Data Track Clarification

MusicBrainz Style
#1

I’ve read the style guide regarding data tracks a few times, but I’m still not sure I understand it correctly.

If I have an enhanced CD with ten audio tracks (visible on a CD player) plus one data track (e.g.: Windows screen saver program), how do I enter the tracks on the release? I know to set the media type to Enhanced CD and to enter the ten audio tracks, but I’m not sure whether or not I should be adding the data track in the section that appears if I check the “This disc contains data tracks at the end” checkbox. I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen this entered on some releases and not on others. I’m tempted to not enter it because it’s not a “performance” track (audio or video) but something more computer related, and simply make a note of it on the release comments, but I’m not sure if that’s the right way to handle it.

I’d appreciate any clarification you can provide. Thanks.

#2

“If the data track contains audio or video tracks, those tracks should be entered in the data tracks section”, says the guideline - I wouldn’t think this is either audio or video so I wouldn’t add anything (other than an annotation).

3 Likes
#3

the third condition re data tracks states:
“If an audio CD contains a data track which is visible in an audio CD player (typically as the first track*), use [data track] as the track name. If the data track is on a Various Artists release, use [data] as the artist for the track.”

what if a) it were not visible to a cd player and/or b) it is not the first track* whether or not it’s visible? is the way @rdswift has entered the tracklist incorrect?

  • the guideline also mentions this situation is most common in videogame cds, and clearly his is not the the case here. so i’m wondering as well if that condition was intended exclusively for videogame cds.

if it’s not, then his situation seems to me to fall somewhere within conditions #1 & #3, but not #2 (assuming the data track is neither audio nor video content). also, none of the three conditions says you should omit the data track altogether from the tracklist (not even use the “This disc contains data tracks at the end” option)

i thought i was quite clear about data tracks in cds, but evidently i am not.

#4

Then it doesn’t need to be in the main tracklist - the issue is that data tracks at the start of the CD are readable by CDs and also included in stuff like discID calculations.

IIRC (not that I have tried) you can’t click that and not enter any tracks on the tracklist. If you can, then doing that sounds sensible. Otherwise, Enhanced CD already means it has data tracks, right?

#5

Here’s the tracklist as it appears now (before the data track is removed): https://musicbrainz.org/release/b791bf50-0c7a-47d0-96f9-ea6475f3d8d4 (data tracks may be titled or left untitled as appropriate)

should be fine, right? though i agree “enhanced cd” already implies additional content exists, perhaps whether to include such data tracks or not shouldn’t be an optional thing?