I’m starting to dig back into events after a long hiatus. Setlists look like they should be really useful for the information I’m entering, but in practice they seem like more trouble than they’re worth.
What I have to work with are performance rundowns in a format like this:
00:02:43 "Red House," Pat Donohue
00:05:17 Cowboys script
00:16:42 "Beautiful Dawn" and "Old Man," The Wailin' Jennys
00:23:33 SFX script
00:29:37 Powdermilk Break
00:30:52 GK Powermilk Outro/ Brandi Carlile Intro
00:31:37 "Dreams," "The Year" and "Folsom Prison Blues," Brandi Carlile
00:42:00 Rhubarb script
00:50:32 "Cherry Blossom" and "Storm Comin'," Wailin Jennys
In a perfect world, what I’d love to see is something where the work and artist pairings are treated almost like recordings and could be “seen” from the work or artist page, but it doesn’t look like that happens.
Given the current system, does anyone have suggestions on using the setlist that would work any better than putting this in an annotation and adding entity links? Even without the two-way relationship, the fact that I can’t enter both an artist and a work on the same line seems unnecessarily restrictive. But sometimes I want to put other stuff in the annotation and it would be overcrowded.
One thing that crosses my mind is that rather than fussing with the setlist, I could create a “Broadcast” release using the rundown as tracks. One advantage is that I could link rebroadcasts to the events as separate releases. Could also do a better job of crediting performers.
Yes, if this is an event. Events are not broadcasts.
In this particular instance though I am not clear if this is a broadcast or a event - as it’s a radio show I guess I would have entered it as a broadcast release in the first place?
Apart from that, I agree that the setlist field is weird. I don’t use it at all. I’m surprised to find that there isn’t already a ticket to have setlists represented in the more usual MB way (e.g. fields that connect links to other/work MBID’s). I don’t have time to make one now, maybe you do?
It is both an event and a broadcast. The live events were always simultaneously broadcast on national radio (later also streamed online). Reruns of course are solely broadcasts, which is why it would be helpful to link them to the original event.
Regarding setlists, I just put in a ticket because currently there’s not even a visual indication of an open edit on a setlist. Might add the other when I have a sec.
My pie-in-the-sky thinking is that it should be possible to add something to an event similar to a medium, where you could connect artists and works. I see where in some cases you can’t be that detailed, but when you can it seems like the basic structures needed are already there.
I can already see this has the potential to be super valuable, especially for entering some these “compilation” rebroadcasts that pull from multiple live shows. There may be more to enter than I can do single-handedly, but it’s a start.
artist: General Mumble with Koa
song: Oats
artist: General Mumble
song: More Than a Chicken
I entirely agree with the general idea that we would ideally have a “tracklist editor” for the setlists, for what it’s worth. Events were implemented as a Summer of Code project though (by me, when I was a much worse programmer still than now - I did the best I could with the available time) and they have never been a priority (for devs nor users, only with EAA has the usage started to rise a bit), but once the release editor is in React it might be easier to reuse parts of the code in a simpler way allowing for a better UI for this.
Reading this, we don’t know for sure if General Mumble performed Oats or More Than a Chicken, IMO.
Can we insert blank lines between songs or have some kind of definition list, in current system, without dev?
Blank lines
artist: General Mumble with Koa
song: Oats
artist: General Mumble
song: More Than a Chicken
Definition list <dl>
artist: General Mumble with Koa
song: Oats
artist: General Mumble
song: More Than a Chicken
It’s crossed my mind that maybe there should be separate formats for a situation like that and one where you’re entering an actual set, a list of works or other material performed all at once.
Think medium:track and setlist:performance.
I can’t think right now what to call your example; my brain’s not totally online yet.
…
Actually, having looked closer, I think what your specific example might need is multiple setlists, like multiple mediums.