Clarifying Question about Artists

#1

Hey All,

A newbie question -

The “Artist” field when you are adding or editing a release, should that be the “singer/performer” of the track or the “composer” of the album?

For example, if you look at this release https://musicbrainz.org/release/d6164928-95bd-4beb-98c0-0630c7c8cdfc, the “Artist” is set to “Jatin-Lalit” for all the tracks and the recordings themselves have the vocal artists added on to them.

In my head however, the “Artist” field on each track should match the vocals and the “Artist” field on the release would be the composer but I am not sure if that’s the MB way or not. Can someone confirm?

#2

I don’t really speak Spanish, so I can’t answer the questions specifically for this release.
But, in general…

You can do it how it is done.
You can do it as a “featuring”.
Or you can do it where the singer replaces the artist.

#3

And I’d add that however it’s done on the album cover is usually the “right” way.

#4

Here is the relevant Style guideline for non-“Western Classsical”:
Track artist
Track artists should follow the release artist, except where another artist is credited in the track listing of the release. This can include various artists releases, featured artists, and tracks credited to another artist. If the release artist is a Special Purpose Artist, the performer should be credited if known, or [unknown] otherwise.

@TestyTest; it is great to see more Indian music being added.
The apparent difference in spelling of track names across the RG is due to the actual track names being in Hindi on the Cover Art and there being no defined standard of transliteration?

eg
Kucha Kucha Hotaa He / Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
Koi Mila Gayaa / Koi Mil Gaya

#5

@mmirG

Ok. So that style guideline makes it seem like the release artist (which in my mind is the album artist) should be the artist for each track within a release. That seems a little backwards to me.

Most sources tend to list the singer as the artist for each track.

Ex:

#6

Excerpt: “… except where another artist is credited in the track listing of the release … .”

When I read this excerpt I see it as directing us to use the track credits - which will pretty much always be the performer/s. Which is what you, very reasonably, think is correct.

Cover Art from another in the same Release Group.

(If in your Release there are liner notes/booklet with more detailed track artists then use the more detailed source.)

#7

Awesome. So I was on the right track. Thanks for confirming!

Now, onto the painful task of updating the Indian movie releases.