User:PavanChander/Database Overview

Page notes

• The release description below the <hr> is meant for the more detailed release page, the shorter description above is meant for the entity overview page.

Release group

A release group, just as the name suggests, is used to combine several releases into one group.

Both release groups and releases are very similar in a general sense, but they have an important difference. A release is a specific dated issuing of an album, i.e. what you might buy in a store; whereas a release group embraces the overall concept of an album, i.e. it encompasses all the different versions or editions that may have been released of that album. Every release in the database belongs to one, and only one, release group.

When an artist states, "We're releasing our new album soon", they're talking about a release group. When their publisher says "This new album gets released next week in Japan and next month in Europe", they're referring to the different releases that belong in that release group.

Examples

• The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (temp link) was released several times since 1967: in different countries, on different labels, and on different formats.
• Franz Ferdinand's Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (temp link) was released on its own, with a bonus disc, and over three different formats.
• The Original London Cast recording of My Fair Lady was first released on vinyl in 1959 and then re-released in 1998 on CD.
• Blind Guardian's Nightfall in Middle-Earth album was released with different tracklists in 1998 and also had a remastered release in 2007.

Continue reading about release groups »

Release

A release represents the unique release (i.e. issuing) of a product on a specific date with specific release information such as the country, label, barcode, packaging etc. If you walk into a store and purchase an album, box set, or soundtrack, they're each represented in MusicBrainz as one release.

Examples

• Queen's Greatest Hits I & II (temp link)
• Enya's A Box of Dreams (temp link)
• Chris Rea's The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Blue Notes (temp link)
• Johnny Cash's The Legend (temp link)
• Coldplay's Viva la Vida (temp link)
• Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings: The The Fellowship of the Ring: The Complete Recordings (temp link)

Continue reading about releases »

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A release represents the unique release (i.e. issuing) of a product on a specific date with specific release information such as the country, label, barcode, packaging etc. If you walk into a store and purchase an album, boxset, or soundtrack, they're each represented in MusicBrainz as one release.

Each release belongs to a release group and contains at least one medium/tracklist (commonly referred to as a disc when talking about a CD release).

The easiest way to think about a medium is that it represents the actual physical medium the audio content is stored upon. This means that each CD in a multi-disc release will be entered on separate mediums. Mediums have a format (e.g. CD, DVD, vinyl, cassette, etc.) and can optionally also be titled.

Tracklists on the other hand represent the set and ordering of tracks as listed on a liner, and the same tracklist can appear on more than one release. For example, a boxset compilation of previously released albums might share its tracklists with those previous releases.

Examples

• Queen's Greatest Hits I & II (temp link) was released over two CDs.
• Enya's A Box of Dreams (temp link) was released over three CDs, each with their own disc title.
• Chris Rea's The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Blue Notes (temp link) was released over three CDs and two vinyl records.
• Johnny Cash's The Legend (temp link) compilation was released over four CDs, each with their own disc title.
• Coldplay's Viva la Vida (temp link) single was released as a two track CD.
• Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings: The The Fellowship of the Ring: The Complete Recordings (temp link) soundtrack was released over three CDs.