I had occasion to re-read How to Add a Release. It’s really good information — it answered my immediate question — but I realised that it is missing the instructions how I add all of my entries for CDs.
In case you are interested, this is what I think is missing:
I always enter CDs by having Picard generate a Disc ID, then try to look it up in MusicBrainz. Sometimes MB has the Disc ID; usually, it doesn’t. So, I click the link for Add a Release, and then follow the four dialogues of Adding a Release. I like this because MusicBrainz knows all the track durations thanks to the Disc ID. Also, I get the Disc ID registered in MusicBrainz. Later, when I rip the CD, my ripper can retrieve accurate Release and Track titles via a Disc ID lookup.
There are instructions on How to Add Disc IDs. They mention in passing the Add a Release link. However, I don’t think that will inform a user looking for ways to add a release.
Perhaps it would be prudent to create an entirely new document on how to add a release via Picard? Could also include some documentation on how to use the “Add Cluster as Release” plugin. @CallerNo6?
Yeah, I’d like to see this workflow described in the wiki and then have a link to that added to Picard docs. I don’t see anything in the Picard FAQ about “what if my release isn’t in MB yet?”. (Maybe it’s there and I’m simply not seeing it?)
I think we’ll end up needing multiple articles to explain everything, yes. But rather than framing the documents around tools (“this is how you use Picard to add a release”), we should frame them around user goals and situations (“you have a CD and want to add that release to MB, here’s how to use Picard to do it”).
I’d frame this as “you have a set of music files that make up an album, and you want to add that release to MB, here’s how to use Picard to do it”.