleased feature. It is not yet official.

Definition

A Release Group is a MusicBrainz concept introduced in May 2009 used to group several different releases into a single logical entity. Every release belongs to one, and only one release group.

Both release groups and releases are "albums" in a general sense, but with a slight difference: a release is something you can buy as media, e.g. a CD, a vinyl record etc. on its own, while a release group embraces the concept of an album -- it doesn't matter how many CDs or editions/versions it had. When an artist tells you "We've released our new album", they're talking about a release group. When his publisher says "This new album gets released next week in Japan and next month in Europe", they're talking about the different releases that belong in the release group that the artist told you about.

MusicBrainz automatically considers every release in the database to be part of a release group, even if this group only contains the one release. As an editor you don't have to worry about creating release groups, you will only need to merge existing ones.

There are a number of situations in which merging releases groups is appropriate.

Regular releases

Since every release is inside a release group, some release groups have only a single release.

International release variations

Releases are often released with different tracklists in different markets, some may even have additional bonus discs. Due to WhatDefinesAUniqueRelease these would be separate releases at MusicBrainz, but should be merged together into the same release group.

Deluxe/limited editions and reissues/remasters

Just like above, a "special" edition of an album, a reissue of an album, or a remaster, should all be part of the same release group.

Multi-disc releases

Each disc in a multi-disc release at MusicBrainz is a separate release (named according to disc number style), but all discs should be part of the same release group.

Box sets

A special case of the above; each disc in a box set would normally be part of the same release group.

Transliterations & translations

Transliterated or translated pseudo-releases should be part of the same release group as the official release (but see below for alternate language versions).

Examples

• Transplant's single "Diamonds and Guns" is a single release inside its own group.
• Weezer's "Weezer (Red Album)" has ten editions in the database, some releases from different countries, some deluxe editions, and one transliteration.
• Franz Ferdinand's "Tonight: Franz Ferdinand" was issued on its own, with a bonus disc, and on two vinyl records.
• A 3 disc self-titled compilation by "Nirvana".
• Mozart's 9 volume, 170 disc "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Complete Works" box set, or Enya's 3 disc box set "A Box of Dreams".
• Blind Guardian's "Nightfall in Middle-Earth" was first released in 1998 and then in 2007, the musical "My Fair Lady" (Original London Cast) released on vinyl in 1959 and CD in 1998.

When Not to Group Releases together

There are a number of cases where it is not appropriate for releases to be part of the same group:

• A Series of different volumes that may have been released over time. Typical examples are "Café del Mar", "Hitzone", "Ministry of Sound" and "Now That's What I Call Music!". Each volume's discs belong in a release group though, e.g. "Volume 1" and "Volume 2" of the Trance Voices series.

• Different bootleg recordings of a live show, e.g. bootleg 1 and bootleg 2 of a 1970 Pink Floyd concert in San Francisco.

• If the individual discs of a re-released Box Set have not been duplicated, due to the rules outlined at "What Defines A Unique Release", each disc in that set should not be grouped together as per the normal box set rules noted above.

• If there are multiple versions of a release in different languages; each language would be its own release group, e.g. Shakira's Laundry Service and Servicio de lavanderia.

Use of Attributes

Title

The title of a release group should be the title of its individual releases, removing Extra Title Information added due to Disc Number Style, Volume Number Style etc.

Type

The types of a release group are the same as those possible for Release Type and should normally be the same as all of the releases in that group. This may not always be the case. It is OK for a bonus disc EP, remix, live disc etc to be inside the same "Album" release group as the accompanying album disc.