The type of the release group of audiobooks (album, single, EP, broadcast, other) is not clear. A lot of release groups are entered as “other”, slightly few as “album”.
Album: An album, perhaps better defined as a “Long Play” (LP) release, generally consists of previously unreleased material (unless this type is combined with secondary types which change that, such as “Compilation”).
Other: Any release that does not fit or can’t decisively be placed in any of the categories above.
I just use the secondary type of ‘audiobook’.
I don’t think it’s necessary to shoehorn an ambiguous primary type in there as well, although I guess if we had to (and I know some people can’t handle leaving that field blank) I would use ‘other’. That’s because although I agree with them fitting our description for ‘album’, I’ve never heard of an audiobook being referred to as an ‘album’ and I think it could lead to confusion later.
“Other” is basically equivalent to empty - there’s a style ticket to get rid of “Other” in many places where it means nothing that I should look into at some point. So in reality, it’s kinda just two alternatives
My voice is for album, because of the usual length, and because it is a „complete work“.
Come to think of it, some audiobooks are offered as a stack (less often as a literal album) of CDs … akin to the stack or book of shellacs that is the origin of the name „Album“.
You probably know this, but the term „album“ stems from the time when 72 rpm singles were the norm, and only contained about 3 minutes of music. To get longer works (e.g. an entire opera) to the consumer, publishers put tens of singles into a container, often an something like a book where each „page“ was a record sleeve. These looked like the already popular photo albums.
Soooo… my idea is to carry the album metaphor further by calling a box containing tens of CDs making up an audiobook an „album“ as well.
That’s great for a MB expert/music history and definition buff, but[quote=“aerozol, post:2, topic:73714”]
I’ve never heard of an audiobook being referred to as an ‘album’ and I think it could lead to confusion later.[/quote]
Not to mention that most modern Audiobook additions will be digital downloads.
I also think that audiobooks should be listed under ‘Other’. That seemed to be the norm and was what I had in mind when I was writing the audiobook guideline, but for some reason it didn’t get included.
To be honest I think the bigger issue here is with the whole primary/secondary type system not being all that appropriate for specific types of releases - it seems to be applied differently in certain circumstances.
In the case of an audiobook, I disagree. It may be in a box, but it’s a single unit. There’s no way you could subdivide it and still have a coherent whole.
The comment was meant to be tongue in cheek so I probably shouldn’t have made it, but for me a box set is not necessarily divisible, that’s just a special case (no pun intended )
Yes, well it’s certainly not a single or EP, and album is at least redundant. I guess it could be a broadcast?
Looks like it https://player.fm/featured/audiobooks
Broadcast seems wrong, unless they were, well, “broadcast”. Not sure if streaming counts – I could read a book on a youtube video; that wouldn’t turn the book into a video.
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