I thought podcasts counted as broadcasts in MusicBrainz?
Anyway, it doesn’t seem impossible that an audiobook would be broadcast.
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I think they do, but the format of a podcast is not the same as an audiobook.
Traditionally audiobooks are first released like books or albums, in the form of a physical artifact. Streaming/broadcasts are not.
Of course, the distinction between a “digital file download” release of an audiobook is barely distinct from “streaming” release.
I’m not saying it’s traditional, just that audiobooks can also be broadcasts, so we might not want to make audiobook a primary type, even though it seems like a good suggestion at first sight.
And radio plays can be later released on CD; does that make them any less of a broadcast?
EDIT: My point is that the “form” of the content is not 100% linked to the release method.
An audiobook is an audiobook regardless of whether it was published or broadcast first; an audio drama is an audio drama regardless of the medium
For what it’s worth, this seems like a good idea to me!
Anything can be ‘broadcast’, including an album or an EP, so I’m not sure that’s a good reason to block an otherwise useful (and generally quite intuitive imo) change like this.
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No one was suggesting blocking the addition of ‘audiobook’. I was just saying that an audiobook is not a broadcast even though it can be broadcasted.
Yeah I thought I was echoing that statement 
You’re right that an audiobook sold in a shop and then broadcast would not be a reason to qualify it as ‘broadcast’. But there are audiobooks that are released as broadcasts like the Ulysses example I gave earlier or e.g. Scott Sigler serialising his books as podcasts or pretty much anything on podiobooks. Although I guess it depends what you define as an audiobook, but they seem to fit with definitions elsewhere.
Anyway, I don’t have a strong opinion on it, just wanted to point out a possible snag in what otherwise seemed like a good idea to me.
Hear, hear!
If piling-on is allowed, I’d also like audio play/radio drama to be catered for. They’re not albums, they’re often not broadcasts (which is also very ill-defined), and they are similar but distinct from audiobooks, even if based on existing prose.
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Sometimes they are, IMO. e.g. I would consider Amazon.com to be an album even though the series it contains was originally broadcast via radio.
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Wait a moment, audio plays are (sometimes) albums in your mind, but audiobooks aren’t? Do explain.
This particular one is, in my opinion, clearly „An episodic release that was originally broadcast via radio, […]“ [RG:Type]
Amazon files it as Audiobook, which is obvious bunk. There are some unclear hybrids between audiobook and audio play, but this isn’t.
Well, to me — and this isn’t something I have necessarily thought all the way through so I reserve the right to be inconsistent and change my mind with new info — to me, the original “release” on radio ie streaming is a broadcast but a later issuing on CD is distinct and was clearly not broadcasted.
Broadcast is a little weird as a release type, since it has no concrete medium and there is no artifact that represents an instance of that broadcast (a stream rip might get pretty close due to its digital nature). It also has no specific release instance since most or many of them could theoretically be rebroadcast at any time, and were for syndicated shows… without that being IMO a new MB-release
To me those CD or cassette reissues are a whole different thing and the closest match in my mind is “album”.
Has anything changed official on this topic? The Audiobook Styleguide still doesn’t mention types.
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I think this issue is worth revisiting. It seems like a lot of audiobooks I have found use this “other” type. However, because the official guidelines are mum on the issue, some artists end up with releases split across types which is undesirable. The guidelines should probably clearly define a primary release type.
Easy to fix. Just change them to Other.
Not all artists have had time spent on them to tidy them up. Some are just better organised than others.
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Is “other” release type the agreed upon standard here? My issue is that there are Broadcast+Audiobook releases and you could theoretically have an EP+Audiobook or a Single+Audiobook release. So it seems odd to label release that are a bundle of cds as “Other.”
I would say this also applies to audio dramas which seems to also suffer from this.
Personally I think “album”, “EP”, and “single” have nothing to do with audiobooks.
I would replace all three instances with “Other”.
That said, I myself have never seen an Audiobook “single”, so maybe there are exceptions that apply?
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I know there are quite a few of these releases for example
These are children’s books bundled with vinyls as “read-along” type records.
Note: this is currently marked as an album or other, although a 7" is usually marked as a single.
A search on discogs for Audiobook + "7 comes up with a couple thousand hits
https://www.discogs.com/search/?q=audiobook&type=all&style_exact=Audiobook&format_exact=7"
I don’t think any of those are related to the musical concept of “single”, except that they don’t contain many tracks/are short.
What I meant by examples of Audiobook singles is where there is an audiobook with a bunch of tracks, and one has been released separately (for promotional purposes, usually with a different cover etc).
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There is this example for that, haven’t done an exhaustive search of digital release for others
https://www.discogs.com/master/1300273-The-Justified-Ancients-Of-Mu-Mu-2023-The-Audiobook
A single type release would be necessary to clearly distinguish it from the full release
https://www.discogs.com/release/11434406-The-Justified-Ancients-Of-Mu-Mu-2023
While singles are often culled from longer release, they do not have to be as many singles never appear on longer release. Those are parts of ongoing series though, so they could later be released as a longer form album.
I think in general though, those are examples of what I would expect an audiobook version of a single to be. If I bought one of those thinking it was an album, I would feel short changed. Hence, why it’s a good idea to distinguish between those and longer “album+audiobook” releases. IMO, there is a clear difference between the two.