# Label using fictitious release dates
**URL:** https://community.metabrainz.org/t/label-using-fictitious-release-dates/581756
**Category:** MusicBrainz
**Created:** [April 20, 2022, 9:43am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/label-using-fictitious-release-dates/581756 "2022-04-20T09:43:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@salo.rock](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/salo.rock)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2022, 9:43am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/label-using-fictitious-release-dates/581756/1 "2022-04-20T09:43:56Z")
I came across a [label](https://musicbrainz.org/label/5b4a77a6-8ed0-4dd7-ba1a-1f1658da0d19) using the release date of its releases for “artistic” purposes.
Do we have precedents / style suggestions on how to handle this / ways to identify the actual release dates from Bandcamp?
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### Author:  [@IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/IvanDobsky)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2022, 10:03am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/label-using-fictitious-release-dates/581756/2 "2022-04-20T10:03:47Z")
I would start with a big annotation on the top of the label’s page pointing out that none of the date data can be trusted due to lack of a Time Machine to check.
If this was physical media, all those dates would just be deleted as we are sure they are wrong.
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### Author:  [@chaban](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/chaban)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2022, 10:47am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/label-using-fictitious-release-dates/581756/3 "2022-04-20T10:47:16Z")
> [@salo.rock](#):
>
> ways to identify the actual release dates from Bandcamp?
See this thread:
> [@Bandcamp release date discrepancies](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/bandcamp-release-date-discrepancies/401016):
>
> I’ve known for some time that Bandcamp allows the musicians/labels to publish their albums for sale whenever they want, regardless of the stated released date. But now I finally managed to catch an artist red-handed. Namely [David August and his new album](https://davidaugust.bandcamp.com/album/dangelo): [BCreld] It’s four days late, but otherwise available on other services since Friday (Amazon, iTunes, junodownload). This means that all the Bandcamp imports are unreliable in terms of release date. Unless someone knows how to extract the a…
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### Author:  [@IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/IvanDobsky)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2022, 11:06am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/label-using-fictitious-release-dates/581756/4 "2022-04-20T11:06:17Z")
From reading that thread it seems that this label should just be treated as unreliable and delete all the dates. Unless someone feels like diving into social media \ fan club emails there is no trustable method to get a date for them.
I guess their “[Interact](https://futuregx.bandcamp.com/community)” page has better dates? OR can blog pages also be manipulated?
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### Author:  [@chaban](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/chaban)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2022, 11:25am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/label-using-fictitious-release-dates/581756/5 "2022-04-20T11:25:52Z")
I’ve [tried to make sense of it](https://musicbrainz.org/edit/88931531) but I’m none the wiser
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### Author:  [@yindesu](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/yindesu)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2022, 1:16pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/label-using-fictitious-release-dates/581756/6 "2022-04-20T13:16:03Z")
> [@salo.rock](#):
>
> Do we have precedents / style suggestions on how to handle this
[https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Release/Date](https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Release/Date)
> The release date is the date in which a release was made available through some sort of distribution mechanism. For example, this may be via a retail store, being published as a free download on a website or distributed to industry insiders (in the case of promotional releases) amongst other mechanisms.
Since these releases are being entered as Digital Media, we can safely discard the label’s claims that you can buy it physically decades in the future.
> [@salo.rock](#):
>
> ways to identify the actual release dates from Bandcamp?
Probably not. Looks like some of them are listed on [フューチャゴス「F-Gχ」's Community | フューチャゴス「F-Gχ」](https://futuregx.bandcamp.com/community) with realistic dates.
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### Author:  [@salo.rock](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/salo.rock)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2022, 3:41pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/label-using-fictitious-release-dates/581756/7 "2022-04-20T15:41:35Z")
> [@salo.rock](#):
>
> Do we have precedents / style suggestions on how to handle this
For the sake of clarity, I meant this more as in how/where to store the fantasy release dates, but I guess the obvious response is “in an annotation, where else?”. 🙃
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### Author:  [@yindesu](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/yindesu)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2022, 4:06pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/label-using-fictitious-release-dates/581756/8 "2022-04-20T16:06:48Z")
If the fictional order matters, someone can also create a series and store the fake dates as the order there.
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### Author:  [@aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/aerozol)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2022, 10:03pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/label-using-fictitious-release-dates/581756/9 "2022-04-20T22:03:48Z")
My Bandcamp script, [this one](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/420662-bandcamp-show-publish-date), shows:
I sometimes use that if there’s a made-up date. Maybe I should have checked if it’s reliable 😛
But it has been in my experience anyway.
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### Author:  [@chaban](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/chaban)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2022, 11:29pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/label-using-fictitious-release-dates/581756/10 "2022-04-20T23:29:29Z")
> [@aerozol](#):
>
> My Bandcamp script, [this one](https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/420662-bandcamp-show-publish-date), shows:
>
> 
>
> I sometimes use that if there’s a made-up date.
Those have been converted to your local timezone. The actual dates might be off by one. E.g. `mod_date`:
```auto
{
"type": "album",
"purchase_title": null,
"download_desc_id": null,
"art_id": 691435949,
"credits": "[PC-ELEMENT自 + ベヘズト в е н е ѕ т Gχ]",
"require_email": null,
"killed": null,
"release_date": "20 Apr 2036 00:00:00 GMT",
"band_id": 1176166681,
"artist": "ＷＥＳＴＢＯＵＮＤ기차",
"featured_track_id": 44352636,
"require_email_0": null,
"upc": null,
"set_price": 700,
"publish_date": "13 Dec 2019 07:14:11 GMT",
"title": "𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐂𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐋 𝐒𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒",
"selling_band_id": 1176166681,
"minimum_price_nonzero": 700,
"is_set_price": null,
"download_pref": 2,
"private": null,
"mod_date": "16 Dec 2019 22:15:36 GMT",
"audit": 0,
"id": 642352603,
"purchase_url": null,
"new_desc_format": 1,
"auto_repriced": null,
"about": "때로는 인생에서 최선을 다할 수 없습니다. 종종 우리의 부지런함은 동기 부여에 반대합니다. 마지막 기차는 어디로 갈까요?",
"minimum_price": 0,
"new_date": "10 Dec 2019 07:17:13 GMT"
}
```
You might want to audit all your annotations and release additions containing potentially misleading dates.
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### Author:  [@aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/aerozol)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2022, 12:02am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/label-using-fictitious-release-dates/581756/11 "2022-04-21T00:02:41Z")
> [@chaban](#):
>
> potentially misleading dates
Which date is ‘misleading’? The ones that match your timezone or mine?
Does MB have any guidance there 🤔
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### Author:  [@Zastai](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/Zastai)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2022, 7:43am UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/label-using-fictitious-release-dates/581756/12 "2022-04-22T07:43:26Z")
I mean, if they use _unique_ fake dates, they could be moved to the catalog number field perhaps?