MusicBrainz Help?

I set up an account to start adding info for a specific album, but am finding the interface tricky to navigate. I wanted to add the credits for a specific album however it has some credits not previously in the db previously and I found I’m currently prevented from adding new names (it won’t let me save the info). I believe it may be because my account says “limited account”? Any advise? Thanks in advance.

I start trying to add the new artist and edit the relationship, but no matter what I do, the enter edit button stays gray?

There are some restrictions on what a new account can do.
To move from a limited account to a normal account your account needs to have existed for 2 weeks and have 10 accepted edits.
I am not sure what the restrictions are exactly but you may need to wait.

2 Likes

Thank you. That makes sense. I figured it was something like that.

Hmm, I can’t remember not being able to add artists as a limited user (but it’s been a few months ago).

Are you sure you entered all required fields (Name, Sort name, and sometimes Disambiguation)? Going to https://musicbrainz.org/artist/create directly rather than through the relationship editor may also help.

2 Likes

The restrictions are mostly related to voting and adding edit notes. There should be no restriction at all for adding artists, or anything else for that matter (except maybe standalone recordings, and I think that changed too a while ago)

2 Likes

I smell some misunderstanding and probably user interface issue here.

@virtualsoul What do you exactly mean by this? If you are in the relationship editor, you can’t add e.g. a new artist, you can only choose an existing one. If you want to add a relationship to e.g. an artist not already in the database, you have to add that first.

2 Likes

You may want to read
https://musicbrainz.org/doc/How_to_Use_the_Relationship_Editor
If you want to edit credits on a release, you do it through the “edit relationships” link

1 Like

I’ve tried both ways - through the add new artist, and also through the relationship editor - which then prompts you to add a new artist. In either case I can fill in all the info for a new name/artist, but it won’t save it. The enter edit button remains gray/won’t work for me.
It will only allow me to add relationships that are already existing in the db.

Yep. Tried them both. It won’t let me save the info/enter the edit.

If you add a new entity, e.g. an artist, it takes a while until it shows up in search results. That makes it a bit difficult to use in the relationship editor. Two options:

  1. If you see the search result in the relationship editor, you can click “Use direct search”. This will look for the entity directly in the database, bypassing the search server

  2. A hidden function, but very useful: Copy the URL of the newly created entity into the search field of the relationship editor editor. The editor will detect this and load the data directly.

We tried to unhide it a while ago by adding a placeholder text that mentions pasting MBIDs. But as I understand this issue, it’s about the inline adding of new entities from the search menu; here, the field will automatically be filled with the newly created entity.

1 Like

That’s definitely odd.

Have you tried a different browser? Any add-ons or special features (script-blocker, userscript injector, ad-blocker) that you could try to turn off?

Anti-virus software may also interfere with your browsing, maybe try another computer with different AV.

1 Like

Haven’t tried a different browser. I’m able to enter the edit/save relationships (existing names in the db), but the site simply won’t allow me to enter the edit/save the info for a new artist. I was trying to enter the credits info for Goliath by Steve Taylor & The Perfect Foil, but this has been quite a difficult process.

I appreciate everyone’s advise though.

Adding an artist really should be straightforward…
So your behavior is different to this? Because then it sounds like a bug. Otherwise you gotta fill the sort field :slight_smile:

2 Likes

I can do everything down to the last thing. The enter edit button. It stays gray and will not turn green for me.
I can enter info on other parts of the site - it just will not let me enter the “new artist”.

1 Like

If it is still grey after you have typed a Name and a Sort name (or used one of the two copy buttons (Aa or pages, near Sort name field) and maybe an Edit note, then it is a bug…

1 Like

I agree with what others have said, it’s most likely so that you didn’t fill in all the required fields. It’s also possible that you pasted an invalid link or something like that.

Could you show us a screenshot showing the whole (filled-in) form?