Hi,
I was wondering if MusicBrainz has a standardised way of adding scans of a CD where the matrix info is located. I went through a lot of releases (incl. high data quality ones) but am yet to come across such a scan. Even if it is allowed, what would be the tags for uploading it? “Medium” is probably a must but shouldn’t there be any other descriptors to indicate that it’s the flipped side of the CD (or the right side, depending on how you see it)? I had used “Medium” + “Back” for a few releases but as per the docs, “Back” is certainly not meant to be used that way. (No worries if that’s wrong, I can go back and correct the data if warranted since I uploaded very few images with those tags)
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As you imagined, Back is reserved to the outmost back of the release package and Front is reserved to the outmost front of the release package (slipcase, box, if any or first page of booklet for bare jewel cases, etc.).
So we just have Medium for this at the moment, indeed.
Usually I write the content of the matrix in the Cover Art comment field, like here: 759926707-2.2 WME 43. 
Please also write the matrix in the release annotation at the same time.
We could standardise maybe the comment in that case, prefixing with matrix: 759926707-2.2 WME 43, maybe?
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I’ve heard that the database schema already supports the matrix field but it’s not exposed to the UI yet. Either way, I guess I’ll be adding these scans as “Medium” and would position them right next to the right-side-up scan for now (and use annotations + cover art comments until the UI fields arrive). We should see userscripts to aid in importing these data to the proper matrix fields in the future anyway. Thanks for your input!
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I’ve always used medium+other to help distinguish it for the auto-downloading programs like Picard. I upload a lot of Matrix’s myself. I’ll add “matrix” to the comment, but put the actual text of the matrix into the annotation field.
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Instead of agreeing on formalizing such workarounds, I’d rather push for finally having Extended Attributes implemented in the user interface.
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By the way, what is runout, compared to matrix, on a CD?
Referring to STYLE-781 Add “Matrix” and “Runout” for Releases/Mediums.
Change happens slow around here and tickets get fixed one by one… they get there eventually.
But we can always drive that change with agreed “workarounds”. It helps to show how interested the community is in documenting these extra details. It is one of the reasons why I am making more use of the annotations for data like this so when the database does finally catch up with us, the data is there to hand.
This is certainly good to hear. The artwork categories are missing so many different types. Nice to get a few new ones now and than.
Can make it confusing to properly label some artwork. For example, the parts of a Digibox can be hard to select.
I think “runout” is the name the “matrix” has on vinyl as it is in the area the needle “runs out”. It is the same idea - production details specific to that medium.
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