Hi everyone. I am building Just Soul Samples Vol. 1, a 50-track collection of original 70s-inspired soul songs arranged with producers in mind. Each full song has multiple possible sample points, including verse pockets, hooks, textures, chords, turnarounds, and full sections.
I am trying to understand the best MusicBrainz approach for documenting a self-released collection like this: should the full pack be represented as a release, should each composition be entered separately, and what metadata should be included when there is no traditional label or external distributor?
The project page is https://justsoulsamples.com. I am looking for cataloguing guidance, not trying to create duplicate artist or release entries.
1 Like
Welcome!
The full vol.1 pack should be a release, and if there are multiple folders they can be represented as different digital media with the folder name as medium name. Every .wav or .mp3 is a new recording with the name of the file or title metadata as title.
Not all sample packs have track numbers, in MB the track numbers are a free text field so if this is the case here you can just remove them, but order the tracks alphabetically (or another order if it makes more sense)
The artist is a new “Just Soul Samples” and the label is either [no label] or “Just Soul Samples”, either is fine? Be sure to add links to the release and artist (+label?).
Optionally you can also add other credits like composer, producer, artwork, vocalist etc (whatever applies) to the recordings and release.
If you release a vol.2 a release group series connects them.
The stem folder is a separate release and *maybe* a different release group too. AFAIK there isn’t really a proper relationship to connect stem recordings to the full song yet, but if you want to the normal song and stems can both be connected to the same work. A work also stores if a song is instrumental or has lyrics and what language the lyrics are, and composer/lyricist information.
I recommend Picard for adding them (“submit cluster as release”, needs some work if there’s multiple folders)
Or I can try my best at adding them both if I get free downloads (.wav or .flac) 
Here are some examples: