Should versions with different inner sleeves (liners) be treated as different releases?
Probably yes! But if it’s only advertising and not part of the original release…? I’m not sure.
Example:
These releases can only be distinguished by the inner sleeve, but both offer a release date.
The problem: many people do not keep such sleeves when they transfer their vinyls to new inner sleeves.
At the moment the annotation of my release says it’s only the one with the black inner sleeve. But is it a separate release on MB?
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If I had these both on the shelf, I would make two new Releases. This is a very noticeable visual difference.
If someone is throwing away part of their release, that is their loss. It does point to a problem that how would we spot that person attempting to add a third variant once they had lost their original sleeves?
If this had just been a separate sheet of paper added to the release, I would have given it less notice and combined the two.
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Thanks for confirmation. But that means, if the record would have been inserted into a plain white sleeve and the Nice Price advertisement would have been on a separate sheet it would have been the same release…
And what if a white “liner” has something printed on it? Is it specific for the release. I’ve documented such things (“Made in Great Britain” or kind of a cat#), but I’m not sure if it’s really necessary to keep those. Would that qualify for a separate release?
On paper, any cover art difference is a new release.
In practice, nobody does it for these cases:
- Uniquely numbered releases in a set (e.g., 0001, 0002, …, 4999, 5000) don’t get separate MB Releases.
- Sometimes the record company includes a serial code insert inside the release. Each serial code is unique. These do not get separate MB Releases.
- Sometimes the record company includes a random card inside the release (e.g., there might be 5 total cards, and you don’t know which one is inside). These do not get separate MB Releases if it is indistinguishable from the outside.
- For digital releases, some platforms may incorrectly handle the colorspace of the image, or letterbox/stretch/crop it - in general, these differences are ignored if it can be proven that the same distributor issued it to the platforms with the same barcode, etc.
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I agree with all that. But what does it mean for advertising on liners? It’s a borderline case for artwork. It is not really art, but printed in a booklet, it surely will count for distinguishing releases.
Yes, if I was adding it I would likely have treated the Nice Price advert insert as nothing that important. Depends what was on it really. If I had two copies in white sleeves I could not tell apart, then I don’t think I would have treated them as separate. Advert flyers change often. Otherwise you’d need to make a third Release for no flyer. I would scan and upload the flyers.
To me an LP Sleeve is a major part of the Release. It may just be some adverts, but they are a visual difference. One persons naff advert is another person’s historical snapshot of albums available at that time.
I have some CDs where the booklets are Nice Price adverts. I would treat those as separate releases if the adverts changed between books.
I have seen this happen on CDs. Sometimes booklets can have different cat nos printed on the back page of them. This causes new releases. If a sleeve has a change of printing I would again separate. Though it is tricky as the average record collection can get plain looking sleeves mixed up when music is put away after a party.
Hard for me to comment as I not got to looking close at my vinyl yet. If I was just seeing a generic pattern of sleeve I think I may just add the alternates to one Release.
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Yes, and most people don’t care about them at all. The guy who washed my LPs asked me if I seriously want the white sleeves kept with the albums 
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Well, the liners prevent the disc from sliding out too easily and fall, IMO.
And a nice price edition should be separate, IMO.
But only the editor who will want this level of detail will have to create a separate MB release.
There is no problem not doing so, especially if there are no scans to make it worthwhile and visible.
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This won’t happen with my releases 
But I also photograph sleeves with badge numbers although I don’t think, a different number would be a different release. But of course, releases can be added with less information. And sometimes that’s really a problem.
honestly, before reading this thread, I probably wouldn’t have made a new release, and I’d have just assumed that a previous owner put the record in the wrong sleeve. in fact, I’ve got a release in my collection that’s in a sleeve from Michael Jackson’s Thriller, but I don’t think it’s even a Michael Jackson album (I forget who offhand… maybe Kansas or The Monkees?). that said, I didn’t know that advertising sleeves changed that often.
this kinda thing happens a lot with CD jewel cases in a sleeve too. I’ve got at least 3 in my collection that are missing the outer sleeve.
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That’s not good for the value of the release. It plummets to Fair 
But inner sleeves with promotional prints or white inner sleeves are obviously insignificant to many and are often thrown away. In most cases, these are not necessary for identification anyway, but as you can see, the 2nd and 3rd edition of the Nice Price series can be distinguished in the example. If you don’t have the inner sleeves anymore, there’s no need to think about it anyway. I wouldn’t throw them away on purpose.
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Not just in practice…the guidelines specifically note that “An exception should be made for releases where every cover will necessarily be different (like hand-printed, hand-made or even knit covers)” which clearly applies to cases 1 and 2.
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Hmm, promo or incidental changes like this I wouldn’t necessarily make a new release. To me it seems similar to if I put an advertising flyer in with a release - this will change depending on when you buy the release from me, and if I’ve updated the flyer.
However, if you find the difference notable, make a new release! I think MB should have a ‘live and let live’ attitude to people adding new releases if they find them helpful, disambigged correctly of course.
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