Also, alias in LB when? Listening to siIvagunner is a pain for LB
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So far so good. Despite all of that, there is a disagreement on the approach I’ve taken, so let me try to justify my way.
As has been stated before, the problem arises from the fact that the streaming service has all of its releases artists set as “Nintendo Co. Ltd.” The official style guideline states that “artist credits should generally follow the actual credit used on the release / track”. Likewise, “if no artist is credited, but a company is (such as a video game studio or a production music library), you can credit the company as a release artist.” Following those, putting “Nintendo Co. Ltd.” as the release artist would be quite logical. Sure, these guidelines come with subjective operators like “generally” and “can”, but nevertheless it is also not against those same guidelines!
So I guess the issue is over what a release is supposed to represent. Is it supposed to be an accurate representation of a release with all its dodgy but identifiable metadata, or a factually correct entry? Where do we draw the line?
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i do not know how Nintendo Music works, but i would argue that if theres some credits section with the composers or composers are otherwise credited, that it would count as a credited track artist in situations like this. iirc something similar was done for Pokemon Super Music Collections just being credited to Game Freak on some platforms
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I do have access to Nintendo Music app.
Is it what you call the streaming service?
I don’t see track artists or release artists, in there.
Where are they?
I think you are correct in a literal interpretation of that section of the guidelines, but not in the spirit. If anything, really pushing this line of reasoning would probably lead to a rewrite of that guideline (imo) rather than Nintendo being turned into an ‘artist’, over the musician/composer, in MB.
We might need to do something there anyway, because it is increasingly common for labels/companies to put themselves in the artist field in Spotify, for grouping purposes/to make up for Spotify’s lack of a label browse function.
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Good question! I digged around and the answer is: there is none, since the application doesn’t actually include an artist entry in the played media metadata in the first place. Rather, it is left blank. This is a problem when using services like Listenbrainz, because AFAIK they do not accept entries without an artist of some sort.
This issue was soon resolved by Pano Scrobbler by adding “Nintendo Co. Ltd.” as an artist when using Nintendo Music. So what we have here is something akin to a crude hack.
So to sum it up: rather than Nintendo Music labeling all the artists as the company, there simply isn’t one. It was only added by Pano Scrobbler (and maybe others?) so Nintendo Music plays would register on services.
(This is kind of embarrassing, considering I was well aware of the problem when it first arose, but somehow allowed it to slip from my mind. Now I really have to think thru my stance.)
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Alright, given enough time it’s time to share my thoughts.
What we know: Nintendo Music does not include any Artist entry in their metadata. (Hence why the Listenbrainz app won’t log the app’s plays.) Thus we have missing data, which means artist info is usually sourced elsewhere like actual CD soundtrack releases or game credits.
What that means: We can probably set the release artist the same like on the release group category, but I’m now left wondering what to do with track artists. There are two options: a) set track artists to [unknown] or [uncredited] like what is done with untitled track titles, or b) set it like it is credited on the recording level, using appropriate scripts if we feel fancy.
Both options have their pros and cons. Option A makes it clear that Nintendo Music does not credit the artists on the release level, but it might not be to everyone’s taste. (The recording entries will still be properly credited.) Option B is the straightforward one, but as it is for a release that is marked as “official,” it might IMHO give too much credit to Nintendo as a source.
But yeah, I think having the release artist use the same as release group artist might be more appropriate. Might not make linking albums or recordings on Listenbrainz any easier, but meh.
My understanding is that we always replace [unknown] if we know the track artist. I don’t know if we ever use [uncredited].
I may be wrong, but in my mind/experience it is that cut and dry.
Thank you for being so patient and flexible on this by the way, especially after the artist name part of your initial proposal was missed and you already made entries. Also, really am sympathetic to how this makes it tricky for LB matches. Personally I think it’s a bloody embarrassment that video game companies are so crap at crediting composers/artists… I just stumbled across Sea of Thieves the other day 
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The Style / Release guideline says the following:
Track artists should follow the release artist, except where another artist is credited in the track listing of the release. This can include various artists releases, featured artists, and tracks credited to another artist. If the release artist is a Special Purpose Artist, the performer should be credited if known, or [unknown] otherwise.
So in this case the release artist (and release group artist for that matter) would be used on all tracks, since Nintendo Music doesn’t credit any artists in their track listings. Pretty straightforward then.
I will however have to decide on how many artist(s) one can credit for a release before it becomes unwieldly, but that’s more of an edge case situation.
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I think you missed this:
If the release artist is a Special Purpose Artist, the performer should be credited if known, or [unknown] otherwise.
Software companies as artists are functionally special purpose artists, so real track artists should be credited if known (it’s often not knowable).
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It varies from release to release. Usually the musicians/composers are credited in the game itself, or at best the official CD soundtrack credits artists track by track. On the rare occasion that there are no clear information – like in Wii Channels – the detective work leads to some subgroup within Nintendo. When there is no information, we can usually square it to just Nintendo itself.