honestly, I don’t feel like I even know the “right” way to deal with instrumentals and karaokes anymore, the guidance has changed that much…
I don’t really think that the intent of a recording should have that much weight on how we categorize it (at least in the case of work relationship attributes). all the other attributes are very clear (save for maybe Cover) based simply on listening to the track, but karaoke and instrumental aren’t anymore, especially with the recording relationships using the same words to mean a different thing altogether (confusing many editors in the process, apparently)
to be clear, for the recording relationships, these are currently:
instrumental:
An instrumental version is a version of the song with any vocals removed (for example, a hip hop beat without the rap tracks). For karaoke tracks, use the karaoke relationship.
karaoke:
A karaoke version is a version of the song with the main vocals removed, designed to be used for karaoke. These are generally produced from the original masters by muting the main vocal track or by using post-processing filters to remove the vocals. Karaoke versions can be found labelled in numerous different ways other than “karaoke”: instrumental (even if backing vocals are still present), off vocal, backing track, etc.
whereas the work relationship attributes pages have:
instrumental:
For works that have lyrics, this indicates that those lyrics are not relevant to this recording. Examples include instrumental arrangements, or “beats” from hip-hop songs which may be reused with different lyrics.
karaoke:
This indicates that this is a karaoke recording of the work. This is different from an instrumental recording in that it is actively meant to sing on top of, and as such the lyrics info is still relevant. It might still contain backing vocals and other sections that would not be present in a true instrumental recording.
to me, both pairs of definitions seem to be incompatible with each other, as the work attributes talk about “lyrics [being] relevant to [the] recording”, while the recording relationships overlap quite a bit (especially with karaoke saying that they’re sometimes called instrumentals), except in the cases of an instrumental/karaoke/whatever recording with backing vocals present or a hip-hop beat without the rap
as said, the similar names would almost certainly cause confusion for many editors, both new and old, and I think it would make sense to come up with a new name for some of these relationships/attributes for clarity’s sake
additionally, it would be good to have some clear examples of common cases, including at least:
- hip-hop and other beats, where the music came first and a different artist wrote and recorded new lyrics (in my mind, this would often imply no involvement between the original beat producer and the lyricist/vocalist. would likely be a recording relationship and a work-work relationship, since multiple rappers and vocalists can use the same beat, like this recording)
- off-vocal/karaoke/backing tracks, where there are no (or sometimes limited) vocals on a recording of a work with lyrics. these could be pulled from the original recording or new recordings by a different artist (sometimes just a work attribute, occasionally also a recording relationship)
- instrumental arrangements, where the recording artist doesn’t sing the lyrics, but the melody part is played by an instrument of some sort (almost always a completely original recording, so shouldn’t have a recording relationship, just a work attribute or occasionally a work-work relationship)
“A basic effort to determine to which tracks the relationship is applicable is appreciated” is the closest I can see to that - but let’s not go into an off-topic discussion.
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