Community Cleanup #4: Hyperion

Added booklet editor - you can use this in the future :slight_smile:

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The parenthesis tip works also by URL in the Hyperion full catalogue. If you click on an old CDA title/catno that has a listed CDH re-release, the link is mostly pointed to the CDH – but the CDA entry is available even when not linked. To get there, just copy the CDA catno and paste-substitute at URL end, and hit enter.

The 2nd catalogue entry for Gombert is a good example ¤, looking like this:
CDA66943 Gombert: Missa Tempore paschali & Motets
The actual link, when stripped (in the catalogue, hover or copy it to see), points to the CDH:
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDH55323 (“Release date: April 2011”)
So, to get to the original CDA release entry, just copy its catno and switch:
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA66943 (“Release date: May 1997”)

¤ The 1st entry (CDA66828 Gombert: Credo & other sacred music, “Release date: June 1996”) is bad because it has its CDA entry open, and is (as lots of others) erroneously stated “Originally issued on CDH55247” with later “Release date: November 2005”.

Edit: And how you do a partial quote here? Aha, got it.

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This is really useful but it’s also important to notice that the provided booklet isn’t for this older release (similar situation with all older releases). Older booklets were often only in English (crediting liner note translators might not make sense). Graphic designer and illustrator could be different for later releases and sometimes different photographers might have been used (artist picture for example might have been updated).

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Important indeed! Keeping to physical booklets, I never checked that. Very well, one has the link for what it’s worth. Thanks.

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It looks like the file name for the front cover image is (at least in some cases) the barcode. May be useful in adding barcodes.

Lo and behold, it’s fresh: bitbucket link, greasyfork mirror. The script should automatically add an “Import into MB” and a “Search in MB” buttons on pages like Hyperion Records

As usual, caveat emptor, it seemed to work on the few releases I tried, but ping me if something looks wrong. I didn’t try to import barcode and release date since those do not appear on the release pages as far as I can see.

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Is on the right sidebar box :slight_smile: (in most cases at least)

A minor point re: booklets. Would it be worth contacting the label specifically asking for permission to add them to CAA?

In addition, the label might be able and willing to provide a more machine-readable dump of their catalog, making imports even easier.

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I’m planning to write to them directly on Twitter if they don’t react to my tweet about the cleanup today, let’s see :slight_smile:

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The import script was updated following the discussion here and on IRC (version 2018.2.7)

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I was in communication with them last year and have just written an email. Text is reproduced below:

Following our email correspondence last year [ …] I thought you would like to know that the MusicBrainz Community has decided to “clean up” all hyperion releases on MusicBrainz – in other words the end result should be a pretty complete database of all the label’s releases providing a very rich data set. See the process so far at Community Cleanup #4: Hyperion.
Hyperion is, so far, the only label to be selected for such special treatment and is partly because of your practice of making pdf booklets available so that the data is easily accessible (note that MusicBrainz will NOT copy the pdfs!). I hope that this is helpful to you. Speaking personally, one of the factors affecting my decisions on albums to buy is whether a good metadata set is available (assuming comparable recording/performance quality), so I hope the exercise benefits hyperion as well as the owners of your releases / other interested persons.
Of course, this does rather beg the question as to the entry of data for new releases after this clean-up exercise is over. As previously discussed, it would be nice if hyperion updated MusicBrainz for each new release (about 30 minutes work usually, once one has learned how to use the editor); then you would be able to claim that “all releases have a full metadata set on MusicBrainz” – do you have any further thoughts on this? (Meanwhile, I have just bought a bunch of releases and will be buying some of the new ones too, so will enter those in the database).

No reply received yet

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@loujin asked if I could share a release that I think has everything for being marked as high quality as an example, so: this is what I think we should try to get, pretty much.

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I’ve added a piano technician relationship since I’m seeing this credit a lot. No need to throw it in the annotation anymore! :slight_smile:

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Since this credit should also be used for piano tuners, is it the same thing? What does a “piano technician” do apart from (presumably) tuning the instrument?

“piano repair, piano tuning and piano appraisals” says the Piano Technicians Guild. So in our case, mostly just tuning, I imagine.

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I guess it is basically a piano tuner, but there is a lot more to it than getting the pitch right. (I recommend watching Pianomania for a fascinating insight into the work of a piano tuner with some very exacting concert pianists.)

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3 posts were split to a new topic: High data quality requirements

Is there anyone (@loujin?) who has a simple way to change all the vocals in this release to choir vocals? It also needs fixing all the German caps, I guess…

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I can probably do it tonight

Edit: @reosarevok done

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Somewhat belatedly started to go through hyperion, starting with my collection. This one: https://beta.musicbrainz.org/release/f6494838-5c49-4b56-a526-c9eae90c27f9?tport=8002 was also available as two separate CDs (which I have) - https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67307 and https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67308
but I’m not sure how that should be dealt with in MB - should they be shown as two separate releases under the same release group and is there an easy way to create them from the double-CD?