Some how I didn’t get or didn’t notice the notification of this merge until after it happened (I did get an email notification afterwards)
https://musicbrainz.org/edit/74111767
I’m bothered by this edit, moreso because I created one of the artists that were merged.
What’s the community consensus? Was this merge correct, or should these aliases be separate?
I’m willing to do the work of recreating the aliases as separate entries if the community agrees.
I’ve never hidden my dislike for electronic artists putting out a dozen discs, each with a new artist name.
But I don’t write the rules.
So, playing within the rules that I did not write and don’t necessarily agree with…
This edit seems really really odd.
I mean, why would we merge 4 names while still keeping a legal name/performs as relationship.
If someone was like me, and thought they should all be wrapped up under one umbrella name, then it should be one name. This edit took 5 entries and made them 2. Make up your mind, is it 1 or is it 5. Because there is no way to make 2 the correct answer.
1 with a bunch of aliases and credited as.
5 with a bunch of legal name/performs as.
2 is just wrong.
Hi I’m the creator of the edit.
I’m quite new to this platform so maybe my point of view about this topic is totally wrong, said that.
I think the base of the system is and artist page is for 1 artists physically, let’s call a unique real person.
In the case of the DJs they use multiple alias along their career, but they are still the same artist.
In that case DJ Juanma is the main name he used most of the time, and whom is more recognized for.
To put a more extreme case, The artists Jordi Robles performed during a lot of years in different styles, first in Catalan Makina scene as K-Psula (among others) and then the most known for in the Catalan & Ibizan House scene as Taito Tikaro. The real name was also used in arranging, producing and this kind of works.
I will appreciate a good guideline about how to work in this cases, since I’m currently uploading a lot of artists and releases about my personal Makina music and House music collection and I’m seeing this case a lot of times.
Cheers.
Hi!
That depends. As per the guideline:
In some cases, a person (or, more rarely, a group) can perform under multiple names that they actually consider different projects, and not just alternative names. In that case, you should add each artist separately. If they’re a person, a separate legal name artist should be added, and linked to all performance names with the is person (“performs as”) relationship. In this case, do not add legal name aliases to the performance names. For groups, just link each group to their members.
With these DJs it’s a bit confusing sometimes. Your example, where the artist makes different kinds of music under different names, is a clear “keep them separate” case. But often they will just change names for fun but still do exactly the same music, and in that case it can be hard to decide.
In the ‘olden’ days, we used multiple pages because our system did not handle aliases and credited as. We used (as example) a page titled as an artist’s legal name for writing credits, and other pages for performance credits with their stage name.
We can now handle these all on one page.
But, yes, there are times when someone can still have the “legal name / performs as” relationship. There is no limit as to how many pages someone can have. But, it boils down to if they need multiple pages or not.
And THAT is the million dollar question.
Since I disagree with much of the scenario (old rich white guy set in his ways with a 1920s mentality), it was explained to me as -
If you think of a DJ as a band with one member instead of being just a single person.
So, as example - John Smith is a single person. He was a member of many bands. Band X doesn’t play music from the Band Y just because John was a member of both. You’d have 3 pages, one for John and one for each band and John would be listed as a member.
But, if Band X changes its name to Band X2, it is still the same band they just have a new name and will play the same songs. Band X2 would be the same page as Band X, we would just use various site features to credit them as Band X2 when needed.
With DJs, instead of being a band with members, it would be a person with a “legal name” link.
Here’s my go-to example on this:
This artist creates new artist names almost as performance art (sometimes even on the same release), and not (in my opinion) to designate separate “projects”. I tried a merge but got voted down 
I have seen some dude put out an album under one name, and on certain songs…
using a different name, he was the featured artist.
DJ1 featuring DJ2, where John Smith is both DJ1 and DJ2.
Had an album on here the other day where there was two names on the cover. A DJ Name and a Real Name. Nothing made it clear which was the Album name, and which was the Artist name.
Yeah, I’ve seen those kind of things. It makes some sense when it’s basically “artist a track remixed in the style of artist b”.
I was messing with this artist recently, who along with a lot of variations on the Manufactura name has one particular side project that was verifiably a different thing and had multiple releases, so I broke that out with a “performs as” relationship. Of course, that left an awkward relationship of “legal name” to an artist that isn’t a legal name, but I didn’t have one and couldn’t come up with one with a reasonable amount of effort. And the other aliases I left alone for lack of solid info.
It is easy to pick on computer music. Particularly since that is what started this question (and because they are one person making 6 hours worth of music in 20 minutes under 12 different artist names).
But, in fairness, is the naming situation really any different than…
John Smith. John Smith Trio. John Smith Quartet. Quintet. Orchestra. Jazz Band. Rumblers. City Rollers. Etc etc.
And the thing is - there is no one correct single answer. Each one has to be taken case by case.
Yes, I think it makes a difference whether it is a single person performing under different names and a person being a member of a group.
But even for single artists it can be difficult. For me in theory it would be the same artist if the different names are directly associated with the person and the music that person makes. It would be separate if the name would rather be associated with a certain music project, and the actual person probably hasultiple such projects, which are music wise distinct.
In practice it’s often difficult to draw the line. But in the examples discussed here I’m in favor of a single artist entry. Pretty clear is it to me for the case if “artist feat. themselves”. One can hardly argue it is a distinct musical project if it is the same song 
This is a bit of a tangent, but in jazz there is often no artistic distinction between the John Smith Trio, Quartet, Quintet etc. There may be two different versions of the John Smith Quartet with no common members other than the leader; there may be a John Smith Quintet that’s simply one version of the Quartet with an additional musician added for one session. Thelonious Monk, for example, never performed or recorded with a sextet or septet beyond one recording session each, and there’s no indication he considered these sessions any different artistically than a trio or quartet session. But because records were released with Thelonious Monk Septet on the cover, we have an artist entry.