Artist Type styleguide-proposal

MusicBrainz
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I sometimes forget how to credit one-person-projects, which leads me to look for the Type style guidelines, and then I remember that we don’t have any. We probably should? Or I just can’t find them which is embarrassing but please let me know if that’s the case!

We currently have some short Artist Type descriptions in the docs: https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Artist#Type
We also have these, expanded with a bit of style guidance, in the type tooltips in the artist editor.

I suggest we store these expanded tooltip descriptions in Artist style:
https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Style/Artist

Along with an additional section for one person projects. I thought there was some firm guidance on this somewhere, but once again, I couldn’t find it? I have based the text below on what the holy style master said in this thread on the topic.

Once that is done we can add this to the bottom of each of the editing tooltips:
“Please see the style guidelines for more information.”

Feedback welcome! Once/if @reosarevok signs off on this I’m happy to put the plan into action.

Suggested style text:

Person

This indicates an individual person, be it under its legal name (“John Lennon”), or a performance name (“Sting”).

Group

A grouping of multiple musicians who perform together (in some cases, some or all of the members might differ in different performances or recordings). This also applies to non-musical groups, like an artwork studio, company or collective, where a more specific credit is not available.

Orchestra

This indicates an orchestra (an organized, usually large group of instrumentalists). Smaller ensembles (such as trios and quartets) and groupings that do not generally call themselves orchestras are better entered as “Group”.

Choir

This indicates a choir/chorus (an organized, usually large group of singers). Smaller vocal ensembles and groupings that do not generally call themselves choirs are better entered as “Group”.

Character

This indicates an individual fictional character (whether a fictional person, animal or any other kind of character).

Other

Anything which does not fit into the above categories.

Note that not every ensemble related to classical music is an orchestra or choir. The Borodin Quartet and The Hilliard Ensemble, for example, are simply groups.

One person band/projects should be set as Person or Group. First, consider artist intent - for instance, if they refer to themselves as “the band” and themselves a “member”, then set the artist as a Group. Otherwise, artists that are one person doing everything should be set to Person. Artists that are one person that sometimes perform ‘with friends’ (in studio and/or when touring) need to be assessed case-by-case, and editor judgement applied.

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Worth adding that you also have non-musical groups like the artists who work on the artwork. Example : Hipgnosis - MusicBrainz

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Thanks, added this, further edits always welcome:

…This also applies to non-musical groups, like an artwork studio, company or collective, where a more specific credit is not available.

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The problem with this is that dates do not work the same between persons and groups. If artist intent is considered, the vast majority of solo projects have start dates that align with groups, not a person’s date of birth, and would likely all need to be classified as a group.

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Of VTubers, agencies, and unknown legal names
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I just remembered that issue this morning, as well!

I suppose either these projects get set as ‘group’ (which tbh would solve a lot of problems, but doesn’t seem (?) to be how we’ve done it in the past), otherwise the issue lies with how we always word the start date as ‘birth date’ in all of our ‘Person’ text and that needs to be changed.

Reo is on break at the moment, looking forward to hearing his opinion on this later.

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I’m a big supporter of the idea that solo projects should be considered groups if they ever use session musicians or live musicians. If the solo artist is the only one ever playing instruments and refers to the artist name in the first person then I’d be okay with the person assignment but personally I’d prefer a different sub-type called project or something under person so you can establish start date of the project rather than birth date. Or perhaps there could be a flag for groups that it’s a solo project so others can be considered as guest/live contributors but it’s distinct from other groups.

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Why not use alias and/or relationships dates to indicate solo project start?

See Edit #21929183 - MusicBrainz

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I quite regularly do use those to document that data but especially the re-use of birth date fields rather than start date fields for multiple solo projects by the same person seems quite ridiculous. A person with 3 solo projects would see their birth date and location duplicated 3 times beyond their original page for a total of 4 cases of the same data rather than a more useful start date and location related to when and where that specific project started. So sure, we can store the data but the overall presentation and storage of data leaves A LOT to be desired.

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Maybe I’m brainwashed by years and years of MB editing, but I actually like having the birth date vs a “started using this name” date. I feel that second one is often kinda pointless for person names.

My suggestion would be something like:

One person band/projects should most often be set as Person, but consider artist intent - for instance, if they refer to themselves as “the band” and themselves a “member”, then set the artist as a Group. If the project originally had several members and eventually turned into a solo project, it should remain as a Group. Otherwise, artists that are one person (even if they sometimes perform with session musicians / touring bands) should be set to Person.

And then make sure we have a few examples of each type.

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