That release has both a US (Chatsworth, CA) and a Canadian address on it. You could make a case that it’s a dual US/Canadian release.
The “distributed by XYZ in Canada” generally means, as IvanDobsky suggests, that the main label is handling distribution in their own country but has contracted with XYZ to handle it elsewhere. Again, I guess you could make a case that this makes it a dual US/Canada release since it was clearly intended for distribution in Canada.
I still would stick to “USA” for Steve Green. Among other reasons is - he is American. Nothing else of his has looked to any other market but USA USA. And many American’s rarely step outside of the US of A.
I can certainly see an argument for USA and Canada on some of them.
What is a little surprising is the lack of anything for South America. The little bit I read this morning about him shows he was born in South America. That also explains some of his Spanish language releases.
Have you seen any examples of any other countries? I’ve not seen any yet.
As @highstrung points out, the example you pick at Discogs is also a USA release. Sparrow is USA. I still have not seen anything about starting in Canada as everyone involved are USA and both Discogs and Wiki and Sparrow’s own site point at these USA original.
Just noticed the details on one of your examples:
So he DID release vinyl.
For those of us NOT in the US of A addresses like this can be confusing. ( And made more confusing by the MB TLA translator - 
)
That says (Chatsworth, California) and NOT (Chatsworth, Canada)
ok thsts where i was getting mixed up i thort Chatsworth ca ment canada thanks @ highstrung for pointing out it was talking about the usa. and he has looked in to other markets by the looks
uk and europe
mexico and canada
there may be others im yet to see
i still think they were released in canada and maybe the usa as well but not just usa due to the fact if i followed the same theory for other artists that you base it on where the artist is from or the county the label is in then. that would mean all Phill Keaggy’s albums are released in the usa if you look at this one it looks like it was released in a lot of countries https://www.ebay.com/itm/133030162373 but if you compare it to the vershon i have you will see it seams to say canada and the uk thats only the ones on myrrt label the ones on word have other countries
Yeah, more USA releases. They are just covering themselves by adding all the localised areas to the same rear cover.
USA artist, releasing to his local USA market first. So I would set it as USA even though he has clearly gone on to sell into other markets. If I saw a news item mentioning releases to the other countries I’d probably add their country and release dates to the same release.
That says (Chatsworth, California) and NOT (Chatsworth, Canada) Nice catch Ivan!
if you think it is US only the what is the point of saying disrupted in Canada. y would steve green not say usa if it was released in the usa it is not adding up to me then you can also see his albums change over time to say disrupted in usa
@highstrung picked up on it first. That mob over there on the Left Side of the Pond forget that the rest of the world don’t know what all their states are. And it is a puzzle to me why the MB TLA translator is saying California or Canada. How often is Canada shortened in that manner? Weird.
It shows he is focusing on North America. And clearly is sending box loads North of the border.
I do also get a bit confused with the language. It is Released in one place, and the various lorries take box loads of the product and Distribute them into other areas. As that crosses the border into Canada a different company takes over. That is then a Canadian company Distributing (Shipping) a USA Release.
Distributor = Truck.
The important bit is when Steve Green announced the release. He Released it into Tennessee, but then the trucks took copies away to other markets.
If he printed a different cover for Canada then we’d have a Canadian release.
If he printed a different cover for Australia, then you’d have an Australian release. Instead your releases, bought in Australia, are USA releases.
so your bassing it on where the HQ for sparrow is if you do that that means that any one on the label Brentwood has not released an album any where but the usa that does not sound right to me. technically that part is only telling you were the copyrights are registered and who owns them. a Distributor is not a truck it is a company that supplies the released albums to shops that you buy them from in the county thay have listed so canada in this case. and you could say that it is a canadian cover for a canadian release.
i have albums by other artists that are on different labels that say Distributed in canada or canada and the usa Keith green is one michael card is another and i have a few more thay are all US artists
i wish thay would put the release country on the album some were it would make it so much less of a pain. iv tried contacting steve green but he did not reply
Not quite. I am basing it on where Steve Green is at the time he makes the decision to put out a record. Steve chooses where and when the Release happens, not Sparrow. See also @Freso’s note above:
You should focus on what Steve Green is doing when he puts out a record.
Steve walked into a studio and recorded some music. He then took that recording to a publisher - in this case Sparrow.
He then ask Sparrow to make him some disks for sale. He agreed cover artwork with them that has the addresses of two distributors on the read. Sparrow makes the disks and hands the boxes of disks to Steve. As part of that deal Sparrow gets copyright to some markets.
Steve then ask his own Marketing Team to promote the new album. Steve chose what date to put the record out. And he chose where and how to then distribute that record.
So it is Steve and his team who do the Release. He has Sparrow doing the production. He then has various companies contracted to deliver the CDs in various countries. Often those companies will also do marketing of the product as they more they sell the more they make.
I haven’t looked at the Brentwood label yet. Do they have offices in other countries? I know Sparrow only has that USA office, so they are going to be mainly USA releases. When you look at someone like EMI they have offices in USA, Europe, Japan and produce very different editions for each of those areas. Often releasing them on different dates too.
Yeah, this is part of our problems. The text on the disk is hopeless for really nailing things down. Only Steve Green and his Team know the truth. This is why we need to rely on finding other sources to confirm release dates. Ideally independent press articles, fan sites, discographies.
I am not a Lawyer, so all the copyright \ phonographic rights is a land of confusion to me. I do know that greedy capitalists need to take a cut of other people’s work. So they slice up markets and say “when we make a disc for Steve to sell then we keep a cut of the profits in this market”.
This is why we have the USA and Canadian addresses on the back. Different companies got the deals on distribution in different geographic areas.
Ideally you need to go dig into Steve’s websites and old news items on him. See if he did tours in Canada. I expect you are probably safe to tick USA and CANADA for many of those releases. The real gem we want to locate is MULTIPLE rear covers. That would them made it all clearer. 
Yes, I am aware that a distributor is more than a truck, but I am trying to simplify this all so it makes more sense. 
This confuses me enough anyway, so it is handy to write it out straight.
We’ll get to them in time after we sort out Steve Green. Though it sounds like they are following a similar pattern.
I should also point out that I don’t pretend to be an expert on this. I too am still trying to make sense of all these people who think they “own” a product. Whilst also trying to understand the guidelines here at MB which are subtly different to Discogs and other similar sites.
I got the impression that Freso’s comment was specifically addressing self-released product as he was responding to your comment about discs
For releases through a conventional label I don’t think it is generally true that
Obviously it depends on the specifics of the contract, but it’s pretty common for an artist to sign with a single label, and the label to determine how (or if) that release gets to various markets. The label may release it themselves, or license it to other labels in specific countries, or they may not release it in a given country at all (in which case it makes its way there through “import” distribution).
The “released from website” was about a different Steve. That was Steve Grace which I had confused for a while.
Am I generally on the right track? Are these releases of Steve Green mainly USA? Or would you add CANADA every time you see that Canadian distribution mentioned on the cover?
Steve Green has Sparrow as his label, and that is a USA label, who is USA based, and clearly selling to USA.
I do want to get this correct. 
As I said upthread, I would list all the ones I’ve seen as US releases. However, if another editor had listed them as joint US and Canadian releases, based on a “Distributed in Canada by XYZ” message on the back cover, I wouldn’t change it.
This gets into territory covered in a thread regarding digital releases - many of which are listed in MB with all the countries in which they are purchasable listed as “release countries”. I personally think this leads to absurdity, but in the absence of a clearer guideline on what constitutes a release country, I’m not going to mess with it.
Yep, the country field is not clearly defined so different editors use the field in different ways, including for physical vs. digital releases. I use it to indicate the primary market of the release, which is also how the field is used on Discogs. For the examples given, I would enter USA as the country, based on the information given on the back of the CD covers.
@Kid_Devine could you tell me what info your are basing usa on so i can understand a bit better. it is not that i dont believe it is a US release im just trying to understand others reasons behind saying it is a US release.
(btw all here in Australia if your talking about the USA we shorten it to US we like to shorten things here especially names)
i forgot what label we where talking about thats why i said Brentwood
so you all think we should leave the distributed countries out of it and base it on the country the label was in at the time the album was soled and the country the artist was living in at the time
i have another question i have witch could happen. lest say an artist was was living in a country that is not the US and then released an album with sparrow what country would you put then?
I don’t believe the artist’s country enters into it, except in the case of a self-released album. If the only place you can get it is from the artist (in person or via their website), then the release country is wherever the artist is based.
An Australian (or other non-US) artist putting out a release on a US label is a US release.
A US based artist putting out a release on a UK label is a UK release.
ok thanks @highstrung that helps clear things up a lot and makes it simple
tho what if it is an album aimed at a set country like this one
I don’t see the confusion. It’s marketed specifically to Australia, by an Australian label, Seems clearly an Australian release to me. Is there something about it that makes you think otherwise?
