How can I add information about some artist who composed instrumental version for a cover recording?

MusicBrainz
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I often add covers, but I’m not really sure how to add information about artists who composed the instrumental part for cover recordings. I just didn’t find the relationship I need.

There is an “arranger” role, but it’s a little bit more specific:

This indicates the artist who arranged a tune into a form suitable for performance. “Arrangement” is used as a catch-all term for all processes that turn a composition into a form that can be played by a specific type of ensemble.

“remixer” is also different:

This links a recording to the person who remixed it by taking one or more other tracks, substantially altering them and mixing them together with other material. Note that this includes the artist who created a mash-up or used samples as well.

There is a “composer” relationship, but it’s impossible to use it on the recording level, only release and work levels work. In both cases, there’s at least one problem:

  • In the release level, if there’s more than one recording in some release with 2 or more different composers/recomposers for different recordings, it’s impossible to specify which one was written by which artist.
  • In the work level, theoretically I can make a separate work for every performance with different arrangement/music, but there’s a consensus that if there’s only one recording with a variation/arrangement, it will be too much to make a separate work for it.

So, how should I add it? Maybe I misunderstand the terms “composer” and “arranger”. I understand the term “composer” as someone who writes the music (not necessarily the original one) and “arranger” as someone who turns a composition into a form that can be played by a specific type of ensemble (so, a composer of some electronic performance with synthetic sounds that wasn’t written for live playing cannot be linked with this relationship in my understanding). If “composer” refers to someone who writes only original music and “arranger” refers to someone who simply turns a composition into a new form (including electronic MIDI track lines, etc. that cannot be performed with real instruments), then maybe I need just to use the “arranger” relationship.

But then I don’t really understand why authorship relationships can be used at the release level but not at the recording level. It seems that they should be usable either only at the work level or at both the recording and release levels.

Anyway, I need some advice here…

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On MB there are works which have composers and possibly lyricists. In classical music, arrangers may be considered when the original work has been modified (a new work was created).

A MB recording is when the work is played by a performer (“recorded”). If an artist plays a work and is not the original performer, a cover recording of the same work is created. If only the instrumental part is used, it is an instrumental cover recording of still the same work.

Usually, arrangements are not used at work level for popular music. It’s quite common that the work is modified when played by another artist, but it’s very unlikely that other artists will play their later cover recordings based on this earlier cover.
Thus an arranger credit will be assigned to the recording (for arranging instruments for this recording, not the work)

A remix of a recording should only be used if the original recording was remixed (different from the original mix, in most cases not by the original artist). A cover is certainly no remix. It’s a new recording.

Does this help you?

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