Style / Titles - MusicBrainz says to use “space, slash, space” between the various things it applies to. Other sections of that page have exceptions if the release already uses other punctuation than what the style guide says:
If there is an alternative dividing punctuation mark such as the question mark (?) or exclamation point (!), use that mark instead of the colon.
If the word is already preceded by another punctuation mark, such as a question mark (?) or an exclamation point (!), keep that mark and do not insert a comma.
Is there any reason that multiple titles and splits don’t get that same exception?
I can’t speak to the history of the guideline, but I do appreciate that this one is pretty firm.
It gives us a semi-reliable way to differentiate between two songs sharing a single track and a single song title that includes a slash.
Slashes should not have a space on either side when used within a title/sentence otherwise (though MB editors often apply the spaces in instances where they shouldn’t be there, I guess out of habit)
Is that in the style guides anywhere? I thought we were supposed to follow the tracklist’s use of spaces around the slash when it’s not a multiple titles case.
Sorry, I didn’t mean that we mandate that part in the guidelines, I meant in general English language rules. Definitely not a perfect system!
Maybe another way to put it: Personally I think bands should have artistic license as to how to title their songs (spaces and all), but I’m not sure artistic license needs to apply to a practical divider that exists ‘outside’ of the titles - if that makes sense…
Oh gotcha, thanks for the clarification. I don’t remember reading anything about it in general English-language style guides. From the examples I’ve seen though, I thought it usually depended on what the slash is used for and what’s on either side. E.g., when used to mark missing letters (“w/” instead of “with”) then the spacing rules are the same as if the missing letters were in the place of the slash. And when used for alternatives, I think I’ve seen spaces around the slash iff there is at least one space in any of the alternatives, like “Go Up/Down” vs “Jump Up / Fall Down”.
I get your point about inside/outside of titles. From some of the releases I’ve seen, I’m guessing it’s more of a spectrum though. Like when the separator between titles is a custom graphic, I’d guess it comes from the graphic designer rather than the artist. When it’s ❧, •, or similar, I’d still guess that unless the artist is known to play around with Unicode. When it’s more normal punctuation like — or /, I’m guessing it could go either way? When it’s normal punctuation embedded in a larger title like “Track Title (Work Title 1/Work Title 2)”, I’d guess that the artist provided that whole string.
