How to present tracks from vinyl?

MusicBrainz Style
1

I am looking for discussion/consensus and/or guidelines how to present vinyl tracks/recordings in the database.

Let’s have an example here from edit #39728421
In this example, the A side has clear separation of tracks. The groove separation on the side can be seen in here – there is one song per groove/track.
On the B-side, there is no clear separation of the tracks/songs. Image here

Now, given the example above, I would rip the audio and enter the data as A-side having 3 tracks/recordings, and B-side having only 1, containing all the four recordings.

Another example here, where the A side is only one track with the intro and B-side has two separate tracks.

So, as the data model does not allow separate recordings on a track at this point, how should these be entered?

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2

The separate songs should be entered as separate tracks in MB, following the track listing on the packaging.

For CDs it would be different, but only because of the technical limitation of disc IDs.

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3

For vinyl, I would follow the less sense groove showing track splits.

4

First and foremost, I follow the track listing on the release. The example has 4 tracks listed for side B and I would enter 4 separate tracks, even if there is no visible track indicator.
Only if the track listing is unclear or inconsistent (e.g. different on back and inner sleeve) would I take a look at the record.

Problems often arise when a track has separately listed parts. In the worst case, the record will have wide index markings for main titles and narrower ones for parts of such a track. Then you have to decide what is best and occasionally we end up with duplicate releases because of different split.

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5

I assume you mean if all four songs were on one CD track. It seems more common for a CD release to insert track boundaries even if the LP version has a continuous flow.

I agree with others that this particular release should be entered with the four tracks separated. However, to answer this question:

Hypothetically, if this were a single CD track, the best approach would be to have four recordings for the individual songs and a “compiled in” relationship to the combined recording. Then any credits specific to one song can be linked only to that individual recording.

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