Help with the release date of this vinyl record by Vansire

MusicBrainz
, ,
1

I’m having problems with figuring the release date of this vinyl by Vansire. The album on Bandcamp was released on October 16 2020 but I think December 16 2020 would be a more correct date and this is why: The Bandcamp user script is telling me the album was released in October 16 2020 but modified in December 16 2020. Since there is an image of the vinyl with text reading “10” Vinyl Pre-Order / Shipping January" (which you can view in either the Bandcamp page or the cover art section where I have uploaded it), I can conclude that the vinyl wasn’t immediately available for shipping but found it strange that the label would ship it ~2 months later. So, I tried looking for a capture of the Bandcamp page on the Internet Archive created before the date it was modified, because I wanted to find out if the vinyl was immediately available for purchase when the album was released or after the page was modified, as the latter made more sense to me. I found a capture from November 1 2020 (After Fillmore County | Vansire) and neither the vinyl nor the cassette was available to purchase, meaning that I probably was correct to think 2020-12-16 is the release date. However, I’m still reluctant to add this date to the release, because there is something that doesn’t agree with this and it’s the label’s official website. Currently, the catalog (Spirit Goth Records - Release Catalog) says the album was released in October 12 2020 and it doesn’t specify if any medium was released later than that. However, I found a capture of the same page from October 1 2020 and it only lists a cassette (Spirit Goth Records - Release Catalog). So now I’m kinda torn between using the October date and the December one. What do you think?

EDIT: I think there’s the same issue with the CD release date, cause it also wasn’t available to purchase before December 16 2020, as evidenced by that Bandcamp page capture.

2 Likes
2

I think your annotation is good, but I’m gonna toss out one more wrinkle. It would seem that the vinyl was released 2021-01 as the December date is only a pre-order and January is the actual release. Not sure how others feel about that.

3 Likes
3

Indeed, it means that it was released in January 2021.

4

So, the date it was available for pre-order doesn’t count as a release date?

5

Correct - at least that’s my interpretation (see here). Even with digital releases on Bandcamp, there is a difference between announced and when it’s actually released.

1 Like
6

Exactly!

Sometimes you can pre-order stuff prior to the release date.
But it does not change the release date.
And usually you are not supposed to receive the items before the release date.

Sometimes you do receive it the day before (like my Nintendo Switch), but that’s only because of logistic constraints (as they need to have the items in store shelves at day one, they ship in advance), and it doesn’t change the release date either.

3 Likes
7

Ok, thank you guys for your help. I have set the date to 2021-01 and made the edit votable.

3 Likes