CD Case + Insert vs On-Disc CD-Text Metadata

MusicBrainz Style
1

Somewhat regularly I find that there are slight discrepancies in naming and style between the info printed on the back of the CD case, the insert, or other paper materials accompanying a CD, and the on-disc CD-Text metadata. Which should take priority when entering data in MusicBrainz?

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I would say clear priority for what is printed.

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I would say, order of priority:

  1. Spines *
  2. Back cover
  3. Booklet
  4. CD label *
  5. Other

* except abbreviated titles due to lack of space

For this one, we have the language style guidelines.

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I saw this last night but waited for your reply. I run into this all the time and sometimes I just stare at the screen waiting on divine guidance. I assume @TagginTunes and you were referring to differences from the front art, but I am not sure. It would help me if you take take a look at Release “DocFest” by Various Artists - MusicBrainz which I just added. I thought of adding everything on the front cover but my eyes glazed over, I felt a definite thud in my brain, so I just added the simplicity of the spine. Opinions??

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I’d say the full title should be:
DocFest: A Tribute to Doc Watson and His Musical Partners: Merle Watson and Jack Lawrence
This follows the guideline from the Release style guide:

If several versions of a title are provided, such as when release title differs between cover and spine, or the track titles differ between the back cover and a booklet tracklist, it’s generally better to follow the more detailed one.

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Thanks, edit in place.

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I agree with others that the printed material should take precedence, if only for the fact that most people don’t know that CD-Text metadata exists.

As for which part of the printed material should be used, the guideline I just quoted for dashv seems to apply – the more detailed info would be generally better.

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Often the answer I’d go for is “the most complete and correct info”. If the back cover tracklist seems worse than the cd text, I’d use the cd text. If there’s a more complete tracklist in the booklet, I think we already say to use that over the one on the back in a guideline.

For minor discrepancies where nothing could be called an actual error, I agree that printed over cdtext seems clearer.

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