DJ Materials - Remixes / Promos / etc

As I go through my materials, I have a ton of materials that are available, but not as easily as any regular release by an everyday artist. This topic has been discussed in forms in the past, and it seems that the answer to the question … does MB have interest in the addition of such releases? … depends on if the release is readily available to the people.

I mention this again to see if there is any change in this, and if there might be a more clear line for acceptance? I know there are more “mainstream” forms of this, for example Promo Only, DMC World Music and Mastermix, but there are other sources not as publicly available. While this seems to side with failure on the readily available option, they are still releases and are available through legal means … meaning not torrents or other pirate type sources.

What are the thoughts on this from MB?

I do not keep many of these types of releases, as many times the releases are mixes and edits of the same or similar groupings of songs, just mixed for different applications, BPMs, etc. Not something I personally see as a release of sorts, but a tool for one to use the same materials yet have a different sounding end result. There are however some releases that vary from that and are far less frequent. They are more unique and for me and what I keep, are more like a periodic collection of top song, all remixed and usually cut/edited, or they are designed as a promo for a new single, similar to the consumer releases where there are like 5-10 remixes of the same song and usually including both the explicit and clean versions. I personally see these as releases as the content is more unique, making the collection more desirable to a person to want to have and keep.

If it’s music/sound and it’s been ‘released’ in some form, you can add it!

I think I want to clarify. I am more asking the interest within MB for such things. Looking at it from opposite sides… on one side I can think that not including literally everything means MB is not being allowed to be as comprehensive as possible. On the other side, I use MB to see commercial products, not proprietary (ie DJ Only) type things that me as a normal person will never really see or find… stuff I can easily see being called clutter.

Some examples of my thoughts - my opinions on the topic:

  1. I have a mix of 10 versions of the same song, differing only in he intro and outro customized for different beat matching needs. I do not consider this worthy of being added as a release. As a professional I can see a need for this, as a normal person who consumes / listens to music, no need.

  2. I have a EP type with 6 different remixes of a new or upcoming song. I see use for this, as this presents both sides different versions of a recording, similar to what is sold in today’s market in the single/EP type releases, or numerous remix singles of a song.

  3. I have a release containing a collection of custom “mashups”. I use use for this, people do have parties and there is a market to normal customers such types of CDs, such as the NOW music collection CDs sold in regular retail stores.

  4. I have a what I call “dj helper” release containing “edits of edits” and “mixes of mixes” of the same popular songs. I see no need for this. It is not really new content, it just becomes vert repetitive and personally I often just delete these vs saving them.

What I do not want to do is load the database up with “crap”, stuff that 99%+ of users have no interest in, just making searching for what you really want harder. I personally already find it very difficult to find releases in the database and often with I could easily search for UPC or Catalog number, or even have greater open searching options… say wanting to look for artist “%john%” with release “%greatest%” for example. Maybe I can do this and just do not know how, but the fact that the difficulty of locating releases remains.

I also wanted to make clear that I am not including things like DatPiff releases in my query here. Those often contain official artist mixtapes and such. I hope the distinction I am making is clear.

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MB aims to be the ‘ultimate music database’. In the context of this mission I would not consider 99% of users not being interested a reason to leave something out.

Maybe more concisely: MB already aims to be and is a ‘complex’ database, for better or for worse.

For your specific case:

  • It sounds like a lot of what you’re uploading would be set to ‘promo’, and promo-only release groups are hidden from the default views anyway. They are also separated within release groups. So I wouldn’t worry about clutter if you’re entering them correctly.

  • There are heaps of detailed search functions that some people can tell you about I’m sure - I agree that the UI could use some work, artist page view filters I would love to see in particular! But we shouldn’t water down the data because we don’t have those (yet?) imo

  • For what it’s worth, I personally would probably not use those releases for tagging or w/e, but I am very interested in seeing every version of a song entered into the DB! I love browsing that stuff! Other people’s mileage may vary

Overall this all sounds miles less complex than classical works etc are, if that helps :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Ok, I will consider adding some of the more common ones of these types.

You addressed my concerns on the watering down the database, so I will not worry about that. I am sure these are far less complicated than classical releases. There are however some issues such as getting a proper reference and track numbers. For example, some of these releases have no track numbers, they are just in the set. I will work through those as they come though.

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