I noticed a few strange cases where a release changes over time that made me question when something should be part of the same release group.
It seems like a release group tries to collect releases that share some kind of core identity. I read the style guide for release groups which mentions that tracklists can change sometimes,substantially(like with bonus disks). Would that make the release title the more important factor for grouping releases? Would a complete or major change in the title between two releases with the same tracks automatically mean a new release group?
As an example, I noticed a version of Power Glove EP 1 with an alternate name “So Bad”. I checked the edit history and saw that it was originally added with no links that would describe where the information came from, but I found a few sources on archive.org.
- 2008 myspace - 2-6 tracks depending on whether the adjacent tracks on the myspace listing of all songs were meant as part of the album, titled “They’re So Bad”
- 2010 myspace - a broken link to a zip file that described the EP 1 tracks in their current order, listed as remastered, with no album name
- 2012 soundcould - The EP 1 tracks in their current order on a playlist titled “PG”
- 2013 bandcamp - EP 1 released with it’s current name and tracklist
Depending on which tracks were in the original release, there were changes to the title and track composition over time. How many releases and release groups should there be?
I found another example here:Picasso 808. This one didn’t change in stages; it looks like the artist removed the final three tracks and changed the release name to just “808” at the same time, but part of the name and the majority of the tracks are still the same.