I still don't understand Series

i feel dumb haha but i just don’t know what they’re allowed to be used for, style guidelines for them, etc. … i feel it would be helpful if i saw series other people have made but i don’t really know of a good way to find/browse them. i don’t know how they’re usually titled or how annotations usually look like, stuff like that.

is a series like this (that i made) allowed? does it make sense? how should it be titled? im struggling here haha

I think the most common use is for a formulaic release group series, like this:
https://beta.musicbrainz.org/series/c7a5ea1d-8749-4459-b77b-a62482416eda

But you can make a series for almost anything as long as you can justify them being “tied together” somehow.

A less formal release group series:
https://beta.musicbrainz.org/series/6fc27707-f155-4d31-986b-f19956b4af76

An event series:
https://beta.musicbrainz.org/series/303adb60-5787-459a-b02f-7164d6515b3c

Subseries of the event series:
https://beta.musicbrainz.org/series/7c76c9a5-88be-4d91-8594-c5f01d578974

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thank you for the examples!! this helps a lot :smiley:

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I am not sure but the example you show seems like your own personal list of this and that, like My Favourite Songs about The Future, or things like that.
If so, it should rather be a collection.

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yes i shouldve explained more i think! i still dont have a bunch of series experience so im not positive it belongs, but it isnt something i made up if that helps. it is an established (+ ongoing) “series”, or “miniseries” or something like that. though theres not a lot of proof because he deleted all his social media with no backups this year :frowning_face_with_open_mouth: but either way thank you!

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Here are other examples of series: https://musicbrainz.org/search/edits?auto_edit_filter=&conditions.0.field=editor&conditions.0.operator=%3D&conditions.0.name=jesus2099&conditions.0.args.0=285909&combinator=and&conditions.1.field=type&conditions.1.operator=%3D&conditions.1.args=140&conditions.2.field=status&conditions.2.operator=%3D&conditions.2.args=2&negation=0&order=desc

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I believe what you’ve put in does belong. I’m still learning series myself, but there’s so many things that a series can be, such as:

these are just some more examples off the top of my head.

as to the title of your series, if there’s an official title, of course use that. otherwise, I’ve put an unofficial title in brackets, like with [Mouth Music]. in this case, maybe [Final Fantasy] with “$WAGGOT” as the disambiguation? I leave that up to you, as you’re familiar with the series. :wink:

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I replied in a specific topic, it’s a pity to limit it to Works only:

There is a Tag “star wars” - MusicBrainz if you want.

:wink:

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oh thank you, that’s a good idea :smiley:

thank all of you so much for the help!!

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actually, I just realized I added a release group series (Star Wars: Visions) on accident… I’ll probably just leave it in there though… :sweat_smile:

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Thanks for the link! :+1:

The best analogy really is a series of releases / recordings that real-world labels do.

For example, Topic Records, the UK’s oldest independent label (primarily folk music) made a series of volumes, these were called ‘The Voice of the People’ and are numbered volumes.

Here is the series on MusicBrainz: The Voice of the People - MusicBrainz

In this case, the majority of the series was made up of recordings of a variety of people, each volume themed. However, they made one volume which was credited to just one artiste.

Anything that is made up of numerous separate releases, with some kind of logical theme or order (usually numerically ordered, but not necessarily), is a good example of a series.

The key thing is that there is something ‘official’ that distinguishes them and forms a connexion, maybe the label (or artists / collective of artists, in the case of self-released items) brands them or they use it in marketing to highlight something that links them. It’s not the same as an actual label because usually a [sub]label has some degree of separate operation, or name indicated, or similar. It’s more complicated if the label uses “Series” in its name (e.g. the ECM New Series) but usually the context reveals the true intent.

I’ve used series for a couple of things.

The most obvious use is a series of numbered release groups.

It becomes less obvious when the alias is not the same on either release, but they’re part of one work. The series leaves a link in the release group, so the user can find the other volumes.

Sometimes even the release name makes it hard to find other releases in the series, however there is indeed information elsewhere that indicates these are part of one whole.

In summary, I mostly use them to guide users to other parts of a series easily, when either: the series is not obvious enough to find them; or search would clutter a screen with unsorted works; or just when typing is too much work.

edit:

I don’t even know if anybody has clicked on any of the series I’ve created. I’m a good boy though, so I added them anyways.

Apparently, Picard will eventually make use of this metadata? You can use it in compilations to store in relationships who curated the tracks, or which label is publishing each volume. And a bunch of other relationships I forgot about. I’d love to use this metadata in Quod Libet just so I don’t have a giant VARIOUS ARTISTS list with so many unrelated releases. I don’t know any Python, however, so I must wait.

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