Entities with no relationships

Google Translate, for some reason, has an artist ID (created by @Jeluang). The entity has no relationships with any other entities, except external identifiers.

In theory I can see the software being credited for some works (particularly YouTube videos with no ISRCs), but none of those links exist in MusicBrainz, and presumably – at least under US copyright law – it would be impossible for the use of Google Translate to confer any copyright ownership to Google anyway (so it would not actually need to be listed as a contributor to works).

Is it within the scope of MusicBrainz? Is there a way to query the database for similar items?

I would probably remove this one, and leave a note on the original add edit mentioning it’s being removed with edit #12345 or whatever. If the original adder has a strong opinion on why this should be kept, they can vote against the removal and start a conversation about it :slight_smile:

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I know that is at least one person/group out there who put lyrics through multiple layers of Google Translate and then performs/sings whatever it ends up spewing out. It may make sense to put Google Translate as an additional lyricist or translator for the resulting work. However, it is currently not related to anything, so… it could be re‐added once it’s actually useful.

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Why not ask @Jeluang as they only created the artist ID last November. It is likely to be part of an idea that is still evolving.

I assume they then let a machine “sing” it with auto-tune… can’t be much worse than some of the manufactured “pop music” out there. :smile:

Edit: also an area to think about. Don’t forget a lot of people use MB data outside of MB. So it could be that @jeluang is using this MBID in his project whilst also referencing other artists solely in his external project. I initially came to MB due to KODI needing to know data about my music and artists in the media centre. My adding data here benefits me and my media centre whilst sharing it back for other people…

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I actually have an album with extremely shitty English lyrics where the writer thanked Google Translate.
It’s at least one of GALNERYUS with SHO (joined in 2009) on vocals and lyrics.
I mean I think he always uses Google Translate but he admitted so in at least one album.

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I created the entity as it seems like there isn’t one yet and knowing how some artists use Google Translate for making their songs (heiakim comes to mind) I thought of preemptively creating it. If it’s not encouraged, it can be deleted but how will the credit be for Google Translate?
I’ve also been procrastinating filling out his other releases which credit Google Translate, so it’s also my bad. :sweat_smile:

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It is an interesting thought: at what stage does the translating software become an artist?

I’d say it is an “instrument” in these examples. Like passing audio through an audio processor, this is words through a word processor.

But what about if Siri “sings” on a track - is that an artist with a vocal? Or an instrument?

Yeah - still instruments at the moment.

But maybe they can claim “royalties” as these are copyright processes…

I think there is a while before we worry about AI music… but then Google does have all that source material on YouTube to set their AI bots onto…

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Like I said, they (the human(s)) perform it:

So, would we then credit Google Translate as the translator/lyricist of the work?

Translating is still the actions of a machine, following an algorithm. In the same way the Electronic Keyboard processes electrical signals to alter the sound we hear.

There is no “intelligence” in the translation. Just following rules.

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To some degree, yeah, although I must say in neural machine translation the people behind the algorithms don’t really know why the machines do the things they do - they give them a starting point and then they are supposed to analyze texts and learn on their own :slight_smile:

The “neural machine translation” is still machine based. They may not fully understand the algorithms, but they are still following rules\patterns. They are currently closer to being the instrument and not making fully sentient decisions.

I think Artists need to pass the Turing Test. :smiley: Though there are some of the manufactured pop bands out there where you could probably argue that the members of the band are just doing as they are told by management. Making them close to machine like.

When this thread started I so wanted to see this artist come to life. Partly due to the humour of Google Translate getting a credit. And then arguing with Siri, Cortana and Alexia. Problem is, the more I have thought of it in MB terms, the more it falls back into the “dumb instrument” category.