How to add a radio only single?

MusicBrainz
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I’ve got a copy of a version of a single (clean) which was probably only released on radio. I searched all platforms for releases of this recording or album releases with this recording included. From what I found out, the respective version was never released as a download or stream.

How could I add such a release?
I thought about…

  • adding it as an official single release anyway and write an annotation
  • adding it as a promo release and write an annotation (that’s probably the best, because radio play is promotional)
  • adding a stand-alone recording (would do for my purposes,¹ but it would be missing in the release group of the explicit single)

But it wasn’t actually a single - in fact, it was a bonus track in an album download² and this track was included with a number following the last track number. So I also thought about…

  • adding an official album release with one additional track (it was authorised, but it was not released to the public)
  • adding a bootleg release (of course, this would completely miss reality)

So what should I do?

¹) I tried to compare fingerprints of an explicit and a clean version of the song → What can be done with super polluted AcoustIDs? - #21 by tigerman325

²) When I was unwilling to buy the (more expensive) vinyl album without a download code, I was promised that if I sent a message I would receive a download. This download included the additional track.

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very tricky indeed! my vote would probably be to add it as an official album release (with annotation of course). it sounds like it was ‘released’, just secretly and upon request only, haha.

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That is my choice - if it was released to radio stations only, then someone has a promo CD with the track on.

Also possible the promo has the whole album on… but that would be a guess.

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I’ve edited a bunch of country radio that a radio station put on here and always made them promotional singles. I think that is what they are.

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A release on request - that’s actually what it is - probably everyone would get this download if a vinyl was purchased and it would be requested.

I’m doubt that there was such a CD.¹ There is an album CD but it doesn’t contain this track and there was probably no other CD. We are talking about releases on a smaller scale.

But I think that’s the most consistent way to add the recording:

EDIT: ¹) Though it’s not impossible. It wasn’t necessarily a pressed CD.

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I have radio promo CDs from bands who had tiny outputs. Sometimes CD-Rs were created purely to get radio play on local stations.

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… overlapped with my edit above :smiley:

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I’m talking digital releases. I quit after about a year of helping with their edits because they weren’t recognizing any of the edits and kept entering them in ways that didn’t fit the guidelines. However, they were digital promo singles in which the record companies actually gave them cover art & everything. That was unique to the single, not just the album they came from. Digital singles are still singles if their is something unique about them, IMO.

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I don’t know…

I started to create a airplay promo release. But I don’t feel comfortable:
Only the clean version, a separate release. If a promo CD like @IvanDobsky mentioned was actually burnt… this would be the actual promo and it would certainly contain not only the censored version of the track. My favourite radio station plays the explicit version of the song. No one is actually interested in family friendly versions. That’s why it is not available on any platform.
I’m not even sure if it was ever played on the radio.

In this case, there’s no big record company involved and this was a plain album download without anything else. I would feel more comfortable with a “release on request”.