Additional release title?

MusicBrainz
1

Hi there.
John Lakveet’s “Building Sequential Stones” (both volumes) has in the spine the addition to the release titel (ECA) and (ECA II). ECA = Ecclesias Cathedrales Aedificans. This could be the “extension” to the initial part of the title.
What do you think?
Here’s a reference…

And BTW: “Vol. 1” or “Volume 1”?

Thanks!

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… anybody can chime in here? :slight_smile:Thanks…

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“Vol. 1” or “Volume 1” depends on what is written on the release. In this case, it would be “Vol. 1”. It gets interesting once you find both spellings, e.g. “Vol. 4” on the front cover and “Volume 4” on the spine. In that case I would use the unabbreviated form.

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4

OK - thanks for the feedback.
And how do you feel about the “extended title”?

5

They seem to be quite specific with the title in the Bandcamp blurb:
‘Building Sequential Stones, Ecclesias Cathedrales Aedificans Vol. 1’

I always find it safer to go with what the artist/label is saying! Unless they are really making a ham of it :wink:

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6

OK, so you are suggesting the whole title to be used…

7

I mean… only if you want to :stuck_out_tongue:

The fact that the Bandcamp page doesn’t have the full title means it’s definitely a grey area. Generally on MB we take the spine text for CD’s.

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My OCD is telling me to do it :slight_smile:
So you refer to the spine: the CD spine reads “Building Sequential Stones (E.C.A. Vol. 1)” and the later release “Building Sequential Stones Vol. 2 (ECA II)”…
The artist has not been consistent, but I will simply take the MB rule and use what’s on the spine - is that fine?

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9

That’s fine! In this case my OCD would be battling to not make the two match though :grimacing: :grimacing: :grimacing:

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@aerozol - was that a typo? I thought the guidelines said we are supposed to take the title text from the Cover and not the Spine.

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Oh… let me know which one is now the guideline, before I start making changes… :smirk:

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I couldn’t find anything here:
https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Style/Titles

I find that the spine is less prone to design-ery decisions when it comes to the title. But it may well be that I’ve missed a guideline somewhere?

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13

I know I have been lectured on this one before. I was trying to locate something written earlier and failed. All I could find was in the Classical section: https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Style/Classical/Release_Title

First paragraph: For releases of physical media, the Release Title will be sourced from the front cover. When a physical cover is not available, find the title at a reliable online source. For digital media, use the label’s page or other official source. Avoid using information from resellers.

I have always followed that the Cover is King.

The guidelines are painfully out of date in many ways. I kinda agree that a spine is better and clearer to read as it has to focus on the text and is what you see on the shelf.

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14

In general (i.e. I’m sure there are exceptions), I try to combine the spine and the front cover into the most “complete” title. For example, if one says “Vol.” and the other says “Volume”, I’d choose “Volume”. If one says “EAC” and the other says “Ecclesias Cathedrales Aedificans”, I’d use the latter. If the front cover says “Johann Sebastian Bach” and the spine says “J. S. Bach”, I’d use the full name for the release artist. If the front cover has a subtitle and the spine doesn’t, I’d include the subtitle. If the spine has an “alternative dividing punctuation mark” between title and subtitle and the front cover does not, I’d use that character instead of a colon.

15

… so no real guideline… which is confusing…

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Kinda like @61C7hFxpxjQB, I just fly with common sense. That usually works. But now and then a pendant will jump on you with their variation of the guidelines.

There are so many little holes in the guidelines that it is tricky to keep everyone happy. Too many items are decided in the forum but not updated in the official guidelines. It is hard to keep up. As long as you do a good representation of the text, you’ll be fine. Someone will soon come along and correct it if they don’t like it :laughing:

In this example I would call the Release “Building Sequential Stones, Ecclesias Cathedrales Aedificans, Vol. 1” because that is what is on the cover of the CD, and it is also how it is being described in the text on the band camp page. Remember to add the comma in front of Vol to keep to another guideline. :wink:

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