The expanded broadcast guidelines have now been implemented.
Thanks @reosarevoks for taking over an hour to go through the changes with me today, and making improvements.
If you wanted to see more changes then please treat this as a springboard for further change! I am super happy to at least get those that have consensus over the line - more threads with additions/changes to the guidelines are very welcome.
That’s fantastic! It’s very clear and I like that there are many examples.
I have a question though. Many podcasts come with an image that could be considered cover art. Should this cover art be added to the episodes? The downside, I would think, is that we’re then uploading the same image sometimes hundreds of times, because every episode gets a separate release group. This seems rather wasteful of server resources.
Also a great way to annoy voters
If the ‘release’ comes with official art, then you can add it afaik 
Even if it’s being duplicated, a lot of people will appreciate being able to use the art in their tags.
P.S. very considerate re. server resources, but keep in mind that the internet archive hosts the images for us, and I’m sure that all of our images put together will be a miniscule drop in their bucket. They are trying to back up the whole internet after all!
Should albums that are common on Deezer & Qobuz mostly digitally or sometimes CDs considered broadcast if they are recordings of concerts aired over the radio? You see a ton of unofficial looking radio broadcast (that are actually legal in many countries). On the digital releases I usually just mark them as bootleg albums. I’ve seen some editors changing/adding them to broadcast instead of albums. Example of a current edit: Edit #142100481.
That’s interesting, there is 1 problem with setting the release group type to broadcast though, because (iirc) all releases of the same concert should share the same release group, “normal” bootleg live albums would also have that type.
With something like recordings from John Peel’s sessions on BBC Radio I’d just mark them as Album, Live. Not using Broadcast. Mainly because there are a lot of official album releases like this, as well as plenty of bootleg CDs. Music is often recorded from a radio source. Very common for bootlegs, but I have never seen them separated out.
Mainly based on how anywhere else would treat this album. It is a standard live album that would just be under the live part of a discography.
That was kind of what I thought as well. I figured broadcast is used to document actual broadcast that have not been released via albums.
There are places where a radio show does get onto an album and gets treated as “Broadcast”. Some of the Audio Dramas on BBC Radio are treated like this. Clearly a radio show first, then later released as an album.
When the Music is released on an album it is the Music Album that is promoted and the radio bit tends to just appear in the credits on the rear.
So I can see how some can see that overlap. Personally I think we have it right as it is now. A Live Album is a Live Album - does not really matter the location where it was recorded. Often you’ll get a concert which is in a location for multiple days. One of those days gets recorded and put out on Radio. It does not make that any different to the rest of the shows at that location.
TBH I believe this is already covered in the guideline which specifies reissues of broadcasts should be set as ‘broadcast’:
“These guidelines should also be used for reissues or collections of recordings originally created for broadcast, for instance a complete series released on CD.”
Since we don’t really store broadcasts (except for newer digital ‘broadcasts’), but usually a rip/recording or cassette or CD reissue, we would have little to no use for the ‘broadcast’ type otherwise.
But I’m not saying the guidelines can’t be improved… if a release doesn’t make sense as a broadcast then it shouldn’t be a broadcast. Maybe someone can suggest updated guideline wording. I think it’s going to be tricky!
edit: perhaps the “created for broadcast” text in the guideline could be extrapolated - if it’s a recording of something not created specifically for radio, but simple something that happened to be broadcast/radio or tv happened to be the medium, then the reissue may not qualify for the type.