Digital releases: Merging? / Long country list? / Just [Worldwide]?

side note - if anyone needs it, this is the JQuery you can use to “blap” these bogus dates without breaking your fingers.

$('.icon.remove-item.remove-release-event').click()

1 Like

I think in the USA there is a warning on the box that says “don’t hit your thumb”

Yes, they can. But atisket is adding releases from these specific stores. So the data it has to hand cannot predate the store.

In those much rarer cases where a digital release pre-dates iTunes\Spotify\etc then the date can be manually corrected. If someone has other data to hand they can update the release. But this is not the case here. The majority of these are just using CD\vinyl release dates.

This is also why I suggest it is atisket that should limit the date ranges submitted, and not MB itself. :slight_smile:

4 Likes

I have X-posted your comment into the Atisket support thread :smiley:

I also have two bookmarklets in my collection to deal with bad digital release events (i.e. too many release events and/or too early dates):

3 Likes

It can definitely pre-date the store. Digital releases are not store specific. I wouldn’t focus on that. Definitely had many releases on Spotify/Deezer that predate those services. As long as they have the same barcode, label & cover art, etc. they are considered the same. However, it is annoying that you see so many pre-2000 digital releases. There are some, but probably none that are currently on any service.

1 Like

Well, there are multiple ways of looking at this which has been discussed in the past. Some people view these digital releases as the same as the original cd release…therefore, the date would be correct…it technically is the same album just in digitized form. Then there was a transition period where identifying album information just wasn’t available for these digital releases. Of course, there are many people who think like you do and subscribe to the theory that because the digital stores were not out yet that there is no way that an album could have a date before the stores. Nowadays, identifying information is available so it is easier to distinguish how it can be entered/identified. There will be digital releases that are just the digitized copies of the original–nothing we can do about that.

That’s not the point for a release. The recordings may be the same, but the release date was the date when the digital version was released, not when the original was released. Even the same disc belongs to a different release if artwork has changed, and it has its own release date.

7 Likes

A digital copy of a CD release is never in anyway the same release as the CD release. That’d be like saying the cassette release is the same as a vinyl release. Even if it has the same barcode, etc. it’s not the same release and never should have a digital store shop attached to a physical medium release. I see this a lot also, and it’s just wrong. If you see this, it shouldn’t have a date, even if that date in the API or on the site pre-dates 2000. Blank the date.

3 Likes

As a percentage of releases, how often does this actually happen? When the default mode of atisket is to put in these earlier release dates that seems to add more bad data than good.

Yes, I am totally aware that some people put their own release out on their own sites in the earlier digital era. But these Atisket edits are always adding a new release and not up dating an older release. This is why I don’t understand why the default would be to lean to the bad data unless there is actual reference to an actual earlier release by the artist. Atisket does not reference that kind of data.

3 Likes

I agree but do you think when digital stores came out they were thinking about that? It is obvious they didn’t…that is why you will have the older dates for the digital releases.

1 Like

When a CD is pressed, we don’t add the LP release date.

Most of the times the digital stores are using good dates. But sometimes they fill in old data instead.

4 Likes

… and that’s why they have to be corrected.

1 Like

I think you are misunderstanding me, I never meant that I see where people are making cd’s into digital releases. What I mean, is actually these digital stores (at the beginning of digital stores) definitely were not thinking that these digital releases, even though they are copies of a cd version, did not put a new date on these. You can compare multiple older albums cd vs digital and will see they look the same. I completely understand why we would want a newer date on these!!

1 Like

I do think we need something if the date is pre-2000. That’d help a lot. I can’t believe how many 1950s & 1960s digital releases I’m finding.

3 Likes

I walked into the Kate Bush releases a few months back and found in EVERY release all of the “original” releases listed first were Digital Media with 1980s release dates. It is easier to chop those out at source.
Even last week I was having to fix a Queen album.

This is the problem. When a script auto-fills data then the user of the script assumes the data is correct. So they use the data the script gives them. Block data that pre-dates that store and those who know they are adding a release with an earlier date can add manually that date. It will save a lot of work for us editors who are forever cleaning up this mess.

Fix the SCRIPT and the bish-bosh-auto-script users won’t notice. Meanwhile, MB will not stop @elomatreb and others using their knowledge to add earlier dates when this occurs.

3 Likes

Yeah, that’s true. For a-tisket I see your point. It’s not MB stopping you from adding prior dates if necessary.

2 Likes

Exactly. I am not bashing Atisket, but just trying to put some protection on their hammer due to the source of their data and the users who just click buttons on these imports without checking.

Certainly am not suggesting MB limits anything. Just leave this to editors who do their research.

1 Like

I was recently somewhat surprised that MB does not in fact limit the dates, or at least show a warning, for dates that precede known release dates (e.g. for CDs, where it’s not as fuzzy as with digital media). I would definitely agree with making importer tools sanity-check data before entry, and also MB itself (maybe similar to the warning and confirmation you get when you attempt to add an artist with a name that already exists).

2 Likes

There is a limit to this now. Try adding a CD from 1970 and you get a warning. These limits are fairly new.

3 Likes

Perhaps MB should reject releases being added where the release date is the same or earlier that the release group it belongs to?