artist Begin Date

Description

The "begin date" property of an Artist stores the date when it started its existence.

Additional information

The meaning of the date depends on the Artist Type:

• For persons, it means the date of birth of that person (be it on Performance Names or Legal Names).
• For groups it means the date when the group first formed. So if a group dissolved and then reunited, the date is still that of when they first formed. It is currently not possible to store multiple periods of time for groups (you could describe such facts in the Artist Annotation). Note that there is no guideline saying which date should be preferred when the group first performed under a different name and/or line-up.

Like all other dates in MusicBrainz (Release Dates, dates in Advanced Relationships, Label Begin Date and Label End Date) the begin date of an artist can vary in its accuracy from just a year to the exact day. You cannot enter just a day without specifying a month or just a month without a year though. The begin date can also be empty, meaning it is unknown.

The begin date of an artist corresponds with the Artist End Date.