Normally I wouldn’t care, since both are very similar things, but if solo (side) project is set as “Person”, date attribute is automatically changed from “Began” to “Born”.
For example, persons name is William Malon, he is born in 1977 and he has side project called Void, which is started in 2010. So, if I want to enter data correctly, his side project type must be changed to “Other” or else project “Began” date will appear as “Born” instead.
According to some users who downvote my edits, there is no distinction between person and solo (side) project and both must be set as “Born”, thus making entry entirely incorrect. Seems like an oversight to me.
I think we just need another field to store the “career start” date for persons in addition to the birth date rather than having another entity type for solo projects which would imho create confusion and ambiguity.
I was going to say the same thing.
Mason is a person born in 77. Void is a band, not a person, started in 2010.
person/group distinctions get blurry when it is Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, or Marylin Manson. The 3 of which are people and bands.
But Void and Mason is an easy distinction.
Would Alice Cooper(song-writer and performer), Rob Zombie(performer), Marylin Manson(performer and band leader), Alice Cooper(band), Rob Zombie(band) and Marylin Manson(band) work?
We have a Manson band and person.
I thought we had Alice Cooper band and person, but we do not. We have Alice Cooper Band, which is not the same as Alice Cooper band.
And Rob Zombie has numerous times said that he would like to see the separation made between what Rob Zombie person does and what Rob Zombie band does.
.
Maybe a site like MusicBrainz needs two Rob Zombie entries less than a place like Wikipedia, because we specifically deal with music, while WP deals with his books and art and movies and… everything. But there are still differences between what the group does and what he does.
Either way, those 3 are prime examples of when the lines between a band and person blur.
Either it is a performance name (in which case, you can add 2010 to the “performs as” relationship, as in “William Malon performs as Void from 2010”) or it is a project in the same sense stuff like Nine Inch Nails is a project, in which case a group with just one member is our usual approach.