I was looking at a Greatest Hits CD listing in Musicbrainz https://musicbrainz.org/release/8c0cb3ad-4d2c-4a85-8ea3-80f6227a90f6 and surprised to notice that it has Compilation as a release type. I have always believed a compilation to be a combination of recordings from different artists. This CD is from one. So, I looked at the definition in the style guide Compilations
Right at the front is
A compilation, for the purposes of the MusicBrainz database, covers the following types of releases:
a collection of recordings from various old sources (not necessarily released) combined together. For example a âbest ofâ, retrospective or rarities type release.
So, the style guide considers a âBest ofâ or âGreatest Hitsâ to be a compilation! and the listing of the CD above is consistent with the style guides. But personally, I think this is incorrect. A best of is not a compilation. What is the reasoning for this?
Opposite question: how is a release, that compiles the best of previously released songs, not a compilation? I mean these type of releases are often even described that way by the labels. If it is not a compilation, what else is it?
Hmm this might be a similar situation to when I was using my card the other week. I was tapping in the deets on the eftpos machine and my partner said âwhaaat you use savings??â ⊠âhaha yeah of course I do, everyone uses savings, do you not you weirdo!â
Long story short, turns out nobody else in the world uses savings, everyone uses cheque. I am the weirdo. And what you are describing is a compilation
ok, I see. I had never noticed that record companies described âGreatest Hitsâ etc as compilations. I googled a few âgreatest hitsâ and the word compilation does appear. I had only ever seen âvarious artistsâ type releases as Compilations, For example https://musicbrainz.org/release/9237445d-1a8b-3bee-a0ca-e798f290d363. I had a hard look at the Bob Seger CD and canât see the word compilation anywhere. I see it in the wikipedia article. English is my native language that Iâve spoken for over 50 years and honestly never thought of a âgreatest hitsâ album as a compilation. Itâs always been a âgreatest hitsâ album to me and my friends!
So anyway, how can I distinguish between âvarious artistsâ compilations and âgreatest hitâ compilations. I need to be able to do this so I can tag tracks so that I can load them onto my apple phone.
Sorry I thought that might happen but I posted it anyway
Turns out I am very weird (among people I know) for using savings when this turns up:
And I was sure everyone else did the sameâŠ
This seems like a similar situation where a lot of people do call these albums compilations but if you donât then it would be easy to think otherwise.
Blockquote
Hmm this might be a similar situation to when I was using my card the other week. I was tapping in the deets on the eftpos machine and my partner said âwhaaat you use savings??â ⊠âhaha yeah of course I do, everyone uses savings, do you not you weirdo!â
Long story short, turns out nobody else in the world uses savings, everyone uses cheque. I am the weirdo. And what you are describing is a compilation
Blockquote
In some countries such as the USA, there are two kinds of bank accounts.
Checking (not Cheque - that is the UK spelling). In the UK, itâs a current account
Savings. Usually, providing a higher rate of interest on the balance in return for limits on withdrawl amounts etc.
Each is identified by a sperate account number. Banks would accept checks for your checking account and checks for your savings account.
Iâm learning something new, I thought everywhere used EFTPOS. When you buy something with a card at a shop? At least until contactless payment takes over (what we call Paywave in NZ).
As @dpr says âcheckingâ and âsavingsâ are sometimes for specific things, but for my modern day-to-day bank account it makes no difference which you pick for the account.
But anyway, hopefully you get the point I was making, it is easy to think you are using the same terms as everyone else - until you find out otherwise!
Sorry for going so off topic, here is dprâs question if anyone can help:
I mainly wave my phone at the EFTPOS reader these days. Itâs connected to a card as described in the article. We have a limit of 100 GBP on the contactless at the moment due to the pandemic.
The first one has Various Artists as the release artist, and the other has a single artist.
And they wonât display in the same part of the discography.
Otherwise, I understand now a little about the card payment stuff.
Itâs just that where I live, Visa and MasterCards are just payment cards, not credit cards. We donât need to bother about interest rates, credits, multiple accounts or anything like that.
I didnât know some people had menus like this.
And I didnât know what etpos word was, either.
Now I can imagine.
On iPhone tags, just make sure there is a 1 in the compilation field in Picard for the release. There also is a compilations box on iTunes under song info that you can just check. It will then sort the release under Various Artist, so that all the V/A comps & soundtracks (yes, many of them are also considered compilations).
Nope. Multiple artists can collaborate on an album without making it a compilation.
You can have an album with one artist per track consisting only of original never published tracks.
Collection / compilation distinction looks like even more fuzzy to me (perhaps thatâs clear in English, but I doubt it translates well to other languages anyway).
This is why things are defined in guidelines, because not all people have same feelings, culture, languages, experience, definitions, etc.
That said, all definitions on MusicBrainz are here as guidelines as there are a lot of corner cases in MB world, hence the vote system.
If you feel something was set as a compilation, but isnât, explain why in an edit, and submit it to votes.
If you feel the current definition of a compilation as per guidelines can be improved you can suggest changes to those guidelines, MB is an open project.
To me, the example given by original poster is a compilation, as per MB guidelines.
I read your response in the forum before I saw the email.
My post was intended to show my point of view which I have held since I was a kid. I think itâs a useful distinction. In MB the distinction rests in the âRelease byâ info. Multiple-artist releases are by âVarious Artistsâ and single artist releases are by âThe Artistâ.
I was hopeful that it might prompt some support though deep down I felt there was a slim chance.
No-one seems to recognise âcollectionâ as a viable category. Discogs doesnât and Apple use the term compilation for both types. Interestingly the first poster used the term âCollectionâ in his post.
I thank you for your email but I doubt Iâll post in this forum thread again. I will follow it though.
I was asking because I donât have any CDs with the word âCompilationâ in the title and like @ardain was not used to it being used in this way. I was surprised at the claim that there were, so I wanted some examples.
Itunes has a different concept of Compilations to MB. The actual wording in itunes is
âAlbum is a compilation of songs by various artistsâ. So,
Bob Segerâs Greatest hits is not a compilation per itunes.
The soundtrack to the film âStand By Meâ is a compilation per itunes.
I ripped both into itunes. See attached.
What does that have to do with what I said? If you want the Greatest Hits to not show up as a compilation than just uncheck the box. Not everything is going to be 100% compatible with iTunes. Iâve had to do that on Greatest Hits since using MB/Picard. It annoys me too that I had to write a script that all writers and lyricist are composers, because iTunes only uses composers, but I didnât try to make MB change. When in Picard, change the 1 to a zero if it has it or just uncheck the box in iTunes itself if Picard adds it because MB calls it a compilation.
Is there a way to write a script that if the same artist is on all tracks to not mark it a compilation? Iâm not sure. That would be cool, but I donât see MB changing anything for a one-click check box on iTunes.
