Style/Titles: Difference between revisions

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*''[[releasegroup:2a46ad10-e204-3e5c-b2ea-e717f83fa387|Biography: The Greatest Hits]]''
*''[[releasegroup:2a46ad10-e204-3e5c-b2ea-e717f83fa387|Biography: The Greatest Hits]]''
*''[[release:0cb1e972-a21c-3410-8f04-c9d1f917557e|Who Cares a Lot? Greatest Hits]] (already has "?")''
*''[[release:0cb1e972-a21c-3410-8f04-c9d1f917557e|Who Cares a Lot? Greatest Hits]]'' (already has "?")


==Multiple titles==
==Multiple titles / Splits==


When a release is a re-release of two or more other releases, a track includes two or more songs, or a [[wikipedia:Split_album|split release]] has different titles for each artist, the title should be split as " Title 1 / Title 2" (space, slash, space). For otherwise unnamed split releases, use "Artist 1 / Artist 2" as the title.
If two releases are re‐released on one CD, or if two songs share the same track, the title should be split as follows: “This Is the Modern World / All Mod Cons”.


The artist credit for tracks and recordings with multiple artists, and for split releases and release groups, should similarly be "Artist 1 / Artist 2".
See [[/Multiple titles|Multiple titles]] and [[/Split releases|Split releases]].

*''[[release:e5b6236b-874b-4862-b293-f46a02337eb2|This Is the Modern World / All Mod Cons]] by [[artist:23228f18-01d5-493e-94ce-cfcde82a8db2|The Jam]]'' (two releases in one)
*''[[recording:3e40a6fd-d14d-4018-9385-9d22b131190d|Outsider / 14:31 / 110 Mistakes]] by [[artist:daec4ca8-7f91-4d7b-b362-1fbcae1390ea|Burufunk
]] / [[artist:8179e236-86df-459f-bd51-0107138d0a6a|Global Communication]] / [[artist:b2e88c42-c535-43ad-b1a7-0c64f4cb961a|MOT]]'' (track with 3 songs)
*''[[release:86298e0a-4f20-4c36-8c33-a36c9d38c68f|Faith / Void]] by [[artist:f735a867-9a16-451f-8f83-669ed42e2574|Faith]] / [[artist:960a1d2f-2b5f-4fcf-bf11-4957529a6508|Void]]'' (split release)


==Volumes and parts==
==Volumes and parts==

Revision as of 18:18, 7 January 2015

Status: This is an official style guideline.

When entering a new release into MusicBrainz, the titles should be normalized by following these guidelines.

This page provides a summary of the important guidelines, please follow the links to the full guidelines when you need more information.

Capitalization standards

Album and song titles are often found in upper‐case on the back cover of CDs. For example, the album Songs of Love and Hate is written as “SONGS OF LOVE AND HATE” on the cover. This is usually the choice of a graphic designer, not the artist. So, instead of copying the title from the cover, we follow certain rules to capitalize a title. The rules are different for each language.

Please see Style/Language for more information.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations in titles (but not acronyms) should generally be expanded. Probably the most common abbreviations used in titles are “Vol.” and “Pt.”; these should always be expanded to “Volume” and “Part”. The main exceptions to this guideline are “feat.” for “featuring” and “vs.” for “versus”.

See Abbreviations for more information.

Extra title information

Additional information which is not part of the name of a song or album should be in parentheses. You often see this with alternate versions of tracks, or when an artist is featured on a track.

See Extra title information.

Subtitles

Use a colon (:) to separate any subtitles. If there is an alternative dividing punctuation mark such as the question mark (?) or exclamation point (!), use that mark instead of the colon.

Multiple titles / Splits

When a release is a re-release of two or more other releases, a track includes two or more songs, or a split release has different titles for each artist, the title should be split as " Title 1 / Title 2" (space, slash, space). For otherwise unnamed split releases, use "Artist 1 / Artist 2" as the title.

The artist credit for tracks and recordings with multiple artists, and for split releases and release groups, should similarly be "Artist 1 / Artist 2".

Volumes and parts

When a release or track is part of a series, separate the volume or part name from the title with a comma, like this: “The Red Weed, Part 1”.

If the title already ends with an alternative punctuation mark, such as a question mark (?) or an exclamation point (!), use that mark instead of the comma.

See Series numbers, Part numbers and Volume numbers.

Format designations

If a release includes a designation such as EP or E.P., 7", CD, LP, single, etc. as part of its title, include it in the Release Title. If a format designation is not explicitly part of the title, it should not be added.

Exceptions and corner cases

Sometimes it isn’t clear how these guidelines should be applied to a particular release, these cases may be discussed by the StyleCouncil. Decisions of the StyleCouncil concerning particular releases, series or corner cases should be followed. Currently there are two of these guidelines:

Style
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