New release group for instrumental versions?

[Antiguastrea]

Hello everyone.

Do I need to add a new release group for an instrumental version of a single, or do I have to simply add a new release to the existing RG?

Also, if I have to create a new RG, should I use the Remix label as second type?

Thanks

[UltimateRiff]

in my experience, where to split and combine release groups has been kinda a gray area in the community. I haven’t even decided for myself on this particular case, but after a brief search, I found more examples of such releases in the same release group as the non-instrumental versions

[jesus2099]

There are already a few topics around this undecided subject.
Should instrumental, karaoke and remix release groups be merged with main release group?

For the 2 reasons that @Freso pointed out, I think the keep separate approach is the safest move, at the moment:

Karaoke versions of albums

I’d say separate. I was told previously than an acoustic and non-acoustic version of a Release (released at the same time) should be put in different RGs, and I don’t see how this is much different. With the “do I have this album?” implicitly question posed on the Release Group definition page I’d say that the two versions are not replacements for each other.

Should different remix singles be merged into one release group?

https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Style/Release_Group#Other_situations says (emphasis mine): There are a number of situations where there is currently no consensus about whether releases should be grouped together or not. This includes […] remixed albums. Be aware that attempting to group these releases can be quite controversial. If in doubt, these releases should probably be in separate release groups. So I’d probably not merge the release groups for now.

[UltimateRiff]

if you do seperate them, I would put a link in the annotations of both release groups linking them together, like I did with the original and DJ-mixed versions of 4×4=12, even though there’s also a relationship in my case

I don’t believe there’s a proper relationship in the case of instrumental–original release groups…

[jesus2099]

Usually what is meant by so called instrumental on singles, it’s karaoke (aka backing tracks).
A remix relationships is not that wrong, as removing lead vocal tracks from the mix, is a kind of remix.

[Antiguastrea]

Thank you both for your answers and useful links.
In the end I did what @jesus2099 suggested (which was my initial thought too, but I wanted to look for some consenus anyway), that is keeping separate Release Groups, adding “Remix” as secondary type, and adding the “remix of” and “karaoke version of” relationships at RG and recording level respectively.