Change release status of the US release of Page of Life to “withdrawn”

MusicBrainz Style
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Hello! I was looking at the US release of Page of Life by Jon and Vangelis, and noticed its status is currently “official”.

This album was first released in 1991 in Europe and Canada, but never came to the US until 7 years later. This release is quite different from the original, containing different cover art, tracklist, an additional song that was not present on the original, 4 songs from the original dropped, and even different mixing on most tracks that more closely resembles a leaked pre-release of the album.

This release was done through Jon Anderson’s blessing, apparently being told by management that Vangelis was also onboard. Once it was released, this was revealed to not be the case, and production of any further copies was halted shortly after.

While I don’t have links to any examples at the moment, I have seen some brand new, sealed copies of this release on sites like eBay that have a hole punch near the UPC on the back, indictating it for deletion / out of print.

This constitutes as “withdrawn”, right? I just want to make sure before I go to make the edit. If so, this would make a good example for the official style guideline.

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If it was cancelled before it was released, it is certainly “withdrawn”. Because of the differences it could be a separate RG, but as it wasn’t released, that probably won’t be necessary.

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I thought the “cancelled” status was for releases that were cancelled before release? According to the style guidelines:

Cancelled is to be used for a planned official release that was cancelled before being released, but for which enough information is known to still confidently list it (for example because it was available for preorder).

This release was actually released for purchase for a brief time, since OmTown got the OK from Jon, but not Vangelis, who presumably demanded no further copies be printed.

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Then it was officially released, although only a small number of copies.

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Yes, if it was officially released for a bit then retired from sale, “withdrawn” sounds about right.

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Alright, I made the edit. I also added a disambiguation and annotation to explain it if someone comes across it and wonders why it’s withdrawn. Thanks!

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