I thought podcasts counted as broadcasts in MusicBrainz?
Anyway, it doesn’t seem impossible that an audiobook would be broadcast.
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.
1 Like
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.
3 Likes
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.
1 Like
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.
1 Like