Release Title
Definition of all parts of a release title
In MusicBrainzTerminology, the release title is the entire text string representing the name of a Release.
This page deals with (a) the definition of different parts of ReleaseTitles and (b) the ordering of these parts.
Definition
- This is the major part of a ReleaseTitle, and is the main reference when talking about a work or a person. For example, in the title "100% Hits: The Best of 1998 (disc 1)", "100% Hits" is the MainTitle.
- This is a secondary part of a ReleaseTitle, usually containing extra information relevant to a release, or sometimes a second name or an extension of the MainTitle. Using the previous example, "100% Hits: The Best of 1998 (disc 1)", "The Best of 1998" is the SubTitle. Another example would be "Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix", where "HIStory in the Mix" is the SubTitle.
- This is a special part of the title that defines where this release fits into a series of releases. Usually it takes the form "Volume x", but there may be other distinguishers used. For example, in the title "Greatest Hits of 1993, Volume 3", "Volume 3" is the VolumeNumber.
- This is a special form of "ExtraTitleInformation" that defines where this disc fits in part of a "set" of discs (ie: a BoxSet, or a 2 CD release). The form for this is "(disc x: Title of Disc)" which should be placed after the VolumeNumber, and before any other ExtraTitleInformation. The reason for this is due to how vital the information is (it is generally the only way to distinguish parts of a box set when given the title alone), and also that it tends to cross the boundaries between title and extra-title. See DiscNumberStyle and DiscNumberWithNameStyle.
- See discussion of this below...
- This is anything that is not actually considered part of the title but which we include anyway in the interests of retaining metadata. Example: "(feat. Schizophrenia)" in "Entrance to Exit (feat. Schizophrenia)". The aim in future would be that ExtraTitleInformation would eventually become a seperate entity from the MainTitle and SubTitle. An important attribute of ExtraTitleInformation is that it should never be considered vital to the title; in other words the title of the track of release would still be complete even if it were missing the ExtraTitleInformation. There are a couple of StyleGuidelines that deal with this:
Ordering of ExtraTitleInformation
ExtraTitleInformation should be ordered by how they relate to each other and to the track as a whole. It is difficult to describe exactly what I mean by this so I will try to demonstrate it instead with the following examples.
ReleaseTitle: Killa Bites (feat. Dom & Roland) (disc 1)
"Killa Bites" is a two disc drum & bass compilation mixed by Dom & Roland. As Dom & Roland feature across the whole release (both discs), the featured artist name is more relevant to the album than the disc number in this case.
Examples
- "Abbey Road"
- "Greatest Hits, Volume 2 (disc 2: The Sober Years)"
- "Boom Boom (bonus disc)"
- "Clubbin' (Mixed by DJ Deejay)"
Discussion
DiscNumber comes first?
Above it says that the DiscNumber comes first within the ExtraTitleInformation. Is this correct? At least it conflicts with the described logic of ordering. If two discs of a release feature DJ Someone should the ReleaseTitle not be "The Album (feat. DJ Someone) (disc 1)"? --DonRedman
- I would always put the ExtraTitleInformation that contains artist information (FeaturingArtistStyle, VersusStyle) after the ExtraTitleInformation that contains release information (DiscNumber
s, BonusDiscStyle, ...). --Zout
I thought that was idea so am curious myself since pointing many people to that fact we discussed a short time ago. Also would it not be correct to include an example using (Mixed by Artist) in the release title since many Releases are done that way. I gather that (Mixed by Artist) means the same as (feat. Artist) in the release title and either is applicable, correct? --teleGuise
