If a vinyl or cd release comes with a coupon, is that a separate release or part of the physical release? I see editors add as standalone releases digital media that is only available via a coupon that comes with a physical media release. I think this could be viewed as a second medium of the physical media, since it’s only available with that release or is there a way to link the 2 releases. How do most handle this.
unless every thing is the same as the vinyl or cd including the medium the coupon was found on. then it is a new release. ie if the coupon came from a vinyl release and and the coupon is for a cd that has the same songs same artist and every other part to the smallest detail was the same it would still be a new release as it is a cd not vinyl
I’ve seen it handled both ways, but I don’t really like it when the digital media is appended to the vinyl release with a second medium.
It’s a pretty pointless doubling up of tracks and when you tag the digital tracks Picard is always telling you it’s incomplete.
So I add another release with the relevant annotation + disambiguation (e.g. vinyl download code).
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You’re not understanding. I’m talking about the DIGITAL media that can be downloaded from a coupon that comes from a CD or LP release. Some add this as a new separate release even though it’s not purchasable separately from that CD or LP purchase.
Yeah, I thought about that doubling issue as well. I just hate seeing digital releases that weren’t able to be purchased separately as a separate release. I’ll just add an annotation when I run across those releases that points to the physical media.
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I think @aerozol simply meant an annotation in the physical release saying that there was a download coupon bundled inside.
Usually, this kind of coupon just goes, unused, straight to a trash bin, so it would be a pity to do more clutter than an annotation. I didn’t bother mention it for my CD that got such a card. 
But it may be more useful for LP editions.
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A variation of this is where the download offers tracks that are not otherwise included with the release. In this case having it as a separate medium with the release makes sense. One example:
I have also seen e.g. Vinyl releases with additional download that offers the bonus tracks that otherwise would not fit on vinyl (but are e.g. included on a CD version).
But as I understand here it is about downloads that offer the same content as the medium purchased. I kind of can understand this for Vinyl, but for CD I don’t really see the point 
Saves you the ripping I guess. Anyway, I agree that an annotation should do in this case.
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I agree. I’d never add such a thing. I guess I was just asking to try to get rid of digital releases that are only used for this purpose by merging them with the physical. But now I see that’d be equally as unwanted, even by me.
Oh, I didn’t understand you saw standalone digital releases created for these coupons.
They should have been Digital Mediums within the physical releases the coupons were included in. Not separate Digital-only releases.
So they should really be fixed one way or the other (removed or merged/appended with the physical release).
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What if it’s not a coupon, but instead you get an email with a link to download a digital copy when you buy the physical copy from a web store, but the digital copy is also sold on its own? Should they still be in the same release?
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@mtrolley The way I read your “coupon” is a “Buy one, get one free” deal.
If the product is available as a CD and a Digital Download then that is two separate releases.
If when buying the CD you get a free copy of the digital as well, then you have just got two separate items from the shop.
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Just came across this release. Apparently, it comes with a download of a bonus track. This track is available in other releases as a b-side but it can’t be bought or streamed separately. So I added it as a digital media medium appended to the release. Does that make sense?
Sounds like a download card.
It’s not clear if the code comes from a card or sent straight from an e-mail.